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ORIENTAL  RELIGIONS,  and  their  Relation  to  Universal  Religion. 

I.  INDIA.  8vo,  $5.00  ;  half  calf,  $8.00. 
II.  CHINA.  8vo,  $5.00;  half  calf,  $8.00. 
III.     PERSIA.    8vo,  $5.00;  half  calf,  $8.00. 

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LECTURES,  ESSAYS,  AND  SERMONS.  With  a  Portrait,  and  Memoir 
by  Rev.  S.\MUEL  Longfellow.     Crown  Svo,  gilt  top,  $1.75. 

HYMNS  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  By  Samuel  Longfellow  and  Samuel 
Johnson.     i6mo,  roan,  $1.23. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  Publishers, 
BOSTON. 


ORIENTAL   RELIGIONS. 


Oriental  Religions 


AND    THEIR 


RELATION  TO   UNIVERSAL 
RELIGION 

By  SAMUEL   JOHNSON 
WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION 

By  O.  B.  FROTHINGHAM 


PERSIA 


kllPnr^^S^ 


BOSTON 

HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN,    AND     COMPANY 

New  York:    ii  East  Seventeenth  Street 

i88s 


Copyright,  18S4, 
By  Anna  Johnson  Haskell. 


All  rights  reserved. 


CONTENTS. 


PERSIA. 


PAGE 

vii 


Introduction 

Topical  Analysis ^"^ 

I. 

ADVENT  OF  THE  RELIGION   OF  PERSONAL  WILL. 
ITS   ELEMENTS. 

I.  Syivibolism 5 

II.  The  Moral  Sense 37 

II. 

DEVELOPMENT. 

I.     AvESTAN  Dualism 53 

II.  Morality  of  the  Avesta 109 

III.  Zarathustra ^21 

IV.  The  Avesta  Literature i43 

V.     Cuneiform  Monuiments   of  the  Accadian  and  the 

Assyrian ^^^ 

VI.  The  Hebrew  and  the  Chaldean 219 


VI  CONTENTS. 

III. 

POLITICAL  FORCES. 

PAGE 

I.     Babylon,  Cyrus,  Persia 281 

II.    Alexander  the  Great 357 

III.    The  Sassanian  Empire 393 

IV. 

PHILOSOPHIES. 

I.      MANICHiEISM 441 

11.     Gnosticism 501 


V. 


ISLAM. 

I.    Mahomet 525 

IL    The  Shah-Nameh  ;   or  Book  of  Kings 711 


INTRODUCTION. 


'THHIS  is  the  last  volume  of  Mr.  Johnson's  projected 
work  on  "  Oriental  Religions."  The  first  volume, 
"  India,"  appeared  in  1872.  An  intimate  friend  of  the 
author  of  "  The  Light  of  Asia,"  one  familiar  with  his 
thoughts,  a  fine  scholar  himself,  a  student,  too,  in  this 
department,  speaks  of  it  thus :  "  His  [Mr.  Johnson's] 
sketch  of  Buddha  and  Buddhism  is  one  of  the  profound- 
est,  wisest,  justest  estimates  yet  given."  The  second  vol- 
ume, "China,"  was  published  in  1877.  George  Ripley 
reviewed  it  at  length  and  heartily  in  the  "  Tribune," 
praising  the  writer's  freedom  from  sectarian  temper,  and 
his  devotion  to  the  interests  of  truth.  His  friend,  Samuel 
Longfellow,  noticed  the  book  in  the  "Atlantic,"  rendering 
it  no  more  than  justice.  Professor  E.  J.  Eitel,  of  Tubingen 
and  Hong-Kong,  writing  in  the  "  China  Review  "  of 
April  21,  1882,  says  of  Mr.  Johnson,  whose  death  he  is 
commemorating:  — 

"  His  volume  on  the  Religions  of  India,  which  appeared  in  1872, 
has  been  highly  praised  by  Orientalists  of  European  fame  ;  and  I  make 
bold  to  say  that  his  great  work  on  China  will  commend  itself  to  all 
sinologists  as  a  most  exhaustive,  lucid,  and  correct  estimate  of  Chinese 
thought  and  life.  If  it  is  due  to  Edkins  to  say  that  he  has  established 
for  China  her  true  place  in  philology,  it  is  due  to  Samuel  Johnson  to 
acknowledge  that  he  has  fixed  China's  place  in  the  history  of  Uni- 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

versal  Religion.  ...  If  I  add  that  Samuel  Johnson's  method  of  inquiry 
was  thoroughly  scientific,  that  his  sympathies  were  absolutely  cosmo- 
politan, while  essentially  religious,  and  that  he  laid  down  the  results 
of  his  most  painstaking  inquiries  in  a  style  which  carries  the  reader 
right  along,  fascinating  as  it  is  by  its  vivacity  and  sparkling  lucidity, 
while  intensely  suggestive  and  instructive,  I  can  but  wonder  that  his 
countrymen  in  the  United  States  did  not  give  him  that  place  among 
the  foremost  writers,  thinkers,  and  scholars  of  the  present  day  which 
he  so  fully  deserves." 

The  Notes  for  the  "Persia"  were  begun  in  1877.  In 
February,  1878,  he  says  in  a  letter:  "  This  theme  is  largest 
of  all.  I  should  call  it  Iran  rather  than  Persia,  but  shall 
not.  I  am  back  among  the  cuneiform  tablets  and  the 
sources,  as  I  find  more  and  more,  of  the  religious  history 
of  the  world,  and  especially  of  the  great  '  historic  faiths.'  " 
In  February,  1880,  he  writes:  "  I  get  on  with  my  *  Persia' 
as  well  as  I  could  expect,  having  this  winter  been  wrestling 
with  the  obscure  and  impalpable  relations  of  Manichgeism 
and  Gnosticism  with  the  early  Christian  Church.  Now  I 
am  on  the  pleasanter  track  of  the  Shdh-Ndmeh,  and  at  the 
doors  of  Sufism,  etc." 

How  early  Mr.  Johnson  began  his  Oriental  studies,  it  is 
difficult  to  tell  with  exactness.  It  could  hardly  have  been 
later  than  the  winter  of  1852-53  that  he  gave  in  Salem 
the  lectures  that  were  the  germ  of  these  volumes,  and 
nearly  all  of  the  time  intervening  was  given  to  some  aspect 
of  the  subject.  He  died  in  February,  1882,  leaving  the 
"Persia"  unfinished,  yet  so  nearly  completed  that  a  few 
weeks  of  diligent  work  spent  in  revising,  writing  out  a 
chapter  on  Persian  poetry,  adding  a  paragraph  here  and 
there,  arranging  and  paging,  would  have  sufficed  to  per- 
fect his  labor.  The  chapters  are  precisely  as  he  left  them. 
Not  a  line  has  been  added  or  taken  away.  So  much  only 
has  been  done  as  the  necessities  of  publication  required,  and 
that  was  done  with  misgiving.     The  chapters  dli  Zoroaster, 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

Mahomet,  Alexander  the  Great ;  on  Babylon,  on  Avestan 
Dualism;  on  ManicliEeism  and  Gnosticism;  on  the  SJidJi- 
NdmeJi;  the  episodes  on  Aristotle,  Cyrus,  the  Seleucidae, — 
will  interest  and  charm  all  readers ;  for  the  style  is  elegant, 
the  language  glowing,  the  sentiment  lofty,  and  the  insight 
keen.  It  seems  hardly  to  have  been  a  toil,  so  much  love 
was  in  it,  so  absorbing  a  consecration.  This  man  certainly 
did  not  labor  for  money,  for  he  was  poorer  for  all  he  did ; 
nor  for  fame,  of  which  he  got  little  or  none ;  but  for  truth 
alone,  or  for  humanity,  which  can  live  only  by  truth, 
"  The  future,"  he  wrote,  "  must  determine  whether  I  was 
justified  in  undertaking  so  absorbing  a  charge.  I  should 
shudder  when  I  think  of  its  probable  doom,  did  I  not  re- 
member that  at  least  I  have  had  my  reward  in  the  pleasure 
of  exploring  the  fields  into  which  it  has  called  me,  and  in 
watching  the  flow  of  universal  laws  through  history.  I 
certainly  can  expect  no  other  reward  ;  and  on  the  whole 
am  glad  that  I  cannot."  How  far  the  future  will  justify 
him  remains  to  be  seen.  The  reward  he  desired  cannot, 
at  all  events,  be  taken  away.  It  is,  however,  to  be  hoped 
that  the  reputation  he  deserved  will  at  last  be  granted  to 
him ;  at  least,  that  his  unselfish  devotion  will  come  to  honor 
in  the  world  of  scholarship,  so  that  his  personal  friends  will 
not  be  the  only  ones  to  revere  his  character  or  admire  his 
genius. 

There  is  an  impression  that  Mr.  Johnson's  books  are  of 
little  value  because  he  was  not  an  Orientalist,  —  that  is,  a 
student  of  Oriental  languages,  who  obtained  his  knowledge 
at  first  hand,  from  original  sources.  The  truth  of  the 
assertion  is  frankly  admitted.  The  writer,  though  he  knew 
something  of  Sanscrit,  was  quite  unacquainted  with  the 
language  of  China  or  of  Persia,  and  had  never  travelled 
in  the  East.  For  himself,  he  deemed  this  no  disqualifica- 
tion for  his  task.     "  I  mean,"  he  said,  "  to  be  prepared  for 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

the  evil  fame  of  attempting  so  much  without  knowledge 
of  the  forty  thousand  characters  of  the  Chinese  script.  If 
I  knew  these,  I  should  know  nothing  else.  In  the  way  of 
psychological  interpretation,  I  should  be  simply  nothing." 
And  again :  "  I  am  after  the  law  ;  give  me  that,  and  I  will 
use  it  where  I  want  it.  But  illustrative  details,  except  in 
the  actual  \vox\6.  of  facts, — written  details,  —  bore  me."  If 
the  impression  mentioned  had  been  made  only  on  the 
mind  of  the  general  public,  it  would  be  unfortunate ;  when 
made  on  the  minds  of  critics  it  is  deplorable.  Yet  even  so 
fair-minded  a  scholar  as  Max  MiJller  can  lend  countenance 
to  this  accusation.  Mr.  Johnson's  sincerity  he  cordially 
praises,  as  also  his  honesty  and  accuracy.  In  a  letter  to 
the  "  Index,"  after  Mr.  Johnson's  death,  he  pays  the  fol- 
lowing tribute  to  the  deceased  writer :  — 

"  What  I  admire  most  in  Samuel  Johnson  was  his  not  being  dis- 
couraged by  the  rubbish  with  which  the  religions  of  the  East  are  over- 
whelmed, but  his  quietly  looking  for  the  fuiggets.  And  has  he  not 
found  them  ?  And  has  he  not  found  what  is  better  than  ever  so  many 
nuggets,  — -that  great,  golden  dawn  of  truth,  that  there  is  a  religion 
betiind  all  religions,  and  that  happy  is  the  man  who  knows  it  in  these 
days  of  materialism  and  atheism  ?  " 

This  warm  praise  is  gravely  qualified  by  the  preceding 
passage,  which  reads  thus :  — 

"  Samuel  Johnson's  knowledge  of  Oriental  religions  was  at  second- 
hand;  and  the  little  accidents  that  must  happen  to  an  historian  or  a 
philosopher  who  writes  on  Oriental  religions  at  second-hand  are  just 
those  that  most  exasperate  Oriental  scholars.  .  .  .  There  are  few 
things  in  his  volume  on  the  Religion  of  India  for  which,  at  all  events, 
he  could  not  give  chapter  and  verse,  though  chapter  and  verse  may 
not  always  come  from  the  right  book." 

Now  nobody  who  knew  Mr.  Johnson  can  doubt  that  he 
was  acquainted  with  all  the  books  there  were,  and  with  their 
relative  value.    He  indeed  took  the  greatest  pains  to  verify 


INTRODUCTION.  xi 

his  authorities ;  he  consulted  the  five  or  six  best  Oriental- 
ists in  the  world,  who  had  tried  their  hand  at  translating  the 
literature  of  the  Avcsta,  and  he  still  complained  that  the 
versions  were  so  unsatisfactory;  his  note-books  show  that 
he  was  familiar  with  Harlez,  Haug,  Spiegel,  Darmesteter, 
Lenormant,  Sayce,  Renouf,  Legge,  Williams,  West,  the 
"  Records  of  the  Past,"  the  "  Sacred  Books  of  the  East," 
not  to  mention  the  comparatively  popular  volumes  of 
Rawlinson  and  Max  Muller.  That  he  could  have  added 
anything  in  their  own  field  to  the  contributions  of  students 
like  these,  is  not  to  be  supposed.  He  was  able  to  compare 
them  one  with  another,  and  divine  the  true  meaning  of 
texts  where  they  were  at  variance. 

As  to  the  right  books,  scholars  are  not  agreed.  Different 
men  will  prefer  diff"erent  writings,  according  to  their  mental 
bias.  Such  a  question  is  not  to  be  decided  by  knowledge 
of  a  language  so  much  as  by  intellectual  perception,  by 
the  power  to  penetrate  beneath  the  letter  to  the  interior 
sense,  and  so  to  catch  the  genius  of  the  people  by  a  species 
of  divination  which  discerns  at  a  glance  the  real  thought. 
This  gift  of  insight,  it  is  claimed,  Mr.  Johnson  had,  in  ex- 
traordinary measure.  As  he  read,  —  and  he  was  an  im- 
mense reader  in  English,  French,  German,  —  he  pondered; 
and,  in  pondering,  hit  upon  analogies  that  escaped  more 
sapient  breakers  of  stones  on  the  road.  In  a  letter  dated 
May  26,  1878,  he  writes:  "I  am  well  along  in  Assyrian, 
Babylonian,  and  the  rest  of  late  Iranian  discoveries.  The 
interest  of  these  cuneiform  revelations  in  their  bearing  on 
Western  religions, —  which  I  find  nobody,  so  far,  among  the 
investigators  has  any  idea  of, —  is  surpassing."  His  chief 
concern  was  to  find  the  idea,  the  chain  of  connection ;  and 
he  was  never  satisfied  till  he  had  found  it,  and  fairly  put  his 
mind  upon  it.  He  may  have  been  mistaken ;  but  the  mis- 
take, if  there  was  one,  was  intellectual  rather  than  critical. 


XU  INTRODUCTION. 

A  more  serious  charge  against  Mr.  Johnson  is  that  of 
writing  with  a  preconceived  purpose  to  establish  a  certain 
theory  about  rehgious  development  and  religious  creeds, 
a  fixed  philosophical  view,  which  must  of  necessity  warp 
to  some  degree  the  mental  and  moral  estimates  of  the  sys- 
tems he  studies.  How  far  the  charge  is  just  in  any  aspect 
cannot  be  determined.  In  the  opinion  of  the  present  writer, 
it  is  not  just  to  any  harmful  degree.  The  investigations 
were  not  prompted,  in  the  first  instance,  by  the  desire  to 
establish  an  opinion,  but  by  an  old  interest  in  that  class 
of  learning.  The  theory  was  a  result  of  the  investigations ; 
the  reason,  perhaps,  why  they  were  pursued  as  far  as  they 
were ;  an  inspiration  towards  the  making  of  these  books ; 
one  explanation  of  the  singular  glow  of  the  style  that  ani- 
mates the  pages.  The  theory  was  a  cord  on  which  the 
facts  were  strung  like  pearls,  a  connecting  link  between 
the  thoughts ;  but  it  never  dominated  the  facts  themselves, 
or  decided  on  the  method  of  their  selection,  or  put  a  rule 
on  their  interpretation.  Occasionally  the  discovery  of  some 
point  of  view  may  have  made  him  unduly  enthusiastic,  but 
the  impression  is  sure  to  be  corrected  some  pages  further 
along,  and  a  discerning  reader  can  almost  always  make 
allowance  for  the  incidental  exaggeration. 

Mr.  Johnson's  theory,  —  as  it  may  as  well  be  confessed 
that  he  had  one,  —  at  any  rate  was  broad,  large,  elastic 
in  its  character.  It  was  not  sectarian,  even  in  the  widest 
sense  of  the  term.  There  was  no  partisanship  in  it.  It 
had  the  breadth  of  pure  spirituality.  The  spirit  of  it  was 
generous,  not  as  being  apologetic,  but  as  being  lofty  and 
deep.  The  expositions  are  positive,  and  they  are  noble ; 
they  do  not  bind,  but  unbind ;  they  emancipate  texts, 
cause  obscure  passages  to  leap  into  light,  win  forth  the 
hidden  wisdom  of  sentences.  They  do  not  stumble  or 
grope,   they  use    wings    and    fly.     There    is    a    surprising 


INTRODUCTION.  XIU 

exhilaration  in  them ;  and  although  the  reader  may  now 
and  then  demur  at  the  rendering  of  a  phrase,  he  can  never 
accuse  the  author  of  distorting  evidence,  or  of  leaving 
statements  out  of  sight. 

Moreover,  the  charge  of  having  a  theory  must  rest  on 
Ewald,  Baur,  Renan,  the  author  of  "Ten  Great  Religions;" 
in  short  on  every  writer  who  rises  above  the  level  of  the 
commentator,  exegetist,  or  word-monger.  The  historian 
always  has  a  theory.  Gibbon  had  one;  Macaulay  had 
one;  Froude  has  one.  An  absolutely  scientific  account 
of  anything  complex  is  not  to  be  looked  for.  Men  with 
minds  will  use  mind ;  and  the  use  of  mind  cannot  be  had 
without  some  sort  of  tendency ;  and  where  there  is  tend- 
ency there  is  bias.  If  the  theory  is  comprehensive  enough 
to  include  all  the  facts,  it  answers  every  sane  purpose ;  and 
if  it  is  expansive  enough  to  take  in  the  foremost  facts,  it 
cannot  soon  be  superseded.  Mr.  Johnson  meets  both 
conditions.  He  is  both  deep  and  high.  To  venture  any 
estimate  of  his  judgment  of  systems  would  be  out  of  place 
here.  The  volumes  are  before  the  public :  the  critics  will 
express  their  opinion  of  the  contents  as  they  may  deem 
wise.  But  it  may  be  safely  said  that  not  one  of  them  will 
get  beyond  him,  or  will  throw  a  dart  further  than  he  has 
launched  his  keen  arrow.  No  living  writer  has  reached 
the  length  of  his  conception,  very  few  come  near  it.  Even 
advanced  thinkers  are  behind  him.  "  It  has  cost  me  labor 
enough,  that  is  certain,"  he  writes  to  a  friend ;  "  yet  it  is 
a  labor  of  real  love,  combined  with  an  intense  sense  of  a 
great  demand  from  the  side  of  spiritual  culture  and  higher 
relatione  of  sentiment  and  imagination,  in  the  present  con- 
dition of  the  races  calling  themselves  '  Christian.'  I  hope 
I  have  done  something  to  stimulate  these  forces,  and  help 
toward  the  grand  interpretations  of  natural  religion  that 
are  yet  to  come." 


XIV-  INTRODUCTION. 

This  volume,  like  the  others,  is  saturated  through  and 
through  with  the  religious  spirit.  It  was  written  in  the 
service  of  religion ;  not  of  religion  as  commonly  appre- 
hended, but  as  the  best  dream  of  the  soul  of  Humanity 
of  its  possible  attainment.  It  is  all  aglow  with  faith  in 
God  and  with  hope  for  man.  His  biographer  tells  us 
that  Mr.  Johnson's  oration  on  the  Class  Day  of  1842  "was 
poetic  even  to  rhapsody ;  "  the  same  language  might  be 
applied  to  these  chapters.  The  writer  deserves,  as  well 
as  Spinoza,  to  be  called  a  "  god-intoxicated  man."  When 
he  speaks  of  Law,  Order,  Harmony,  Beauty,  he  rises  to 
ecstasy.  The  thought  enchants  him ;  his  sentences  burn. 
This,  in  fact,  constitutes  the  chief  fault  that  is  to  be  found 
in  the  book.  Some  will  think  the  enthusiasm  of  faith 
excessive.  They  will  quarrel  a  little  perhaps  over  what 
seems  to  them  an  undue  extravagance  of  eulogium  in  this 
place,  and  over  an  undue  depreciation  in  that;  over  an 
unwarranted  admiration  of  certain  symbols,  and  an  equally 
unwarranted  criticism  of  others.  But  a  fault  of  this  kind 
is  as  noble  as  it  is  uncommon.  And  when  the  effect  of  it 
is  to  inspire  one  with  reverence  for  high  sentiments,  it  is 
easily  pardoned.  An  error  that  enlarges  the  mind  is  very 
different  from  an  error  that  enslaves  it, —  even  granting  that 
an  error  exists,  of  which  we  cannot  be  sure  in  this  instance. 
Professor  Eitel  is  of  opinion  that  Mr.  Johnson's  estimate 
of  Christianity  was  experimental  and  practical,  which  gave 
him  a  knowledge  of  its  deficiencies ;  while  his  estimate  of 
other  religions,  being  literary,  was  favorable  to  their  ideal 
side.  Mr.  Johnson's  acquaintance  with  Eastern  faiths  was 
acquired  certainly  from  books,  but  his  opinion  of  Chris- 
tianity was  rather  critical  than  experimental.  At  least  his 
appreciation  of  its  character  and  genius  was  derived  quite 
as  much  from  study  as  from  observation. 

Mr.  Johnson  was  a  teacher  of  the  gospel  of  evolution. 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

I  call  it  a  gospel ;  for,  as  he  received  it,  it  was  so.  With 
materialism  he  had  no  sympathy.  Such  a  doctrine  was 
his  abhorrence,  the  mark  of  his  scorn  and  sarcasm.  He 
says : — 

"  We  who  insist  that  there  is  no  '  supernatural '  in  the  nature  of 
things,  that  miracle  is  an  absurdity  on  its  face,  are  called  supernatural- 
ists  by  men  who  can  digest,  without  a  sign  of  wonder,  such  irrational 
or  preternatural  notions  as  those  of  a  world  of  phenomena  without 
substance,  of  things  seen  and  touched  without  a  faculty  beyond  under- 
standing to  bridge  the  way  from  ideal  to  real,  of  a  moral  philosophy 
based  solely  on  calculations  or  on  observed  causes  and  effects,  and  on 
developing  the  whole  conception  of  duty  out  of  a  synthesis  of  conse- 
quences. .  .  .  This  contempt  of  reason  as  above  understanding,  of 
substance  as  against  phenomena,  this  denial  of  direct  or  intuitive  per- 
ception of  reahties  even  the  most  universal,  is  certainly  the  high  road 
to  materialism." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Johnson  was  a  transcendentalist, 
and  that  he  must  have  been  able  to  reconcile  transcenden- 
talism with  evolution,  —  two  systems  which  are  generally 
supposed  to  point  in  exactly  opposite  directions.  He 
speaks  in  one  of  his  letters  of  "  the  over-haste  of  science, 
physical  and  mechanical,  to  annihilate  those  sacred  spaces 
and  periods  to  which  the  personal  virtues  are  more  indebted 
than  the  times  believe,  for  disciplines  of  faith,  patience,  and 
trust."  To  another  friend  he  writes,  in  January  of  1882: 
"  You  know  I  find  no  inconsistency  between  evolution  and 
the  original  fundamental  necessities  of  all  thought,  on  which 
the  transcendental  philosophy  is  founded.  .  .  .  What  do 
men  mean  to  do  with  the  foimdatioiis  that  all  freedom 
must  stand  upon,  —  personality,  progress,  transcendental 
perception  and  law?  These  are  all  forgotten  in  petty 
'crystallizations,'  or  else  mentioned  only  to  be  abused." 

The  religion  of  Nature  meant  much  more  to  him  than 
it  does  to  other  men.     "  There  is  a  spiritual  '  Religion  of 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

Nature  '  as  well  as  an  unspiritual.  .  .  .  There  is  a  vital 
gladness  fed  by  the  healthful  perception  of  the  glory  and 
beauty  of  God's  works,  and  of  those  inner  motions  that 
shape  all  ways  to  good."  The  glory  and  beauty  of  these 
works  he  was  never  tired  of  exploring  and  interpreting. 
He  delighted  to  think  that  mind  itself,  divinely  as  he  esti- 
mated its  endowment,  "  is  evolved,  not  out  of  mere  inor- 
ganic matter,  but  from  the  universe  as  a  whole.  This 
whole,  however,  is  infinite,  and  involves  inscrutable  Sub- 
stance, which,  as  recognizable  only  by  mind,  is  therefore 
of  one  nature  therewith.  The  lowest  physical  beginnings 
are  thus,  in  virtue  of  the  cosmic  force  by  which  they  exist, 
actual  mentalities  or  mental  germs."  This  conception  is 
at  the  foundation  of  these  chapters  on  the  ancient  Iranian 
faith.  The  design  of  the  volume,  in  so  far  as  it  has  a  de- 
sign apart  from  the  endeavor  to  represent  things  as  they 
actually  were,  is  to  celebrate  the  dignity  and  scope  of  this 
idea,  to  illustrate  the  advent  of  living  mind  into  the  uni- 
verse, to  set  forth  the  potentialities  of  the  cosmos,  so  far  as 
this  can  be  done  on  the  field  of  history. 

Mr.  Johnson's  conception  of  Deity' was  peculiar,  if  not 
unique.  He  was  not  an  agnostic,  although  he  did  not  pre- 
sume to  dogmatize  about  the  divine  nature.  He  did  not 
remand  the  thought  of  God  to  the  region  of  the  "  unknow- 
able," and  then  devote  himself  to  the  task  of  investigating 
the  appearances  of  the  world.  On  the  contrary,  he  began 
with  Supreme  Mind,  and  saw  evidences  of  its  working  in  all 
visible  manifestations.  He  was  rather  pantheistic,  decidedly 
more  pantheistic  than  theistic ;  but  his  pantheism  had  a  hu- 
man cast  that  brought  it  close  to  men's  sympathies.  The 
adherence  to  pantheism  is  frankly  avowed.  In  a  passage 
quoted  from  Edgar  Quinet,  pantheism  is  heartily  accepted 
as  the  hope  of  the  intellectual  world ;  as  being  both  vital 
and  progressive,  at  once  emancipating  the  human  mind 


INTRODUCTION.  XVU 

from  mental  prejudice,  and  opening  before  it  a  boundless 
prospect  of  advance.  But  when  charged  with  identifying 
God  with  man  because  he  could  not  separate  the  two  as 
essentially  distinct  existences,  he  pronounced  the  interpre- 
tation "  preposterous,"  and  maintained  that  as  polarities 
within  the  divine  life,  man  being  the  finite  and  God  the 
infinite  term,  there  was  eternal,  though  not  essential,  dis- 
tinction between  them.     He  continues  :  — 

<'  God  going  out  of  man  ends  man,  ends  God  also.  For  what 
would  infinite  love  be,  so  drained  of  its  natural  object  ?  Infinite  sel- 
fishness is  not  God.  What  is  left  for  the  bridge  to  start  from,  and 
what  should  it  lead  over  to  ?  But  what  if  God  be  here  already,  in  the 
nature  itself  that  hopes,  remembers,  loves  ;  that  even  grows  by  the 
inevitable  lessons  of  folly,  weakness,  vices,  crimes  ?  By  what  mys- 
terious, unfathomable  energy  do  we  live  and  move  ?  The  ever-flowing 
tides  that  sweep  through  human  life,  calm  or  terrible  as  character  shall 
make  them,  the  mysteries  of  good  or  evil,  —  what  but  these  are  the 
deeps  man  watches  and  explores,  till  he  finds  within  them  that  trans- 
cendent purpose  and  eternal  love  which  he  inwardly  means  by  the 
word  God  ? " 

And  again :  — 

"The  love  we  feel,  the  truth  we  pursue,  the  honor  we  cherish,  the 
moral  beauty  we  revere,  blend  in  with  the  eternity  of  the  principles 
they  flow  from  ;  and  then,  glad  as  in  the  baptism  of  a  harvest  morning, 
expanding  towards  human  need  and  the  universal  life  of  man,  our  souls 
walk  free^ breathing  immortal  air.  That  is  God,  —  not  an  object,  but 
an  experience.  Words  are  but  symbols  ;  they  do  not  define.  We 
say  '  Him.'  '  It '  were  as  well,  if  thereby  we  mean  life,  wisdom,  love. 
All  words  are  but  approximations  ;  the  fact,  the  experience,  remains 
the  same.  .  .  .  The  transcendental  law  becomes  impulse  and  aspira- 
tion. Stirred  by  its  ceaseless  presence,  men  listen  to  the  native  affir- 
mations of  Mind  :  I  am  knowledge,  and  the  medium  of  knowledge  ;^  I 
am  inspiration  as  well  as  tradition  ;  the  instant  fire  as  well  as  the  in- 
herited fuel  of  thought  ;  primal  as  well  as  resultant ;  infinite  as  well  as 
finite."  h 


xvill  INTRODUCTION. 

This  language  makes  Mr.  Johnson's  meaning  clear  to 
discerning  minds.  Deity,  in  his  view,  is  another  name  for 
Substance,  Unity,  Law,  Cause.  The  ordinary  intelligence 
may  not  take  in  the  conception,  but  with  him  it  was  vital, 
and  meant  a  good  deal  more  than  the  current  theism  im- 
plies. The  idea  exalted  God  as  well  as  man ;  for  it  stripped 
away  those  accessories  of  personality,  —  or  as  some  will 
say,  of  individuality,  —  which  render  so  difficult  of  ideal 
comprehension  the  thought  of  the  Absolute  Being. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  faith 
chilled  in  the  smallest  degree  his  human  sympathies.  On 
the  contrary,  it  quickened  them  all,  making  them  intense 
as  well  as  spiritual.  His  zeal,  patience,  breadth,  fortitude, 
hopefulness  were  in  large  measure  due  to  it.  The  fol- 
lowing extracts  from  letters  to  friends  in  bereavement 
shoAv  how  warm  it  kept  his  heart:  — 

"  I  wish  I  could  tell  you  how  firmly  I  believe  that  feelings  like 
these,  so  often  treated  as  illusion,  are  true,  are  of  God's  own  tender 
giving;  that  in  them  is  the  very  heart  of  his  teaching  through  the 
mystery  that  we  call  death.  Our  affections  are  forbidden  by  their 
Maker  to  doubt  their  own  immortality.  What  protest  they  make 
against  the  destruction  of  what  is  still  intensest  reality  to  them, 
when  all  that  the  senses  could  hold  by  is  gone  forever  !  " 

"  This  loving  care  that  folds  in  our  little  hves,  how  near  it  comes 
when  we  need  it  most !  I  feel  as  if  it  held  you  now  in  a  tenderness 
such  as  none  of  us  can  know,  and  none  know  how  to  ask  for  !  '  The 
night  will  be  light  about  you,'  calling  you  to  what  trust-hke  sleep, 
bringing  out  holy  eternal  stars  !  .  .  .  This  life  that  has  been  with  you 
so  long,  close  within  your  own,  must  still  be  yours.  .  .  •  Soon  may  the 
infinite  motherly  love  make  the  heavens  open  where  they  are  most 
darkened  now,  and  the  angels  descend  on  your  saddened  home  ! " 

"  I  know  how  much  your  sister  has  been  to  you.  .  .  .  And  now  it 
will  all  be  spiritualized  and  made  part  of  your  eternal  life.  And  you 
will  know  how  to  reap  its  still,  ripe  harvests,  and  to  make  them  cheer 
and  refresh  a  world  that  needs  nothing  so  much  as  spiritual  faith." 

"  I  learn  that  the  gentle  sufferer  who  has  so  long  been  made  happy 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

by  your  devoted  care  has  been  called  into  those  interior  spheres  where 
indeed  the  calmness  and  sweetness  of  her  spirit  have  already  seemed 
to  you  to  be  dwelling  as  in  its  constant  home.  Out  of  your  mortal 
sight,  but  still  in  the  arms  of  your  unchangeable  trust  and  love. 
There,  too,  her  home." 

And  such  as  these  were  his  meditations :  — 

"  Through  all  the  mysteries  of  our  earthly  lot,  we  would  ever  feel 
ourselves  embosomed  in  the  Infinite  Strength  and  Peace,  that  with 
fatherly  wisdom  and  motherly  tenderness  upholds  and  guides  us,  like 
stars  in  the  sky,  through  our  changes  of  night  and  day,  of  sunshine 
and  storm." 

"  We  would  strive  ever  to  commit  ourselves  to  the  serene  and 
perfect  laws  that  guide  our  human  destiny,  assured  that  what  our 
nature  appoints  must  be  better  for  us  than  aught  else  we  can  desire 
or  dream." 

"  Whether  we  walk  in  the  morning  light  or  in  the  night  shadows,  — 
over,  around,  and  beneath  us  are  spread  these  Everlasting  Arms.  .  .  . 
How  real  becomes  the  unseen  world,  no  longer  unfamiliar,  but  warm 
with  the  treasures  and  light  of  home  !  How  we  look  through  the  half- 
opened  gates  into  its  glory  and  its  peace,  where  the  innocence  and 
beauty  of  childhood  must  dwell  in  the  life  of  which  they  are  the  image ; 
and  the  ties  that  have  been  broken  must  be  preserved  in  the  love  that 
made  them  ours  ;  and  the  powers  we  would  have  trained  here  must 
be  unfolded  in  the  same  care  that  inspired  our  striving,  and  will  not  let 
it  be  in  vain  !  " 

Now  one  can  understand  how  this  worshipper  of  the 
universe  could  write  the  hymn  beginning,  — 

"  Father,  in  thy  mysterious  presence  kneeling, 
Fain  would  our  souls  feel  all  thy  kindling  love." 

There  was  no  distance  between  belief  and  feehng,  no  oppo- 
sition of  heart  and  head.  This  volume  has  herein  a  deeply 
spiritual  purpose. 

M.  Renan,  —  the  sceptic,  —  in  his  "  Souvenirs,"  says  : 
"  II  se  trouve  que  les  plus  beaux  reves  transportes  dans  le 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

domaine  des  faits,  avaient  ete  funestes,  et  que  les  choses 
humaines  ne  commencerent  a  mieux  aller  que  quand  les 
ideologues  cesserent  de  s'en  occuper.  Je  m'habituais  des 
lors  a  suivre  une  regie  singuliere,  c'est  de  prendre  pour 
mes  jugements  pratiques  le  contre-pieds  exact  de  mes 
jugements  theoriques,  de  ne  regarder  comme  possible  que 
ce  que  contredisait  mes  aspirations."  A  singular  rule  in- 
deed !  Proper  for  a  man  without  convictions.  Samuel 
Johnson  pursued  exactly  the  opposite  method.  Nothing, 
in  his  judgment,  was  so  practical  as  what  was  most  ideal. 
He  believed  in  his  finest  dream,  and  tried  to  enact  it; 
being  persuaded  that  the  shortcomings  of  conduct  were 
due  to  the  absence  of  loftiness  in  the  idea.  The  true  fact 
was  aspiration.  All  men,  as  he  thought,  responded  to 
what  was  highest;  and  it  was  only  because  the  highest 
was  not  presented  that  they  were  cruel,  mean,  and  base  in 
their  lives.  It  was  the  aim  of  his  existence  to  lift  them  up 
by  revealing  the  divinity  that  was  in  them ;  and  this  he  felt 
he  could  do  only  by  proclaiming  the  best  he  saw;  and  this 
he  did  always,  the  more  persistently  the  older  he  grew. 

Of  the  influence  of  this  faith  on  his  personal  character,  I 
cannot  trust  myself  to  speak.  Here  is  the  language  of  his 
intimate  friend  Samuel  Longfellow,  who  has  written  his 
memoir:  — 

"With  us  abides  as  a  memory  and  an  aspiration  the  genuine  nobility 
of  soul.  With  us  remains,  a  sacred  and  secure  possession,  the  pro- 
found and  elevated  thought ;  the  absolute  faith  in  God  ;  the  clear, 
spiritual  sight  of  things  divine,  ideal,  invisible,  as  the  realities  ;  the 
keen  moral  judgment  of  men  and  events,  untinged  with  bitterness  ; 
the  reverent  sensibility  to  all  truly  sacred  things,  equalled  only  by 
the  prompt  rejection  of  all  that  only  pretended  to  be  sacred  ;  the  abso- 
lute sincerity  and  sturdy  independence  in  thought,  speech,  and  methods 
of  action,  which,  while  respecting  the  freedom  of  others,  may  not  always 
have  been  able  to  do  justice  to  methods  different  from  his  own  ;  the 
devotion  to  liberty  in  all  its  forms  ;  the  unwearied  search  for  truth,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  Xxi 

the  steady-working  industry  under  the  burden  of  bodily  infirmity,  the 
sensitive  love  of  beauty  in  Nature  and  in  art ;  the  kindly  sympathies 
and  warm  attachments  ;  the  too  modest  estimate  of  himself  and  the 
cordial  recognition  of  the  good  work  and  worth  of  others ;  the  bright 
mirth  that  lightened  out  of  his  habitual  seriousness,  —  all  these 
things  abide  with  us,  now  that  the  voice  is  stilled  and  the  hand 
lifeless." 

As  much  as  this  all  his  friends  will  testify.  One  can  only 
wish  that  the  praise  had  been  justified  to  those  who  were 
not  his  friends,  by  a  few  personal  examples  such  as  Mr. 
Longfellow  could  have  adduced,  had  his  sense  of  delicacy 
permitted.  The  story  of  Charles  Lamb's  heroism  would 
be  paralleled  by  Samuel  Johnson's,  if  all  were  known.  Of 
course,  some  of  these  qualities,  —  the  basis  of  them  all 
perhaps,  —  were  due  to  constitutional  bias  and  tempera- 
ment ;  but  the  superstructure  was  erected  by  his  faith.  Of 
this  there  can  be  no  question,  as  they  who  knew  the  man 
will  bear  witness.  These  things  are  said  here  in  order  that 
the  intention  and  true  bearing  of  these  books  may  not  be 
misapprehended.  The  bearing  of  the  faith  on  character 
was  in  this  instance  very  fine. 

The  service  rendered  by  such  a  man  in  this  age  of 
purely  external  literary  activity  is  immense.  Had  he  been 
a  disciple  of  the  current  Christian  philosophy,  the  moral 
conclusions  from  his  theory  might  have  been  taken  for 
granted ;  but  as  a  teacher  of  the  opposite  school,  it  is 
important  that  the  ethical  results  of  his  doctrine  should 
be  exhibited.  His  interpretation  of  the  cosmic  idea  is  so 
lofty,  stimulating,  inspiring;  so  full  of  encouragement  to 
every  high  spiritual  feeling;  so  elevating  and  kindling, — 
that  one  is  glad  to  find  him  on  that  side.  He  lifts  the 
whole  exposition  into  a  sphere  of  ideal  faith.  Although 
not  technically  he  is  really  a  believer,  and  an  enthusiastic 
one.     The  literal  transcendentalist  who  holds  that  certain 


xxii  INTRODUCTION. 

primal  truths  are  planted,  fully  fashioned,  in  the  nature  of 
man,  are  corrected  by  this  thinker,  who  declares :  — 

"Of  course,  the  transcendentalist  cannot  mean  that  at  all  times 
and  by  all  persons  the  truths  now  specified  are  seen  in  the  same  ob- 
jective form,  nor  even  that  they  are  always  consciously  recognized  in 
any  form.  He  means  that,  being  involved  in  the  movement  of  intelli- 
gence, they  indicate  realities,  whether  well  or  ill  conceived,  and  are 
apprehended  in  proportion  as  man  becomes  aware  of  his  own  mental 
processes." 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  see  how  we  can  have  intuitive  certainty  of  the 
continuance  of  our  present  form  of  consciousness  in  a  future  life  ;  still 
less  of  what  awaits  it  in  a  future  life.  But  it  is  certain  that  knowledge 
involves  not  only  a  sense  of  union  with  that  which  we  know,  but  a  real 
participation  of  the  knowing  faculty  therein." 

"  By  intuition  of  God  we  do  not  mean  a  theological  dogma  or  a 
devout  sentiment;  we  do  not  mean  belief  in  '■a  God,'  Christian,  or 
other, — but  that  presumption  of  the  infinite  as  involved  in  our  per- 
ception of  the  finite  ;  of  the  whole  as  implied  by  the  part ;  of  sub- 
stance behind  all  phenomena;  and  of  thought  as  of  one  nature  with 
its  object,  which  the  laws  of  mind  require,  and  which  can  be  detected 
in  conscious  or  unconscious  forms,  through  all  epochs  and  stages 
of  religious  belief." 

In  the  same  essay  on  "Transcendentalism,"  Mr.  Johnson, 
discussing  the  intuition  of  moral  law,  says :  — 

"  How  explain  as  a  '  greatest  happiness  principle,'  or  an  inherited 
product  of  observed  consequences,  that  sovereign  and  eternal  law  of 
mind  whose  imperial  edict  lifts  all  calculations  and  measures  into 
functions  of  an  infinite  meaning  ?  And  how  vain  to  accredit  or  ascribe 
to  revelation,  institution,  or  redemption  this  necessary  allegiance  to 
the  law  of  our  own  being,  which  is  liberty  and  loyalty  in  one  ! 

"  The  crude  evolutionist  who  believes  in  the  production  of  the 
highest  by  inherent  force  of  the  lowest,  who  thinks  of  the  universe 
as  fashioned  from  below  upward,  has  a  formidable  opponent  in  the 
man  who  is  persuaded  that  the  world  is  fashioned  from  above  down- 
ward ;  that  all  facts  point  heavenward;  that  what  we  can  know  is  but 
the  process  of  creative  mind." 


INTRODUCTION.  xxiii 

The  ordinary  rationalist  who  seems  to  be  of  opinion  that 
criticism  will  eventually  dethrone  religion,  is  confronted  by 
a  scholar  who  is  fairly  abreast  of  the  foremost  students  in 
this  department,  who  reads  all  the  books  and  hails  literary 
discoveries  with  delight,  yet  who  regards  the  work  of  criti- 
cism as  provisional,  as  removing  rubbish  in  order  to  reveal 
the  walls  of  the  "  city  that  has  foundations ;  "  \yho  pulls 
away  incumbrances  that  the  "  house  not  made  with  hands  " 
may  be  visible.  The  present  volume  abounds  in  conclu- 
sions which  may  startle  casual  readers,  but  which  have  no 
other  intention  than  to  bring  the  ultimate  principles  to 
light.  They  are  passages,  not  chambers ;  avenues  to  the 
land  of  promise,  that  better  country  which  is  seen  from 
afar. 

The  real  value  of  books  like  these  consists  in  their  idea 
as  well  as  in  their  knowledge.  They  are  not  content  to 
vindicate  ancient  religions  from  aspersion,  —  that  has  been 
done  already;  it  has  even  become  the  fashion  to  do  it, 
among  Orthodox  people,  too  (witness  the  new  volume 
called  "  The  Faiths  of  the  World  ") ;  nor  do  they  admit  the 
excellence  of  ancient  religions  in  order  that  they  may  show 
how  much  more  excellent  Christianity  is  as  the  culmination 
of  all  antecedent  faiths.  The  argument  of  Mr.  Johnson  is 
that  the  old  religions  are  steps  in  the  manifestation  of  mind, 
illustrations  of  the  development  of  consciousness  in  man. 
The  present  volume,  the  masterpiece  of  the  series,  exhibits 
the  evolution  of  the  moral  sentiment.  The  extensive  affili- 
ations of  the  Persian  religion,  its  influence  through  Mani- 
cheism  and  Gnosticism  on  Christianity,  its  speculative 
ideas  and  social  institutions,  make  it  peculiarly  interesting. 
No  merely  external  study  of  dogmas  and  symbols,  no  criti- 
cal knowledge  of  texts,  is  adequate  to  an  appreciation  of 
this.  No  partisanship,  however  generous,  can  do  justice  to 
it.     The  finest  genius  alone,  fortified  by  competent  learn- 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

ing,  can  feel  its  full  significance.  In  this  aspect,  Mr.  John- 
son's account  of  Oriental  Religions  is  unique  in  design  and 
execution.  That  it  has  attracted  no  more  attention  is  pos- 
sibly owing  to  the  circumstance  of  its  entire  originality. 
Neither  the  general  public  nor  scholars  are  awake  to  the 
worth  of  ideas  much  beyond  the  line  of  accepted  thinking. 
Mr.  Johnson's  absolute  frankness,  perhaps,  repels  more 
than  it  attracts ;  but  the  time  may  come  when  merit  like 
his  will  be  honored  as  it  should  be.  Should  that  period 
arrive,  these  three  volumes  will  be  welcomed  as  not  only 
among  the  best  expositions  of  Oriental  systems,  but  as 
the  best  and  the  first  attempt  at  formulating  the  idea  of 
intellectual  and  moral  evolution,  by  far  transcending  in 
power  any  work  now  submitted  to  the  thinking  world. 

O.  B.  F. 
Boston,  April  i,  1884. 


TOPICAL   ANALYSIS. 


PERSIA. 

I    ADVENT   OF  THE   RELIGION   OF   PERSONAL 
WILL. -ITS   ELEMENTS. 

I.     SYMBOLISM ^  ^^ 

An  epoch  when  we  become  conscious  of  ourselves  as  individuals  5- 
One  worships  at  this  stage  a  personal  Will,  6.     A  higher  stage 
beyond  this,  in  which  an  ideal  in  conformity  with  the  eternalorder 
of  the  universe  is  worshipped,  6.     The  law  of  history  found  m  the 
typical  qualities  of  Hindu,  Chinese,  and  Semite,  6.     Iranian  vener- 
eration  for  personal  forces;  the  typical  religion  of  Iran;  elements 
of  the  Zarathustrian  faith;  the  most  significant  the  tntenser  play  of 
symbolic  expression,  y     Personality  the  basis  of  symoohc  represen- 
tation 8      We  think  in  symbols ;  language  is  symbohc ;  art,  science, 
politics,  trade  are  thought,  dream,  purpose   symbohzed,  9-     Our 
nature   the   ground  for   conceiving   of  the   world  without  us,    lo. 
Nature  represents  to  man  that  which  he  is,  ii.     Man  finds  images 
of  God  in  Nature  because  of  his  own  relations  with  the  infinite,  ii. 
An  idol  is  a  symbol,  12.     Jahveh  and  the  "  Father  "of  Jesus  imper- 
fect symbols  of  the  inscrutable  substance,  13.     Religious  symbols 
our  human  ideals  taking  external  relations  to  us,  14.     We  as_  truly 
''  idolaters  "  as  the  heathen,  15.     The  Moral  Order  of  the  universe 
and  Law  symbols  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  in  the  soul    15.     Sym- 
bols the  expression  of  harmonies  between  the  soul  and  the  outward 
world    16.     The  Tree  a  symbol  in  all  mythologies,  16.     Christian 
symbolism  in  Catholic  Mariolatry  and  Protestant  BibHolatry,  17. 
The  difference  between  ancient  and  modern  symbolism,  ib.     ihe 
higher  meanings  of  the  cosmos  in  higher  ideals  in  ourselves,  19. 
FiRE-SYMBOL,  20-34.      Pyrolatry   common   to   all   rehg.ons    20,   21 
Solar  mythology  a  stage  beyond  primitive  fire-worship,  22.     Ihe 


XXVI  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

moon  and  star  cult  older  than  that  of  the  sun,  23.  The  sense  of 
liberty  explains  the  difference  of  fire-symbolism  among  eastern  and 
western  Iranians,  24.  The  heroic  legends  of  Yima.  Thraetona,  and 
Keregagpa,  transformations  of  Aryan  symbols  of  the  solar  fire,  25,  26. 
The  gift  of  personifying  abstract  qualities  displayed  in  the  Avesta; 
the  Amesha-Cpeiitas  abstractions  turned  into  gods,  27.  Down  to 
the  present  day  the  fire-altar  of  the  Parsis  the  hearth  of  their  faith, 
27.  Other  symbols  had  little  value,  28,  29.  Iran  the  true  fire- 
temple  of  Nature,  30.  The  Persian  the  iconoclast  of  religious 
symbols,  31.  The  individual  the  living  flame  of  Ahura,  32.  The 
flame-symbol  meant  a  spiritual  power  warring  against  evil,  33,  34. 

II.     THE   MORAL   SENSE 37-50 

The  beginning  of  personality  the  advent  of  Will  as  a  personal  power; 
humanity  advances  by  creating  symbols  of  its  own  ideal  experience; 
fire  the  ideal  bond  of  man  with  the  universe,  37.  '  This  epoch  the 
true  birth  of  the  Moral  Sense  also,  37.  The  war  of  Ormuzd  and 
Ahriman  a  war  of  essential  principles,  38.  Differences  between 
the  Indian  and  Iranian  regarded  as  of  a  very  radical  nature ;  but  the 
theory  unsatisfactory,  39,  40.  Avestan  Dualism  of  light  and  dark- 
ness of  the  Vedas  also,  41.  But  the  dark  power  not  emphasized  in 
the  Vedas  as  in  the  Avesta,  42.  The  Dualism  of  the  Aryans  ger- 
minant;  of  the  Iranians  positive  principles  warring  for  possession 
of  the  universe,  43.  The  sense  of  this  strife  the  result  of  external 
conditions, 44.  In  India  the  will  bent  before  gods;  in  Iran  bloomed 
into  heroes,  45.  The  plateau  of  Iran  suggestive  of  the  war  of  ele- 
ments, 46 ;  a  fit  arena  for  the  hates  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  47 ; 
a  school  for  the  imagination  and  conscience,  48.  Good  and  evil 
creations,  Vendidad,  i.  49.  Such  abstraction  and  personification  not 
of  an  early  stage  of  culture,  50. 

II.    DEVELOPMENT. 

I.     AVESTAN   DUALISM 53-105 

In  the  faith  of  Zoroaster,  the  old  fire-cultus  a  twofold  personality, — 
Ahuramazda  and  Angro-mainyus,  53.  These  two  spirits  or  prin- 
ciples "primeval  twins,"  54.  Powers  of  good  aid  Ahura;  the  hosts 
of  falsehood  and  destruction  war  in  the  elements  against  them,  55. 
Unbelievers  children  of  Ahriman  ;  Zoroastrians  of  Ahura's  crea- 
tion ;  also  there  was  a  sense  of  moral  reprobation  or  approval,  56. 
From  the  oldest  Gathas  to  the  latest  Yashts  a  thousand  years  of 
growth,  'j,'].     The  qualities  at  first  blended  in  Ahura  became  per- 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  XXVii 

sons,—  Vohu-man6,Asha-vahista,  Khshathra-vairya,  Armaiti,  Haur- 
vatat,  and  Ameretat ;  against  these  are  drawn  up  Ahriman  and  his 
six  spirits  of  evil,  58.  To  these  personal  antagonisms  correspond 
physical  ones,  59.  Animals  pure  or  impure,  by  rigid  rule,  60,  61. 
The  paradise  of  the  Avesta  the  transfiguration  of  labor,  62.  A  reli- 
gion that  could  make  heroes  but  never  a  monk,  63.  Profoundest  of 
antagonisms  that  of  life  and  death  ;  life  the  fire  worshipped  ;  death 
put  far  away  ;  no  contact  with  its  decay ;  the  chief  weapon  of  Ahri- 
man, 64;  but  overswept  of  life,  by  a  divine  necessity,  65.  The 
parallel  with  Christian  dualism  in  the  creation  of  an  evil  humanity 
by  Ahriman,  66.  Immortality  not  involved  in  transmigration  ;  or  in 
absorption  in  Ahura,  66.  Man's  worth  divides  the  universe,  and 
draws  all  powers  to  the  one  side  or  the  other  ;  Satan  an  invisible 
presence  ;  resisted  and  overcome  by  (i)  the  spirit  of  Ahura ;  (2)  the 
word  or  law  of  Ahura ;  and  (3)  work,  67-69.  The  whole  of  this 
spiritual  armor  summed  up  in  the  formula,  —  "Tightness  of  thought, 
word,  and  deed,"  70.  The  Avesta's  theory  of  evil  involved  in  free- 
dom of  choice,  71  ;  the  earliest  affirmation  of  human  liberty  as  the 
substance  of  a  religion,  —  the  first  genuine  escape  from  Fate,  72. 
Does  the  Avesta  affirm  two  equal  forces  ?  73.  Ormuzd  and  Ahri- 
man spring  from  Zrvan-akarana,  74.  The  Author  does  not  find  pure 
Dualism ;  still  less  one  God  in  the  Avesta,  75.  Ahura  representative 
of  Varuna,  75  ;  evil  from  Varuna,  not  the  sign  of  moral  evil  in  the 
god,  but  of  righteousness,  76.  Evil  everywhere  inferior  and  second- 
ary, jy,  78.  Ahriman  regarded  as  a  mere  purpose  of  destruction ; 
only  one  Supreme  God,  79,  80.  Trust  in  Ahuramazda ;  fear  of 
Ahriman,  81.  Fire  shall  burn  away  the  dross  of  evil ;  hell  shall 
disappear,  82.  Physical  resurrection  and  judgment  at  the  end  of 
the  world,  83.  Ultimate  destruction  or  conversion  of  powers  of  evil, 
84.  Both  solutions  in  the  modern  Parsi  church,  85.  Old  Accadian 
writings  contain  no  working  out  of  problem  of  evil,  S6.  Assyrio- 
Babylonian,  Hebrew,  and  Christian  eschatology  a  development  of 
Zoroastrian  beliefs,  87.  The  grand  thing  implied  in  the  Avesta  the 
victory  of  good  over  evil,  proclaimed  in  the  conscience,  88.  The 
theory  of  penal  world-destruction  held  by  Hebrews  and  transmitted 
to  Christianity,  89,  90.  Zoroastrianism  recognizes  the  strength  of 
evil,  the  tragedy  of  sin  and  penalty,  the  martyrdom,  of  heroism  and 
love,  91-93.  Then  deliverance,  both  material  and  spiritual,  94-97. 
Zrvan-Akarana  similar  to  Fate,  98.  Hindu  Destiny,  99.  The 
march  of  the  heavenly  bodies  identified  with  Boundless  Time,  100, 
loi.  These  principles  forms  of  Heaven  or  the  Sky,  whence  the 
Supreme  God  of  Indo-Europeans,  102,  103.     Worship  of  Nature 


XXVlll  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

the  sane  and  sacred  track  of  humanity,  103.  On  this  track  lies  the 
solution  of  Dualism,  103-105. 

n.    MORALITY  OF  THE  AVESTA 109-118 

A  morality  which  insists  on  the  criminality  of  killing  an  otter  as  on 
the  slaying  of  a  man  ;  trivial  associations  prove  creatures  pure  or 
impure  ;  the  dog  a  centre  of  superstitious  awe,  108.  A  confusion 
of  physical  and  moral  spheres ;  does  not  forbid  a  marked  degree 
of  moral  earnestness  ;  the  value  of  outward  acts  in  purity  of  thought 
and  will,  109,  no.  Marriage  and  polygamy,  112.  All  virtues  in 
spreading  the  law  of  purity ;  the  Iranians  a  chosen  people  to  re- 
deem the  world,  113.  The  "pure  man"  a  priest;  no  offering  of 
blood  to  Ahura,  114.  Caste  never  established  in  Iran  ;  yet  an  aris- 
tocratic tone  in  worship  of  Will  even  among  early  Iranians,  115. 
The  destiny  of  men  and  spirits  hangs  on  the  majesty  of  Truth  and 
the  self-destruction  of  Falsehood,  116. 

III.  ZARATHUSTRA 121-138 

The  obscurest  figure  in  the  line  of  Prophets  and  Messiahs,  120.     His 

name  cannot  stand  for  any  special  individual,  121.  Age  of  Zara- 
thustra  running  all  the  way  from  6000  to  600  B.C.,  122.  Chief  per- 
sonage in  Avestan  religion,  122.  Median  Magi  doubtless  deified 
Zoroaster,  123.  Nativity  of  the  Prophet  is  another  mystery,  124. 
Zarathustrian  idea  or  faith  follows  the  track  of  Christ ;  in  the  early 
parts  of  the  Avesta,  Zoroaster  hears  Ahura  as  a  man,  124.  Ahura 
commits  to  him  the  good  of  the  world  ;  not  easy  to  separate  this 
stage  from  that  of  miracle,  125.  Later,  one  of  the  chiefs  over  each 
region,  probably  as  priest ;  later  still,  benedictions  pronounced  in 
his  name  ;  future  saviours  his  descendants,  126,  127.  Mythology 
surrounded  him  with  the  usual  halo  of  supernatural  phenomena,  128. 
Doctrine  of  Zarathustra  traceable  back  to  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ,  130.  Zarathustra  reformed  the  old  Aryan  religion,  131. 
Difference  between  Vedic  and  Avestan  religions,  Vedic  worship  of 
natural  powers  superseded  by  personal  interest,  132.  A  transition 
from  child-life  in  Nature  to  that  of  conscious  will,  133.  Iranian  and 
Vedic  religions  may  represent  a  long  period  of  separation  ;  the  ref- 
ormation embodied  in  the  Avesta  not  the  work  of  one  man,  136. 
Earliest  Gathas  not  a  full-formed  system  of  faith,  137.  Yet  contain 
a  consciousness  of  world-purpose,  ethical  and  spiritual,  138. 

IV.  THE  AVESTA  LITERATURE 143-157 

Twenty-one  books  or  Nosks,  treating  of  all  possible  subjects,  probably 

mythical,  143.     What  has  not  been  lost,  confused  and  fragmentary, 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  XXIX 

143.  Old  Avesta  had  its  origin  in  eastern  Iran,  144.  Greek  authors 
from  the  third  century  b.  c.  quote  Avesta,  145.  No  other  Bible  in  so 
unsatisfactory  a  condition,  146,  Anquetil-Duperron's  pioneer  work 
in  opening  Avestan  literature  to  Europe,  147.  Bibles  of  the  world 
deposits  of  religious  history  of  races,  148.  Avesta  like  the  rest,  149. 
Yagna  made  up  of  seventy  sections  of  hymn,  praise,  and  prayer ; 
Vendidad,  twenty-two  chapters  of  conversations  between  Ahura  and 
Zarathustra  ;  Vispered  highly  ritualized  invocations  and  prayers  ; 
;  Yashts  twenty-four  pieces,  each  in  celebration  of  some  genie ; 
Khordah- Avesta  formulas  for  occasions  and  times,  150-152.  Liter- 
ature of  Sassanian  revival  older  than  ritualistic  portions  of  Avesta, 
152.  Sassanidae  restored  native  religion,  152.  It  blossomed  into 
translations  of  Avesta,  153.  Physical  force  swept  its  name  almost 
out  of  being,  but  its  soul  passed  into  Mahometanism,  Judaism,  and 
Christianity,  154.  Pehlevi  literature  analogous  to  Old  Testament 
compilation  after  the  exile,  155.  Shows  little  spiritualizing  tendency 
like  school  of  Philo  ;  yet  Neoplatonic  elements  are  discernible  in 
it,  156. 

V.    CUNEIFORM  MONUMENTS    OF   THE   ACCADIAN 

AND   THE   ASSYRIAN 161-216 

Physical  science  involves  historical  antecedents  ;  mental  evolution  in- 
volves earlier  stages  and  conditions,  161.  We  are  products  of  past 
as  well  as  present,  162,  163.     Uncomprehended  monuments  of  re- 

'  mote  ages  closed  lips  with  secrets  for  the  future,  164.  At  opening 
of  present  century  Babylon  and  Nineveh  still  "  heaps  ;  "  yet  with 
hints  to  thoughtful  travellers  ;  the  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  the 
starting  point  of  discovery,  166.  Then  Calah  rose  from  the  heaps 
of  Nimrud  ;  then  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  reconstructing  history  ; 
in  half  a  century  Behistun  and  the  rocks  of  Susa  and  Van  were 
serving  a  purpose  as  important  as  the  Rosetta  stone,  167.  Ten 
thousand  clay  tablets  of  law,  grammar,  history,  science,  mythology, 
of  fifteen  hundred  years,  preserved  for  twenty  centuries  more,  168. 
Original  texts  confirmatory  and  contradictory  of  Biblical  records  ; 
geography  of  Palestine,  Arabia,  and  Egypt  confirmed  from  inscrip- 
tions, 171.  Assyrian  chronology  in  opposition  to  that  of  the  Bible, 
172.  Futile  endeavors  of  harmonists,  174.  Genealogy  of  Genesis 
not  indorsed,  175.  Chaldeans  a  tribe  of  Accadians  ;  authority  of 
Berosus  uncertain  ;  primitive  civilization  of  Mesopotamian  basin 
not  Semitic,  176.  Cuneiform  script  met  requirements  of  western 
Asiatic  civilization  ;  Chinese  of  equal  competency  for  the  east  of 
Asia,  178.     The  two  great  systems  of  writing  Turanian  achieve- 


XXX  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

ments;  both  wonders  in  early  civilization,  179.  Cuneiform  writing 
carried  monumental  literature  of  Turanian,  Semite,  and  Aryan,  iSo. 
Accadians  invented  letters  in  primitive  Mesopotamia,  181.  Strusjo-ie 
of  good  and  evil  symbolized  by  light  and  darkness,  182.  Accadians 
derived  good  and  evil  from  one  source,  —  Mul-ge,  183.  Evil  spirits 
in  the  air  and  desert,  and  in  the  mind  and  body  of  man  as  disease, 
184.  Jewish  reverence  for  an  ineffable  Name  from  Accadians,  184. 
Hebrew  and  Greek  mythology  built  on  old  Assyrian :  a  personal 
mediator  in  old  Chaldean  tablets,  Silik-mulu-khi,  185.  A  personal 
guardian  attends  every  one  ;  the  records  of  a  civilization  forty  cen- 
turies old  preserved,  187.  Records  of  old  Accadian  kings  ;  their 
literature  preserved  in  libraries  ;  literary  capacity  of  old  Turanians  ; 
oldest  epic  called  Izdubar,  188.  Accadian  legends  show  percep- 
tion of  cosmical  order,  189.  Accadian  passion  for  literature,  190. 
Accadian  observation  began  astronomical  work  of  Sargon's  library, 
191.  Commercial  life  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh  from  this  older 
civilization,  192.  A  long  advance  on  patriarchal  institutions,  192. 
Assyrians  transmitted  Turanian  wisdom,  193.  Antiquity  borrowed 
more  from  valley  of  the  Euphrates  than  from  that  of  the  Nile,  194. 
Cannes  and  his  Annedoti  mythic  civilizers,  195.  Mouth  of  the 
Euphrates  the  old  centre  of  law  and  culture,  196.  Turanian  in- 
dustry corresponded  to  Assyrian  passion  for  military  success,  197. 
Tribal  exigencies  created  II  and  Bel,  Asshur  and  Jahveh,  and  Ara- 
bian Allah,  198.  Symbols  of  gods,  199.  Energy  of  the  Assyrian 
art,  200.  Assyrian  art  differs  from  Egyptian  as  a  flame  of  fire  from 
a  pyramid  of  stone,  201.  Little  of  domestic  architecture  or  popular 
amusement  has  come  down  to  us,  202.  Kings  and  people  not  mere 
voluptuaries  ;  empires  perish  from  destructive  external  forces,  203. 
The  Semite  possessed  military  prowess  ;  elements  more  suited  to 
culture,  of  Turanian  origin,  204.  Assyrian  kings  permitted  no  rec- 
ord of  their  crimes  or  defeats,  204.  Yet  not  mere  scourges  of 
mankind,  205.  The  Semite's  passions  the  voices  of  gods,  206. 
Nebuchadnezzar  sings  of  Merodach  as  the  Psalmist  of  his  Jahveh, 
207.  The  king  prayed  directly  to  gods,  yet  had  faith  in  dreams 
of  seers,  208.  Spiritual  part  of  man  in  an  underworld  or  raised 
to  the  heaven  of  the  gods,  209.  No  law  of  retribution  after  death  ; 
religious  rites  at  the  tomb,  but  nothing  said  of  the  future  of  the 
departed,  210.  The  Assyrian,  like  the  Hebrew,  interested  in  des- 
tiny on  the  earth,  211.  Accadian  poem  of  the  Descent  of  Ishtar, 
212.  Chaldeo- Assyrian  civilization  a  contrast  to  the  Hindu  and  the 
Chinese  ;  Iranian  nerve,  Hindu  thought,  Chinese  work,  213.  Sub- 
stance of  the  cuneiform  records  not  realistic  and  positive  ;  at  once 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  xxxi 

ideal  and  actual,  213.  The  religious  form  of  this  mental  type  the 
worship  of  personal  Will,  214.  Our  Assyrio-Chaldean  study  opens 
this  phase  of  world-development,  the  foretype  of  modern  religions, 
215,  216. 

VI.  THE  HEBREW  AND  THE  CHALDEAN  .  .  219-27S 
Babylon  the  "  key  of  universal  history;"  moral  instinct  not  tracked 
to  its  human  beginning  in  any  one  age  ;  the  whole  human  cosmos 
implicated  in  every  step  of  human  growth,  219.  Inspiration  of  man 
his  natural  relation  to  the  Infinite  ;  Bibles,  borrowers  from  older 
experiences ;  prophets  taught  from  the  heart  of  humanity,  220. 
The  civilization  of  which  Babylon  was  the  type  now  added  to  those 
of  India  and  China,  220.  Its  ideal  the  deified  personal  Will,  221. 
Assyrian  conquerors  the  youth  of  the  impulse  to  enthrone  Will ; 
Babylonian  influence  upon  Jewish  civilization,  etc.,  222.  Arabia 
the  ancestral  land  of  Semitism  ;  Babylon  its  earliest  school,  223. 
Myths  of  Semite,  Greek,  and  Phcenician  point  to  an  Assyrio-Chal- 
dean origin,  223-226.  Babylonian,  Phoenician,  and  Hebrew  cos- 
mogonies, 226.  Hebrew  and  Chaldean  customs  like  those  in 
Accadian  inscriptions,  227.  Previous  to  Assyrian  relations,  much 
in  Hebrew  tradition  of  Canaanite  origin,  228.     Jahveh  a  sun-god, 

228.  El,  Baal,  and  Moloch  meant  merely  lord  or  king  ;  the  worship 
of  Jahveh  combined  with  theirs  ;  all  worshipped  on  the  high-places, 

229.  First-born  offered  to  Jahveh,  230.  Jahveh  or  Jahveh-Elohim 
of  the  Prophets  of  slow  growth  ;  elevated  above  all  surrounding 
deities  700  b.  c.  ;  as  the  Assyrians  put  other  gods  under  the  feet  of 
Asshur  ;  a  step  toward  monotheism,  231.  The  Hebrews  half  Arab, 
half  Canaanite  ;  their  Law  a  slow  evolution  ;  early  aspirations  of  the 
Hebrews  after  a  tribal  god  the  substance  of  the  Mosaic  tradition, 
233.  Jahveh  the  real  God ;  did  not  imply  positive  monotheism  or 
exalted  purity,  234.  Jahveh  of  Isaiah  grew  from  a  beginning  like 
Asshur  of  Assyria,  235.  The  majesty  of  righteous  law  came  slowly 
out  of  spiritual  experience,  236.  Hebrew  prophets  under  a  Divine 
possession  ;  an  outside  Will  communicating  to  chosen  instruments  ; 
the  Semitic  god  a  divinized  king;  monotheism  reached  through  a 
sense  of  tribal  or  national  unity,  237.  Intuition  of  God  does  not 
teach  any  form  of  deity  ;  simply  the  perception  of  substance  higher 
than  phenomena,  238.  The  Hebrews  drew  from  the  beliefs  of 
Babylon,  240.  The  Hebrew  Sabbath  of  Accadian  origin,  241.  The 
Genesis  story  of  creation  in  the  cuneiform  tablets,  242.  Derived 
trom  the  Chaldees,  243.  Phcenician  and  Hebrew  "  deep  '  a  waste 
abyss  :  old  civilizations  began  with  amphibious  deities,  244.     I  ma- 


XXxii  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

gery  of  the  sea,  245-247.  Nature  full  of  personal,  human  mean- 
ing; Pothos,  Eros,  Tiamat,  Belus,  248.  Intuition  of  order  from 
strife  and  strength  of  Will,  249.  Older  theism  of  the  Avesta  influ- 
enced Hebrew  monotheism,  250.  Hebrew  story  of  creation  poetic  ; 
idea  of  a  creative  word  common  to  Hebrew  and  Persian,  251. 
Second  Hebrew  story  of  creation  centres  in  the  formation  of  man, 
252.  Hebrew  story  of  creation  an  example  of  elaborate  construc- 
tion ;  Eden  legend  a  generalization  of  history,  253.  Legend  of  the 
Temptation  and  Fall  the  Semitic  conception  of  the  origin  of  evil, 
254.  Explanation  of  man's  disobedience  his  arbitrary  will ;  in  the 
Avesta,  the  falsehood  of  the  tempter  ;  illustrations,  255.  Nothing 
answering  to  the  Genesis  fall  of  man  in  Chaldean  inscriptions  or 
traditions,  257.  Modern  theology  has  read  a  dogma  into  this  legend 
of  which  it  is  innocent ;  purpose  of  the  legend  to  bring  out  of  Adam 
a  twofold  race,  the  slaves  of  labor  and  the  favorites  of  freedom,  261. 
Genealogy  of  nations  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis  ;  the  ten  patri- 
archs had  their  foretype  in  Chaldean  tradition,  etc.,  262.  Floods 
overwhelming  disobedient  races  connected  with  derivation  of  all 
things  from  a  watery  chaos,  264.  Ark-form  of  the  Deluge-myth, 
266.  Scene  of  Hebrew  flood  a  remote  region ;  narrative  from  a 
foreign  source,  267.  Hebrew  legend  has  a  conscious  purpose  ; 
Chaldean  simply  an  episode  in  an  epic,  26S,  269.  Noah's  sons  the 
nations  known  to  the  Hebrews  of  the  exile,  270.  Legend  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel  ;  a  cuneiform  tablet  speaks  of  a  confusion  of  coun- 
sels and  of  the  destruction  of  a  tower  by  Anu,  271.  Universal  Re- 
ligion shrinks  from  ascribing  personal  motives  to  the  Infinite  Being, 
274.     The  result  of  these  Genesis  studies  briefly  stated,  275-278. 


III.    POLITICAL    FORCES. 

I.     BABYLON,  CYRUS,  PERSIA 281-353 

Persian  empire  a  basis  for  the  civilizations  of  the  West ;  cuneiform 
records  of  immense  number  of  tribes  swept  into  subjection  to  a 
common  master,  281.  League  of  Lydia,  Media,  and  Babylonia, 
610  B.C.  Median  empire  lasted  less  than  a  century;  function  of 
the  Mede  to  introduce  the  Persian,  282.  Left  no  literature,  no 
permanent  institutions  ;  signs  of  an  energetic  life,  283.  Religious 
motor  of  modern  civilizations  worship  of  personality  ;  present  chap- 
ter illustrates  this  law  of  history ;  Babylon  revives  at  touch  of 
Mede,  284.  Another  master  to  come,  with  greater  genius  for  sway, 
385.     The  Hebrew  prophets  decry  Babylon,   286.     Yet  Jeremiah 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  XXXlii 

has  nothing  but  honor  for  the  Chaldean  city,  287.  Her  hospitahty, 
religious  and  intellectual,  28S.  Not  the  persecutor  of  nations  and 
faiths,  289.  Hebrew  exiles  protected  in  life  and  property  ;  repre- 
sented at  court,  290.  Returning  exiles  under  Ezra's  Law  a  new 
people,  291.  Sorrows  of  the  exile  intensified  religious  nationality; 
a  certain  democratic  quality,  germs  of  Maccabean  heroes,  292. 
Rude  Hebrews  learned  at  Babylon  the  arts,  traditions,  and  literature 
of  an  ancient  and  great  civilization,  294.  There  in  Parsi  customs 
began  instruction  of  the  people,  reshaping  of  old  prophecies  and 
histories,  etc.,  296,  297.  A  nation's  existence  and  growth  deter- 
mined by  conditions  of  climate,  position,  and  race,  298.  Incred- 
ible that  Babylon  became  "  heaps  "  because  of  moral  and  religious 
rottenness,  299.  Persian  civilization  a  product  of  Babylonian  ele- 
ments, 301.  The  spirit  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  moved  in  the  arm 
of  Cyrus,  302.  Persia  brought  her  distinctive  function,  303.  Who 
were  the  Persians  ?  304.  Herodotus'  picture  bears  every  mark  of 
truth,  305.  The  Persians  of  Cyrus  the  ideal  of  Greek  historians, 
306.  The  Persians  the  typical  Iranian  race,  310.  The  Persian 
mind  not  the  pure  brain,  not  the  passive  muscle,  but  the  flame- 
conductor  between  the  two,  311.  The  Persian  perished  in  his  own 
fires  of  ambition  and  enterprise,  312-315.  Obeyed  the  sturdy  rules 
of  Zoroaster,  316.  The  Persian  instructed  his  children  to  ride,  to 
shoot,  and  speak  the  truth,  317,  Worship  of  Ormuzd  ;  hatred  of 
Ahriman,  318.  Persian  sculpture  falls  behind  Assyrian  ;  ideal  as- 
piration overflows  all  defects.  Force  of  term  nerve,  as  applied  to 
Iranian  races,  319.  All  worshippers  of  the  flame,  320.  Pure 
thought  of  the  Hindu,  plodding  work  of  the  Chinese,  now  a  third 
type,  which  conducts  the  cerebral  into  muscular  energy,  321.  Self- 
deification  of  Iranian  monarchs  a  political  expression  of  personal 
Will.  The  family  household  the  social  unit,  expanded  into  clans, 
322.  Many  tribes  free  nomads,  the  most  agricultural ;  four  classes, 
"  priests,  soldiers,  farmers,  and  artisans,"  323.  The  Persian  noble, 
the  king's  counsellor,  yet  ready  to  die  for  his  king  ;  manners  ;  moral 
self-respect,  325.  The  Persians  strove  for  the  ideal,  yet  forgot  not 
the  practical,  326.  Woman  subject  to  the  will  of  man  ;  in  the  in- 
scriptions and  sculptures  wholly  ignored,  327.  Persians  could  marry 
nearest  kin,  328.  Chivalrous  treatment  of  women  ;  in  later  times 
priestesses.  Arbitrary  Will  the  law  of  Medes  and  Persians,  329. 
The  empire  pure  product  of  individual  Will,  330,  331.  Beginning 
of  respect  for  personality  is  in  aristocratic  institutions,  332.  Posi- 
tive sense  of  Persian  freedom  ;  Greek  consciousness  oi  manifest 
national  destiny  ;  Persian  sense  of  a  great  historic  function,  333. 


XXXIV  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

Xenophon  paid  the  highest  tribute  to  Persian  institutions  ;  Plato 
scarcely  behind  him  in  praises.  Coming  of  a  great  man  opens  the 
gates  of  imagination  ;  Cyrus  "  father  of  manlcind,"  335.  Infancy 
and  growth  of  Cyrus  of  messianic  type,  336,  337.  As  hero  of  philo- 
sophical romance,  receives  in  Xenophon's  "  Cyropaedia"  the  finest 
personal  tribute  in  all  antiquity ;  ideal  marred  by  limitations  of  its 
framer,  33S-344.  To  the  Greek,  Cyrus  was  the  child  of  Destiny; 
of  Providential  purpose  to  the  Hebrew,  345.  The  ideal  as  depicted 
by  the  imagination  of  the  ages,  points  to  actual  force  in  some  de- 
gree correspondent,  348.  From  Cyrus's  day  Iran  meant  no  more 
a  vast  desert  of  warring  hordes,  but  the  Persia  of  the  Great  King  ; 
Rome  showed  in  humanities  of  later  legislation  the  pressure  of 
Cyrus's  heroic  hand,  350.  The  hand  which  smote  down  the  old 
gods  of  Asia,  set  up  the  coming  God  of  Europe  ;  without  Cyrus 
"the  Europe  of  to-day  never  would  have  existed,"  351. 

II.    ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT 357-390 

Persia  hailed  him  as  her  deliverer  from  disintegration  and  decay  ;  he 
awoke  the  old  Iranian  loyalty  to  personal  Will,  357-359.  Pupil  of 
Aristotle,  reader  of  Homer,  etc.  Alexander  the  higher  ideal  for 
which  Nineveh,  Babylon,  Mede,  and  Persian  had  educated  the 
races  of  Iran,  360.  Not  European  ;  once  leaving  Macedon  for  the 
East,  he  never  returns  ;  Iranian  tradition  adopted  him  into  the  line 
of  native  kings,  361.  The  legend  knows  nothing  of  enormities,  362. 
Fitness  of  Alexander  to  fill  old  type  of  ideal  personality,  363.  Iran 
fed  the  imagination  with  colossal  types  of  heroic  Will,  364,  365. 
Later  legends,  366.  To  Mirkhond  the  ideal  philosopher  as  well 
as  king,  367.  Difficulty  of  reconciling  outbreaks  of  fury  with  gen- 
eral conduct,  370,  371.  Tragedy  of  personal  character  involved  in 
human  progress,  372.  In  Alexander  an  age  shapes  its  instru- 
ment, 372-374.  Zoroastrian  priesthood  put  him  in  hell  for  burn- 
ing the  Nosks  of  the  Avesta  ;  ten  Persian  poets  have  sung  the 
"Alexander-Saga,"  375.  Some  palliation  for  his  violent  acts,  376. 
Human  master  pronouncing  himself  a  god,  377.  Alexander  proved 
his  descent  from  Jove,  378.  No  vulgar  marauder  ;  no  praise  thought 
extravagant,  381-383.  Alexander  aimed  at  progress,  384.  Built 
institutiops  that  were  civilizations  ;  his  name  protected  the  free 
thought  of  Aristotle  at  the  Lyceum,  386.  Cultus  of  his  divinity  in 
Egypt,  389.  Nature,  humanity,  unity,  brotherhood,  were  syllables 
shaping  on  the  winds  ;  later  Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Islam  find 
their  way  prepared,  390. 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  >^XXV 


III      THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE •     393-438 

Destiny  of  Persian  empire  had  Alexander  lived,  393-     Monarchica 
God  of  Europe  could  have  been  evolved  from  Ahuramazda  as  wdl 
as  from  Jah veh.  Allah,  or  Abba  Father,  394-    Rev.val  of  Onental  mon- 
archy might  have  foreclosed  the   Messianic  tragedy,    nothmg  m 
I  anL  deity  made  world-influence  impossible,  395-    But  Alexander  s 
purpose^^^^        with  him  ;  disappearance  of  the  faith  of  Iran  durmg 
the  rei^^ns  of    Macedonian  and  Parthian  kings,  396.     Macedonian 
stranlefs  had  little  interest  in  Avesta,  397-     Religion  of  the  Par- 
h    nfacultusof  the  elements;  Magi  transformed  into  revwahsts 
of  Al  ura,  398      Collected  and  restored  the  old  Avesta,  399-     Con- 
;  ien      o    Mazdeans  not  suppressed;  Parthians  tolerant;  Edessa 
a  fountain  of  Christian  learning,  400.     Parthians  by  no  means  un- 
civihzed;    Mazdeism;    intolerance    expected    from    a    rehgionof 
SIvin     Will,  401.     Interference   of   Parthian   k  ngs  ^vUh    Iraman 
J^htical  insti'tutions  unimportant,  ,02.    No  Macedoman  or  Par d. an 
king  a  fit  centre  of  hero-worship,  403.    Political  stabdity  rests  on  1  e 
religious  nature,  404.     Much  in  Parthians  to  rouse  tl- 1-ro-wo  ^J^^P 
of  Iran,  405.     In  comparison  with  Roman  C^sars,  Parthian  eno- 
mities  ;eVectable,  406.     Extermination  of_  Parthians  by  Ardeshi 
Babec^an  ;  old  religious  organization  of  empire  preserved,  407.     l^e 
der.;,  a  kind  of  ''  State  within  the  State  ; "  Ardeshir  rose  to  the 
placf  ^f  Cyrus  in  hero-worship,  408.     United  the  en^P-e,  4^-     Old 
Avestan  hate  of  unbelievers;  the  Arab  came  to  -bstUute  a  god 
and  prophet;    Vision  of  Ardii-Vtraf,  4x1.     An  older  Dante    41   • 
Energy  of  Ardeshir  more  than  rivalled  by  Shapur  I.,  413-     Heroic 
Tdell  o'f  Mazdeism  fulfilled  in  Sassanian  line  ;  Shai^C.r  II.,  conqueror 
of  Julian  and  his  Roman  and  Arabian  army,  414- .  ^^^°f  ^,/-  ^"5  '  ' 
equally  famous  in  Roman  wars,  41S.     A  daughter  of  Khosru  the 
first  f^.ale  sovereign  of  Iran.     This  great  ^^tonc  structure  wen 
down  before  the  blows  of  Rome  and  Islam,  417.     ^YP -al  forrn  « 
Iranian  ideal  in  Khosru  I.  (Ar../.V..?.),  418-425.    ^^^l'^^^ '\^^^ 
vices  to  future  ages  in  collecting  the  heroic  legends  of  Iran  ,  native 
Persian  literature  perished  at  the  Moslem  conquest,  4^6.     A  e  ot 
Khosru  brings  him  into  comparison  with  the  Roman  emperor  Jus- 
tinian, 4^8.   ^Persecutions  by  Justinian;  toolof  an  mtolerant  pne    - 
hood  ;  attempts  to  eradicate  Pagan  and  heretical  belief  43°.      usUn 
Maur  ce,  Phocas,  Heraclius,  pursued  the  policy  of  unifying  bdie 
by  the  eierdse  of  despotic  will,  431-     But  a  new  and  stronger  w  1 
appeared  in  Allah  of  Islam;  Justinian  pure  and  his  pa-o-  umle^ 
control  ;    evidences   of  real  humanity,  432.     Bearing   of   Stoicism 
upon  Roman  law,  433-      Degeneracy  of   Roman  avdization,  434- 


XXXvi  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS, 

Decay  of  Byzantine  empire  ;  sway  of  Islam  ;  a  future  of  intellectual 
and  political  greatness,  435.  History  of  Mazdak  ;  severities  in 
religion  consistent  v/ith  social  and  political  freedom,  437. 


IV.    PHILOSOPHIES. 

I.     MANICH^ISM 441-498 

Mani  had  attained  the  largest  culture  possible  in  his  day ;  astronomer, 
physicist,  musician,  and  artist  of  eminence,  441.  He  purposed  to 
construct  a  universal  system  out  of  the  ferment  of  beliefs  in  his 
time,  442.  Put  to  death  by  Varahran,  a  Sassanian  king;  but 
Christian  emperors  from  Constantine  to  Justinian  tried  to  exter- 
minate the  sect;  Mani  claimed  to  be  a  Christian,  a  Gnostic,  444. 
Reason  his  authority  ;  personal  will  that  of  his  opponents,  445. 
Judaism  and  Mazdeism  intolerable  to  Christianity;  Manichaeism 
more  intolerable,  446.  Good  and  Evil  in  the  Manichasan  system, 
447,  448.  The  true  Christ  crucified  throughout  Nature,  449. 
Manichaeism  a  product  of  Iranian  qualities  ;  Mani  stands  in  need 
of  just  appreciation  ;  Beausobre's  researches  found  him  superior  to 
his  opponents,  both  Pagan  and  Christian,  450.  Dualism  a  univer- 
sal experience,  451.  Manichaeism  more  truly  monotheistic  than 
Mazdeism,  452.  The  key  to  Manichaeism  in  its  effort  to  avoid  all 
intermixture  of  evil  with  God,  as  a  pure  and  incorruptible  essence, 
453.  Meaning  of  the  Manich^ean  principle  of  evil,  457.  Eternally 
separate  from  that  of  good,  458.  The  origin  of  moral  evil  in  igno- 
rance, 460.  The  human  is  shaped  from  the  substance  of  the  Supreme 
Light  by  the  Mother  of  Life,  461.  The  Avestan  Mithra  the  Mani- 
chaean  Christ,  462.  Adam's  descendants  had  power  to  resist  the 
ever-repeated  first  temptation  through  the  light-element,  the  spiritual 
nature,  463.  The  Manichasan  Christ  Docetic,  464.  Mani  did  not 
deny  an  apparent  assumption  of  the  flesh,  465.  Truth  and  good 
tend  through  all  changes  to  bring  us  back  to  themselves,  466. 
Manichaeans  accepted  the  penal  woes  of  the  last  judgment,  but 
denied  the  resurrection  ;  paid  honors  to  the  sun  and  moon,  468. 
Sin  in  the  Manicheean  mind  a  result  of  man's  nature  rather  than  of 
his  will,  469.  Every  soul  forever  prompted  to  free  itself  from  the 
desires  of  the  flesh,  470.  Mani  recognized  a  secular  world  to  be 
necessary,  as  well  as  a  religious,  471.  The  pride  of  modern  thought 
to  have  rehabilitated  the  material  form,  472.  Dualism  not  Atheism, 
474.  The  charge  of  immorality  against  Manichaeans  rested  upon 
the  assumption  that  denial  of  orthodoxy  inevitably  led  to  immorality, 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  XXXvii 

475.  Vows  of  ManichjEan  elect  like  the  old  Avestan  formula, — 
"purity  of  thought,  word,  and  deed,"  476.  Manichjean  bishop  to 
Augustine,  477.  Main  charges  against  Manichaeism  Afao/c and  Gnos- 
ticisjii,  dflZ.  Plato  crossed  the  seas  to  learn  Magic  ;  Persians  called 
persons  most  fitted  by  nature  for  truth  and  religious  wisdom  Magi, 
479.  Christian  world  persecuted  Magic  as  the  work  of  the  Devil ; 
invisible  realm  of  powers  hostile  to  God,  however,  just  as  real  to 
Christian  believers,  4S0-482.  Simon  Magus  a  gigantic  nebulosity 
of  legend,  483.  Magic  of  Gnostics  of  the  nature  of  science,  or 
rather  was  incipient  science,  486.  Supernatural  magic  of  Church 
aimed  at  destruction  of  the  natural  magic  of  the  scientist,  487. 
Under  Christianity  evil  either  result  of  God's  will,  or  of  the  free- 
will which  he  has  bestowed  on  man,  490.  Paul  adheres  to  old 
Jewish  idea  of  Jahveh  as  the  creator  of  evil  in  man  ;  Christian 
doctrine  of  original  sin  and  its  expiation,  491.  Man's  impotence 
and  God's  wrath  a  monstrous  deduction  slowly  evolved,  492.  Epi- 
curus stated  the  case  fairly,  493.  The  thinker  sees  that  evil  must 
exist  as  the  condition  of  progress,  494.  To  believe  in  the  unreality 
of  evil  requires  a  mystic  elevation  of  faith  ;  but  the  belief  has  foun- 
dation in  the  facts  of  experience,  496.  Science  changes  the  old 
conception  of  evil  by  proving  antagonism  to  be  a  necessity  of 
existence  and  growth,  497.  Inevitable  antagonism,  pain,  and  loss 
must  be  accepted  through  an  absolute  trust  in  the  integrity  of 
the  moral  universe,  49S. 

II.     GNOSTICISM 501-521 

Connection  of  Manichaeism  with  Gnostic  schools  rendered  it  obnoxious 
to  Christian  Church ;  Gnosticism  traced  in  ancient  philosophy  and 
literature,  501.  Gnosis,  or  ideal  knowledge j  our  word  Agnosti- 
cism proves  by  implication  the  immortality  of  the  aspiration  it  de- 
clares a  fruitless  dream,  502.  Gnosticism  resisted  that  personal 
absolutism  which  is  the  essence  of  supernaturalistic  faith  ;  ac- 
cepted the  name  of  Christian,  503,  504.  In  Gnosticism,  spiritual 
principles  and  ethical  forces  figured  as  persons,  in  true  Iranian 
fashion,  505.     The  Church  held  this  Gnostic  epos  to  be  blasphemy, 

506.  Heresy  of  the  Gnostic  that  he  put  Christ  among  the  ^ons  in 
a  chain  of  being  ;  Gnostic  powers  all  in  the  proem  of  John's  Gospel, 

507.  The  multitude  incapable  of  receiving  the  higher  Gnosis,  508, 
509.  Not  a  few  things  laid  to  the  charge  of  Gnostics  highly  credit- 
able to  their  freedom  and  sense,  510.  The  claim  of  reason  to  deter- 
mine religious  conviction,  512.  Christianity  concentrated  its  hopes 
on  an  incarnation  of  God  as  the  only  refuge  for  man ;  Gnosticism 


XXXVlll  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

clung  to  the  idea  of  perfection  in  God,  513.  Docetic  Christ  of  Gnos- 
tic, and  supernatural  Christ  of  Church  alike  impossible,  514.  To  the 
Christian,  evil  was  the  work  of  Satan  ;  to  the  Gnostic,  the  cosmic 
energy  of  the  principle  of  darkness,  515.  The  characteristic  feature 
of  Gnosticism,  —  the  endeavor  to  express  the  idea  of  God  as  an 
active  process,  518.  The  germ  of  a  thoroughly  free  religion;  at 
once  scientific  and  intuitive  ;  no  necessity  for  bridging  chasm  be- 
tween Perfect  Light  and  Utter  Darkness,  520,  521. 


V.     ISLAM. 

I.     MAHOMET 525-70S 

Scientific  study  of  religious  development  reveals  continuous  progress 
towards  recognition  of  the  universe  as  Infinite  and  as  One  ;  move- 
ment of  every  race  from  polytheistic  to  monotheistic  belief ;  the 
monarchical  idea  transient,  525.  Impersonal  worship  of  ideas, 
principles,  and  laws  the  religion  yet  to  come,  526.  Every  mo- 
narchical religion  logically  has  resorted  to  the  sword,  527.  Opening 
of  seventh  century  an  epoch  of  disintegration,  528.  Demand  for 
assured  trust  in  one  supreme  Will,  529.  No  God  but  God ;  Ma- 
homet claimed  a  completer  legislation  than  that  of  Abraham,  Moses, 
or  Christ,  530,  531.  Islam  enforced  the  logical  right  of  revelation 
to  sway  every  human  sphere,  532.  Could  not  escape  resort  to  the 
sword,  533,  534.  Arabia  fit  only  to  give  birth  to  the  prophet  ;  not 
to  establish  his  law,  535.  Rapid  growth  of  Christianity  believed 
to  be  evidence  of  supernatural  origin  ;  rapid  conquest  would  prove 
Mahomet's  claim  more  valid,  536.  His  expectation  to  make  the 
world  the  kingdom  of  God  the  push  of  humanity,  537.  His  sum- 
mons nothing  unfamiliar  to  his  countrymen,  538.  The  unity  of  God 
embedded  in  Arabian  memory  and  faith,  539.  Mosaism  and  Chris- 
tianity familiar  to  the  Arabs,  540.  Mahomet's  first  relations  were 
with  Jewish  and  Christian  believers ;  did  not  derive  inspiration 
from  the  Bible  ;  knowledge  of  Old  and  New  Testaments  at  second 
or  third  hand  ;  knowledge  of  the  past  incomprehensible,  541-543. 
Preceded  by  a  line  of  native  poets  who  proclaimed  Allah  as  above 
all  gods,  544.  Ancient  "Rolls"'  of  Mahomet  probably  the  so-called 
"Rolls  of  Moses,"  546.  Sought  only  to  recall  his  people  to  the 
service  of  One  they  already  knew ;  pretended  to  no  message  from 
an  unheard-of  Power  or  Name,  547.  His  morality  that  of  all  good 
men  in  his  day,  548.  Sentences  from  Koran,  550.  Mahomet's  suc- 
cess not  due  to  sensual  appeals  ;  reward  and  penalty  of  Paradise, 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  XXxix 

551.  Democratic  tone  of  his  message,  552.  Abolished  privilege  of 
sex  in  religious  function.  The  pen,  giver  of  Bibles  to  men,  553, 
Mahomet  declared  God  spoke  to  all,  to  prophet  and  slave  alike, 
554)  555-  Hardly  a  trace  of  Christian  phraseology  in  Koran  ;  ideas 
inherited  from  many  preceding  faiths,  556.  The  final  result  of  a 
long  evolution  of  the  worship  of  personal  Will,  557.  In  this  terrible 
Will  is  the  same  tender  care  and  pity  that  go  with  it  in  the  Hebrew 
and  Christian  God,  558.  The  Divine  origin  of  the  revelation  as- 
sumed as  indubitable,  559.  Mahomet  refers  to  the  character  of  his 
book  to  prove  it  could  come  only  from  God,  560.  No  appeal  to  the 
supernatural  in  himself;  yet  he  became  a  centre  for  legend,  561. 
To  him  the  desert  spoke  without  reserve  ;  the  desert  the  mother  of 
the  Semitic  temperament,  562.  Difference  of  the  desert  aspects  of 
day  and  night  the  key  to  Semitic  mythology,  564.  Symbols  of  the 
desert,  565-567.  The  desert  the  prophet's  cell  and  throne.  Forth 
from  its  wastes  march  Moses,  Zoroaster,  Jesus,  Mahomet,  568. 
Its  influences  account  for  Mahomet ;  shaped  the  race  of  which 
he  was  born,  570.  Poetic  literature  of  pre-Islamic  Arabia  ;  Abu 
Temmam's  poems  ;  frank  acceptance  of  the  reahties  of  destiny, 
571.  Old  Arab  ideal,  572.  Mahomet's  quotations  doubtful  ;  Lok- 
mS,n  the  natural  precursor  of  the  Prophet,  573.  Poets  of  Age  of 
Ignorance  ;  their  songs  bursts  of  self-abandonment,  574.  Imriol- 
Kais,  575.  Amru ;  verses  of  Lebid ;  the  desert  fates  stern,  577. 
Mahomet's  call  to  religious  unity  followed  up  by  the  summons  to 
boundless  citizenship  and  mastery,  57S.  Declared  war  against  the 
poets ;  yet  himself  the  greatest  of  Arab  poets,  579,  580.  Gave  his 
nation's  genius  moral  energy  and  obedience  to  a  purpose ;  Carlyle 
put  this  mystery  into  words  ;  Mahomet  the  focus  of  tendencies,  581. 
Genius  and  personal  mastership;  no  explanation  of,  but  the  universe 
of  mind,  582.  Mahomet  alone  of  religious  founders  shaped  his 
work  to  success  within  his  own  lifetime,  583.  The  Koran  the  foun- 
tain of  faith  to  millions  of  men  for  fifty  generations,  584.  The 
norm  of  books,  the  veritable  Arabic  speech  of  Allah  ;  a  year  after 
his  death  Zeyd  gathers  up  the  fragments,  5S5.  Eighteen  years 
afterwards,  the  same  hand  compiles  a  more  careful  text  ;  it  is  not 
like  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ;  nor  like  the  Buddhist  Sutras  ;  nor 
like  Plato's  conferences  ;  a  prophet's  cry,  Semitic  to  the  core,  586. 
Mahomet  himself  the  indubitable  maker,  587.  Incomprehensible 
that  down  into  the  present  century  his  name  has  been  synonymous 
with  Satan,  588.  The  first  word  of  justice  to  him  spoken  by  Sir 
John  Mandeville  ;  then  came  scholars  with  clearest  proof  of  a 
prophet  in  the  natural  order  of  historic  movement,  589.     Mahomet 


xl  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

had  the  temperament  of  genius  and  a  tendency  to  melancholia,  590. 
In  youth  a  believer  in  the  popular  polytheism,  slow  to  fix  his  faith 
on  the  unity  of  God ;  at  last  came  the  outflaming  of  his  ideal,  592. 
Most  who  heard  him  gladly  were  the  poor,  ignorant,  and  despised, 
many  of  them  slaves ;  then  came  the  seventy  "  Helpers,"  594. 
United  hostile  tribes  in  a  common  faith  and  purpose,  595.  The 
sword  involved  in  his  monarchical  creed,  not  deliberately  chosen, 
596.  Political  rather  than  religious  authority  propagated  by  the 
sword,  597.  Can  mark  the  period  when  the  necessity  of  conquest 
took  possession  of  Mahomet's  mind,  598.  Confesses  his  faults  ; 
early  death  of  Jesus  fortunate  for  his  example,  599.  Polygamy  the 
demand  for  male  offspring  in  the  East ;  low  as  was  Mahomet's  esti- 
mate of  woman,  his  regulations  improved  her  condition,  600.  In 
many  senses  a  Turkish  woman  has  more  liberty  than  an  English, 
601.  Not  to  be  expected  that  Mahomet  should  abolish  slavery,  602. 
Tenderness  of  Mahomet  towards  brute  creation,  603.  Mahomet 
and  the  modern  world,  604.  Islam  connects  religions  of  personal 
Will  and  worship  of  Cosmic  Order,  Unity,  and  Law,  605.  The 
prophet  of  Divine  Will  practically  inseparable  from  God,  606.  In- 
carnations familiar  to  Asiatic  races,  607.  In  Islam  the  process  began 
in  the  idealization  of  Mahomet ;  continued  in  the  worship  of  Ali ; 
later  in  that  of  the  twelve  Imams ;  Iran  the  land  of  hero-worship  ; 
apotheosis  of  Mahomet  began  very  early,  608,  609.  In  Arabia,  the 
free  spirit  of  the  desert  refused  this  homage,  610.  No  doubt  his  real 
personality  had  much  to  do  with  his  swift  exaltation,  611.  Divinizing 
began  immediately  after  his  death,  612.  His  common  rephes  quoted 
as  the  words  of  Allah,  613.  The  rage  of  deification  naturally  acts 
upon  one  representative,  as  in  the  worship  of  Jesus  as  God  ;  yet  in 
Islam  it  took  a  continuous  form,  614.  Fatimite  dynasty  in  Africa, 
founded  upon  the  divinity  of  Ali,  615.  Imams  supposed  to  have 
dropped  their  human  natures,  and  been  absorbed  into  the  essence  of 
Deity,  616.  Ali-worship  the  endless  tale  of  Persian  sects,  617,  618. 
Ali  and  his  Imams  do  not  exhaust  Islamic  apotheosis,  619-622. 
Nothing  more  incongruous  with  the  sublime  Allah  than  adoration  of 
saints,  their  tombs  and  miracles,  623.  Swarms  of  adored  Sheikhs, 
etc.,  624.  All  this  resisted  in  every  age  by  rationalistic  theists  ; 
Wahhabism  the  revival  of  old  Arab  individuality  and  natural  scep- 
ticism, 625,  626.  Religious  monarchism  centred  in  personal  claims, 
627,  628.  Division  upon  predestination  and  free-will,  629.  Motaza- 
lites  represented  free  thought;  Kharijites  and  others  opposed  sinless- 
ness  of  the  Prophet,  630,  631.  Absolutism  not  unaffected  by  the 
struggle  with  liberty,  632.    After  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  strife 


TOPICAL  ANALYSIS.  xli 

orthodoxy  condensed  into  form  what  the  Koranic  logic  required, 
633.  Ghazzali  passed  from  intellectual  scepticism  to  supernatural- 
istic  faith,  634  ;  had  some  ghmmer  of  transcendental  thought,  635. 
His  precepts  creditable  to  his  mind  and  heart,  636.  In  Spain,  the 
same  logical  necessities  developed  as  in  the  East ;  glimpses  of  uni- 
versal religion,  637.  Motazelite  controversies  in  Persia  explained 
by  continuities  of  religious  history,  638.  Kalam,  after  being  the 
inspiration  of  liberalism,  turned  into  the  organ  of  orthodoxy,  640. 
An  accession  to  the  resources  of  free  thought,  —  the  Aristotelian 
writings,  641.  A  revolution  for  Islam,  642.  Organon  of  Aristotle 
taught  the  ages  to  think,  644.  Instinctive  rejection  of  such  a  foe 
by  supernaturalisra;  ethics  of  Aristotle  had  even  greater  fascination, 
645.  Aristotle's  demand  for  mental  freedom,  647.  Influences  of 
Aristotelianism  summed  up  in  Averroes ;  expends  his  entire  strength 
against  Ghazzali,  649 ;  exerted  a  profound  influence  on  Persian, 
Jewish,  and  Christian  thought,  651.  Scholars  like  Alfarabi,  Al- 
kindi,  Avicenna,  and  Averroes  not  blind  worshippers  of  Aristotle, 
652.  Refused  to  accept  immortality  as  a  postulate,  653.  When 
the  orthodoxy  of  Ashari  and  Ghazzali  triumphed,  the  freer  philo- 
sophical writings  passed  over  to  the  Jewish  schools,  655.  First 
effect  of  Arabic  revival  on  Jewish  thought,  656.  Maimonides  mas- 
ter of  Jewish  learning  and  thought,  657.  Monotheism  imposed 
bounds  upon  him,  659,  In  tenth  century  "Brothers  of  Purity" 
arose,  660.  One  of  the  noblest  efforts  in  Universal  Religion  or 
Free  Science  ever  made,  661-665.  The  reaction  by  Ghazzali  and 
Ashari  led  to  persecution  of  philosophy  in  all  parts  of  Islam  ;  yet 
orthodoxy  could  not  escape  the  influence  of  science,  666.  The  sway 
of  blind  faith  produced  a  mixture  of  hypocrisy  and  devotion,  671. 
These  Mussulmans  more  effective  forerunners  of  positive  science 
than  their  Christian  contemporaries  ;  after  twelfth  century  Islam's 
intellectual  work  seemed  to  be  done,  672.  First  reason  triumph 
of  orthodoxy  ;  second  reason  despotic  politics  of  Islam,  673.  In- 
fluence of  conquest  of  Persia  on  Arab  mind,  674.  Arabs  formed 
miHtary  camps  in  Irak,  676.  Persians  the  leaders  and  shapers  of 
Islamic  culture  ;  Arabs  learned  of  these  larger  brains,  music, 
architecture,  sculpture,  politics,  etc.,  679.  At  the  time  of  the  Cru- 
sades, Turkish  and  Mongol  and  Berber  dynasties  had  risen  on 
the  Euphrates  ;  at  the  touch  of  the  Mongol,  the  empire  of  the 
Arab  vanished ;  power  of  Islam  as  a  faith  or  a  name  not  weakened 
thereby,  681.  Intolerance  in  its  very  nature,  682.  Outbreaks  of 
cruelty  and  fanaticism  in  its  name  due  in  part  to  a  religion  of  au- 
tocratic Will,  683.     Not  even  Christianity  has  equalled  Islam  in 


xlii  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

the  push  of  free-thought  from  within  its  name  ;  intellectual  scepti- 
cism and  spiritual  indifference  of  the  Arab,  685.  Other  influences 
favorable  to  freedom,  686.  The  external  impulse  given  to  it  by 
Zoroastrian  traditions,  687.  Tendency  to  intellectual  as  well  as 
practical  dishonesty,  688.  The  Mongol  hordes  had  the  qualities 
of  beasts,  689.  Yet  not  destitute  of  religion  ;  the  effect  of  Islam 
to  expand  a  half-sceptical,  half-believing  impartiality,  690.  The 
same  impartiality  in  the  treatment  of  woman;  of  the  same  nature 
the  democratic  freedom  in  the  election  of  the  Khan,  691,  692. 
Their  raids  had  no  purpose  but  to  supplant  ancient  States  ;  de- 
struction of  books  and  of  literary  men,  692.  The  influences  of  Iran 
transformed  them  into  men,  693.  Their  dynasties  the  great  days 
of  Iranian  poetry  and  thought;  Togrul  Beg,  Alp  Arslan,  Hulagia, 
Ghazan,  694-698.  The  Iranian  population  compared  with  these 
hardy  nomads,  699.  Genghis;  his  son  Ogotai  ;  Timur,  "the 
Lame,"  699-703.  The  empire  of  the  nomad  disappears  ;  the  Uz- 
beg  Tartars  sweep  over  the  land  ;  Barber  begins  the  great  Mogul 
empire  in  eastern  Iran  ;  Ismail  sets  up  a  native  kingdom  in  Persia, 
and  the  old  traditions  emerge  once  more,  704.  "  Timur's  Life  and 
Institutes,"  705.  A  connection  between  the  conquests  of  the  Mon- 
gols and  the  progress  of  civilization  ;  poetry  and  the  arts  revive  ; 
discoveries  imported  from  the  East  by  the  Mongol,  707,  708. 

II.  THE  SHAH-NAMEH;  OR,  BOOK  OF  KINGS.  711-782 
A  reproduction  of  the  religious  and  political  traditions  of  Iran,  711. 
A  true  history,  though  its  personages  and  events  are  unknown, 
712.  Attempts  of  ingenious  scholars  to  identify  the  heroes  of 
Iran  with  Median  and  Scythian  kings  ;  its  psychological  history 
a  tale  of  heroes,  713.  The  ethical  and  heroic  meaning  a  domi- 
nant consciousness  ;  these  antique  personaUties  the  inspiration  and 
solace  of  the  national  heart,  714-  The  real  depositaries  of  local  or 
tribal  traditions  the  proprietary  chiefs,  JiS-  Among  these  Din- 
ishvar  compiled  the  Basitan-N^meh  (a.d.  652);  Omar  consigned 
the  whole  mass  of  national  legends  to  destruction,  716.  At  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century  Mahmud  of  Ghazni  resumes  the  collect- 
ing and  places  the  materials  in  the  hands  of  the  king  of  Oriental 
poets,  Firdusi,  717-  His  first  triumph  at  a  poetic  tournament, 
718.  Could  not  escape  envy,  719-  Suspicions  of  his  orthodoxy, 
720.  The  great  task  done,  Mahmud  pays  but  a  fraction  of  the 
promised  reward  ;  the  outraged  poet  flings  it  away,  721-  But  the 
wound  was  mortal,  722.  Died  in  the  full  sense  of  his  wrongs,  723. 
An  epic  in  hterature  the  complete  ideal  of   a  nation,  724.     The 


TOPICAL    ANALYSIS.  xHii 

master-key  o£  every  epos,  the  dominant  consciousness  of  the  civ- 
ilization which  produced  it,  725.  The  master-motive  of  the  Shah- 
Nameh  the  tragedy  of  human  destiny  and  the  irony  therein  ;  never 
in  it  a  failure  of  life's  summons  to  self-sacrifice  and  moral  loy- 
alty, 727,  728.  The  heroes  of  the  Shah-Nameh  tlioroughly  hu- 
man, 729.  Society  born  with  Jemshid,  730.  The  anti-Jemshid 
appears  in  Zohak,  the  old  Vedic  cloud-god,  731.  Destiny's  decrees 
cannot  be  stayed,  732.  The  legend  of  Selm,  Tur,  and  Iraj,  733. 
The  opening  scenes  of  an  epic  whose  movement  embraces  all 
history,  735.  The  tragedy  of  life  sought  in  the  play  of  nearest 
and  dearest  relations,  ^y]^  738.  The  line  of  great  Pehlevans  of 
Seistan  begins  in  Sam  ;  the  legend  of  Sam  and  Zal,  739.  Zal  and 
Rudabe,  740.  Parentage  of  Rustem,  the  mightiest  among  the 
mighty,  741.  The  tale  of  Rustem  and  Sohrab,  742-745.  The 
dealing  of  a  tragic  Nemesis  again  in  the  story  of  Gushtasp  and 
Isfendiyar ;  the  seven  adventures  of  the  young  hero,  746.  Rus- 
tem and  Isfendiyar,  747-749.  Personal  heroism  the  chief  eman- 
cipator from  patriarchal  absolutism,  751.  Siavaksh  disobeys  his 
father  and  takes  refuge  with  the  king  of  Turan,  752.  Kindly  re- 
ceived ;  then  treacherously  murdered  ;  at  length  avenged,  753,  754. 
The  higher  law  of  honor,  sacrifice,  love,  and  truth  asserts  itself 
against  the  authority  of  throne  and  priesthood,  755.  The  responsi- 
bility of  kings  to  the  heroic  ideal  runs  through  the  epos,  757. 
Afrasiyab,  the  incarnation  of  Turanian  hostility  and  guile  ;  on  the 
other  hand  Khosru  the  ideal  king,  758.  The  close  of  his  reign  be- 
trays the  hand  of  Islam,  761.  He  is  taken  up  to  heaven  alive;  such 
the  reward  of  ideal  royalty,  762.  The  central  figure  of  the  epic  em- 
bodies the  merits  and  faults  of  the  civilization,  763.  In  every  great 
peril  Rustem  holds  the  fate  of  Iran,  764.  This  vast  responsibility 
gives  his  Hfe  the  highest  ethical  interest,  765, 766.  With  Rustem  and 
Zal  ends  the  heroic  race  of  Iran  ;  the  story  of  Piran  the  tragedy  of 
a  good  man  in  a  bad  cause,  767.  The  religion  of  the  Shah-Nameh 
monotheistic ;  inspired  by  the  heroic  traditions  of  Iran  ;  down  to 
the  reign  of  Gushtasp  no  impassable  religious  line  between  Iran  and 
Turan,  769.  Advent  of  Zerdusht  in  his  reign  ;  the  war  with  Turan 
becomes  a  religious  war,  770.  The  story  of  Rustem  and  Isfendiyar 
echoed  in  that  of  Dara  and  Iskander,  771,  772.  Iskander  counselled 
by  Aristotle  ;  his  death  and  obsequies,  773.  Ardeshir  the  restorer 
of  the  faith  ;  the  Sassanian  kings  preachers  in  a  high  moral  strain, 
774.  Ardeshir  proclaims  that  his  "  empire  is  justice ; "  his  son 
Shapur ;  the  right  of  revolution,  775.  Bahram  elected  king  by  the 
chiefs  ;  an  ideal  reign  the  result,  776.     Noble  precepts  suggestive 


xliv  TOPICAL    ANALYSIS. 

of  a  Persian  rather  than  Mahometan  origin;  influence  of  Mazdak 
upon  king  Kobad,  ^TJ.  The  ethics  of  heroism  not  in  the  interest 
of  a  priesthood;  Buzurjmihr,  778-781.  Hormazd  succeeds  his 
father  Nushirvan  ;  overturned  by  Bahram ;  close  of  thi^  epos,  782. 
Editorial  note,  783. 


PERSIA. 


ADVENT  OF  THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSONAL  WILL. 
ITS    ELEMENTS. 

I. 

SYMBOLISM. 


ADVENT  OF  THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSONAL  WILL 

ITS   ELEMENTS^^^^p^^-^^^ 

'uitiv:brst 

SYMBOLISM.       ^^/POE"^ 

'T^HERE  is  an  epoch  in  our  experience  when  we  become 
•*-  conscious  of  ourselves  as  individuals,  distinct  from  the 
world  of  forces,  natural  and  human,  into  which  we  were 
born.  Before  this  beginning  of  our  proper  personality,  we 
are  more  or  less  passive  products,  either  of  contemplation 
and  imagination,  or  of  traditional  routine ;  in  other  words, 
we  are  either  dreamers  or  plodders,  —  in  the  one  case,  drift- 
ing waves  of  abstract  mind ;  in  the  other,  atoms  of  a  con- 
crete mass.  In  neither  have  we  become  centres  of  special 
force.  In  neither  have  we  learned  that  our  estimate  of  the 
objective  world  depends  upon  what  we  personally  know  and 
feel  and  do,  and,  substantially,  upon  what  we  are.     That 

"  We  receive  but  what  we  give, 
And  in  our  life  alone  doth  Nature  live," 

is  as  true  of  the  child  as  of  the  man,  of  the  poor  creature 
as  of  the  hero  or  the  saint.  But  the  moral  and  spiritual 
possibilities  involved  in  this  constant  law  are  realized  only 
through  the  consciousness  of  ourselves  as  distinct  from  our 
surroundings,  and,  as  it  were,  polar  to  them.  This  is  the 
condition  of  progress,  —  that  we  know  ourselves  to  be 
centres  of  productive  force. 

The  organ  of  this  conscious  personality,  the  force  which 
it  brings  into  play  for  purposes  of  power  and  growth,  is 
the   IVz/l     Strictly  defined,  Will  is   the   concentration    of 


6  ELEMENTS. 

mind  on  the  selection,  from  among  the  infinitude  of  objec- 
tive forms,  of  that  which  suits  the  subjective  desire,  and 
the  transforming  of  it  from  a  thought  to  a  thing  in  the 
shape  of  that  desire,  from  an  ideal  to  a  real  or  actual 
image  of  it,  —  a  transfer  from  brain  to  hand.  And  as  one 
really  worships  that  by  which  he  is  most  deeply  moved,  so 
the  ideal,  the  truly  sovereign  power  for  this  stage  of  self- 
consciousness,  is  always  2l  personal  Will. 

Beyond  this  stage  there  is  a  higher,  in  which  the  will, 
recognizing  the  eternal  order  of  the  universe,  of  which  it  is 
but  a  fragment,  finds  its  ideal  in  conformity,  not  with  per- 
sonal ideals,  but  with  this  substantial  order  itself.  And 
this  step  beyond  the  worship  of  personal  will  is  foreshad- 
owed in  all  the  immature  steps  of  experience,  which  point 
beyond  themselves  to  its  serene  and  perfect  freedom,  — 
although  in  individual  life  it  is  seldom  reached. 

Such  is  the  order  of  individual  growth.  But  it  is  not 
less  the  law  of  history,  the  course  of  humanity:  the  ages 
are  its  theatre,  and  the  races  are  its  material.  In  the  old- 
est civilizations,  even  in  their  highest  forms,  we  have  found 
noticeable  the  absence  of  personal  Will,  Men  are  homo- 
geneous. Classes,  castes,  tribal  distinctions,  family  units, 
do  not  express  essential  individual  differences,  but  at  most 
only  differences  between  certain  masses  of  similar  persons, 
or  relations,  and  other  masses  equally  unitorm.  The  typi- 
cal qualities  of  some  races,  such  as  the  Hindu  and  Chinese, 
have  kept  them,  as  we  have  seen,  on  this  imperfect  stage, 
even  down  to  the  present  moment,  repressing  that  self- 
consciousness  of  which  individual  will  is  the  exponent.^ 
In  their  Southern  expansion,  the  Indo-European  race  were 
subject  to  this  repression,  through  climatic  and  institutional 
forces  ;  but  in  their  Northern  and  Western  expansion,  they 
entered  at  once  on  the  epoch  of  self-conscious  individu- 
ality.    The  Semites,  starting  from  the  other  extremity  of 

1  See  the  author's  China,  p.  946. 


SYMBOLISM.  7 

Iran,  did  the  same,  though  with  significant  differences. 
The  power  of  these  combined  energies  to  initiate  the  his- 
toric progress  of  the  Western  civihzations,  has  been  fully- 
shown  in  the  historical  survey  already  presented.^  The 
central  point  of  the  whole  movement  is  seen  to  be  the 
evolution  and  worship  o{  personal  Will. 

The  earlier  stages  of  Iranian  development  have  been 
marked,  not  by  any  extended  expression  of  individuality, 
but  by  a  common  veneration  for  great  personal  forces, 
wherever  they  appeared,  and  by  a  strong  tendency  in  such 
appreciation  to  call  them  forth.  This  is  itself  a  form  of 
religious  idealism.  But  we  are  now  to  enter  on  what  may 
be  called  the  typical  religion  of  Iran.  It  may  be  well  to 
begin  with  a  review  of  the  special  elements  which  in  men 
and  nations  accompany  the  advent  of  that  epoch  of  ex- 
perience which  we  have  endeavored  to  describe,  that  we 
may  see  how  faithfully  these  are  actually  represented  in 
the  Zarathustrian  faith. 

The  most  significant  of  these  elements  for  the  history  of 
Religion  is  an  intenser  play  of  symbolic  expression.  I  use 
the  comparative  degree,  because  symbolization  is  in  some 
form  a  constant  fact  of  mental  life.  Swedenborg's  doctrine 
of  "correspondences"  was  an  imperfect  adumbration  of  real 
spiritual  dynamics,  and  rests  upon  the  law  that  whatever 
a  being  is,  must  appear  in  what  it  knows  or  does  ;  because 
self-manifestation  is  the  inherent  necessity  of  substance. 
"  If  the  invisible  things  of  God  are  to  be  understood  from 
the  things  that  are  made,"  it  is  for  the  reason  now  stated. 
When  the  spiritual  fact  exists,  the  physical  is  made  also, 
which  represents  it,  just  as  surely  as  that  one  who  is  build- 
ing a  pile  of  stones  in  the  morning  light  is  building  the 
shadow  of  the  pile.  The  fact  of  "  correspondence  "  is  uni- 
versal, the  difficulty  is  in  reading  it;  and  the  fault  of  the 
class  of  minds  represented  by  Swedenborg  is  their  over- 

1  See  the  author's  India  and  China 


8  ELEMENTS. 

assumption  of  final  knowledge,  and  the  fixedness  of  their 
formulas  presented  as  a  science  of  interpretation,  —  a  fault 
not  confined  to  any  class  of  believers,  but  arising  from  the 
universal  fact  of  personal  limitations  in  the  study  of  phe- 
nomena. It  is,  however,  eminently  the  consequence  of  all 
positive  religion,  after  its  early  or  prophetic  stage  has 
passed  into  that  of  organization. 

The  substance  of  the  universe  is  inscrutable.  We  know, 
indeed,  that  whatever  we  see  must  be  symbolic  of  that 
which  it  manifests ;  yet  we  have  no  definite  knowledge  of 
the  process  of  manifestation,  save  what  we  derive  from  the 
productive  force  of  man.  Personality  is  thus  the  basis  of 
symbolic  representation  ;  and  the  more  distinctly  and 
energetically  conscious  we  are  of  personalit}',  as  motive- 
power,  the  more  freely  do  we  use  the  elements  of  experi- 
ence as  signs  of  somewhat  beyond  themselves.  As  the 
centre  of  energy,  it  is  personality  that  transforms  our 
thoughts  into  things,  our  being  into  act,  our  mind  into 
matter,  our  abstract  into  concrete  ;  and  every  such  process 
is  the  construction  of  a  symbol  or  sign  representative  of  our- 
selves. Here  again  we  may  recur  to  our  threefold  historical 
illustration.  With  the  Hindu,  w^ho  lacked  power  to  seize 
and  hold  the  one  of  these  two  poles  of  the  process,  —  that 
of  the  concrete,  —  and  the  Chinese  who  failed  to  grasp  the 
other,  or  abstract  pole,  all  symbolic  constriiction  was  in  the 
main  ill-defined  and  unconscious.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  self-consciousness  of  the  Aryan  is  concentrated  on  this 
very  thing,  the  constructive  process  itself,  by  which  the  one 
force  (internal)  is  transformed  into  the  other  (external). 
With  the  Aryan  mind,  natural  symbolism  becomes  con- 
scious, clear,  significant,  progressive,  full  of  human  relation 
and  power.  It  is  the  natural  activity  of  a  mind  that  in- 
stinctively sees,  not  ideas  alone,  nor  things  alone,  but  the 
idea  as  producing  the  thing.  Two  conditions  are  requisite 
for  every  step   in   progress :   first,   to   believe  firmly  that 


SYMBOLISM. 

there  is  an  unseen  and  an  unattained ;  and  next,  to  believe 
as  firmly  that  the  actual  materials  of  life  can  be  made  into 
its  image. 

This  typical  symbolism,  however,  simply  brings  to  ideal 
value  and  emphasis  the  necessary  processes  of  mental  crea- 
tion. We  cannot  think  save  in  symbols.  Language  itself 
is  a  symbolic  expression.  We  can  express  ourselves  only 
in  terms  taken  from  the  world  of  the  senses,  or  in  some 
way  involving  that  world.  So  far  we  are  all  poets.  We 
say  "  burning  thoughts,"  "  bright  or  dark  moods."  We 
speak  of  the  "  growth  of  character,"  the  "  branching  out 
of  plans,"  the  "  withering  of  hopes."  We  have  all  the 
seasons  in  our  experience.  We  "  revolve  "  like  planets 
around  a  centre.  We  have  "  ups  and  downs,"  "  corners 
and  spaces  "  in  our  hearts ;  "  heights  and  depths  "  in  our 
reason ;  "  hard  and  pliable  characters."  We  unfold  our 
powers,  plume  ourselves,  shut  ourselves  up,  pour  ourselves 
out;  have  upright  or  downright,  winding  or  backward, 
ways.  We  sigh  and  groan  in  spirit;  leap  and  sing  in- 
wardly. Our  souls  bend  in  prayer;  aspire,  or  breathe, 
after  God.  We  have  a  great  many  general  terms,  which 
suggest  no  material  image,  yet  are  not  without  recognized 
meanings  for  the  reflective  or  contemplative  mind.  But 
the  moment  we  make  active  use  of  those  meanings,  clothe 
them  with  positive  individual  form  and  purpose,  turning 
thought  into  thing,  the  process  and  result  must  both  be 
expressed  by  physical  images.  Symbolism  is  mediation 
between  inward  and  outward,  person  and  performance, 
man  and  his  environment. 

Work  is  the  image  man  makes  of  himself  on  the  world  in 
and  through  nature.  Art,  science,  politics,  trade,  are  just 
the  outward  shape  of  the  human  will ;  incarnation  of  the 
spirit;  thought,  dream,  purpose,  symbolized.  The  word, 
shaped  by  the  organs  of  articulation  in  the  air,  represents 
the  speaker,  and  somehow  impresses  the  remotest  orb  with 


lO  ELEMENTS. 

his  likeness.  Am  not  I  myself  here  on  this  sheet  of  paper, 
in  my  handwriting,  every  word  penned  an  autograph  —  nay, 
photograph,  made  by  the  invisible  sun  of  spiritual  reflec- 
tion? Do  we  not  fling  ofl"  impalpable  aromas  all  the  time, 
so  that,  as  the  hound  scents  his  master,  the  nerves  of  finer 
organisms  find  us  out  by  means  of  them,  even  when  we 
have  ourselves  got  a  thousand  miles  away?  Do  not  peo- 
ple construct  our  traits  and  habits  and  beliefs  out  of  a  lock 
of  our  hair,  or  a  few  strokes  of  a  pencil,  down  to  minutest 
shades  of  character,  as  Cuvier  built  up  a  mastodon  out  of  a 
few  bones?  Every  atom  of  blood,  brain,  nerve,  that  is  in 
us  —  every  stir  of  limb  or  feature  —  represents  us.  What 
is  Phrenology,  when  the  motion  of  your  little  finger  betrays 
every  secret  of  your  inward  behavior  to  the  wise? 

It  is  easy  to  ignore  the  symbolism  of  ourselves,  in  which 
we  have  our  being,  weaving  it  about  us  by  the  unconscious 
organic  motions  of  character.  "  Alp  and  torrent  shall 
inherit  our  significance  of  will."  Nature  is  a  convenient 
cooking-stove  to  one,  a  private  mint  to  another,  an  out- 
flaming  of  ineffable  beauty  to  a  third. 

"  To  some  she  is  the  Goddess  great ; 
To  some  the  milch  cow  of  the  field : 
Their  wisdom  is  to  calculate 
What  butter  she  will  yield." 

But  if  we  are  poorly  conscious  of  what  we  do  with  the 
world  to  which  we  are  related  as  creators  of  symbols,  still 
less  common  is  it  to  recognize  the  law  of  perception  on 
which  all  doing  and  creating  must  rest.  We  can  have  no 
cognizance  whatever  of  the  world  without  us,  except  in  so 
far  as  our  nature,  its  complex  of  individual  and  universal 
relations,  affords  a  ground  for  conceiving  it.  In  other 
words,  it  represents  these  personal  or  spiritual  relations. 
Just  as  it  is  the  participation  of  our  human  nature  in  truth 
that  enables  us  to  recognize  truth  in  others,  and  its  par- 


SYMBOLISM.  1 1 

ticipation  in  love  that  allows  us  to  delight  in  their  love,  so 
it  is  with  our  perceptions  of  the  Cosmos  itself.  I  can 
behold  space  as  infinite  only  because  of  the  relations  of 
human  thought  and  feeling  as  such  with  infinity;  and  so 
the  star-sown  universe  is  a  symbol  of  these  human  capaci- 
ties, without  whose  activity  within  me  no  telescope  could 
ever  have  suggested  to  me  such  an  idea  as  boundlessness 
in  numbers  or  space.  Nature  must  either  be  void  and 
meaningless,  or  it  must  represent  to  man  that  which  he  is, 
or  does,  or  tends  to  do,  by  natural  forces.  The  endless 
roll  of  waves  upon  the  beach  impresses  us  only  as  our 
mood  touches  it  with  our  own  sense  of  immeasurable  task 
or  yearning,  of  personal  destiny  or  conscious  power.  We 
are  the  diamond  refining  in  the  dark ;  we  the  lightning 
that  breaks  from  tilting  clouds.  What  we  see  is  what  the 
brute  sees  not:  it  is  ourselves.  Man's  aspirations  burn 
before  him  in  the  stars :  his  passions  grovel  and  snarl  and 
rend  their  prey  before  him  in  the  beasts  that  perish.  He 
reads  the  character  of  another,  ever  so  different  from  his 
own,  by  some  subtile  opening  of  his  own  qualities  into  a 
capability  for  traits  which  his  conscious  will  or  disciplined 
spirit  would  probably  refuse  to  entertain.  And  whether 
we  read  the  tornado,  the  pestilence,  or  the  struggle  for 
existence  from  a  pessimistic  or  optimistic  point  of  view,  or 
as  reverent  hearers  of  Nature's  incitements  to  duty  and 
humanity;  whether  we  interpret  these  destructive  powers 
as  curses  upon  fallen  man,  or  as  conditions  of  his  ascension 
to  the  best,  by  natural  evolution,  —  it  is  still  the  limit  or 
the  liberty  in  ns  that  supplies  the  alphabetic  signs,  where- 
with we  read.  All  symbols  represent  humanity,  either  its 
actual  or  ideal  values. 

Ideal  as  well  as  actual,  —  for  man  finds  images  of  God  also 
in  Nature,  only  because  of  his  own  essential  personal  rela- 
tions with  the  ideal  or  infinite ;  and  being  so  related,  relig- 
ious symbolism  is  natural  and  necessary  mediation  between 


12  ELEMENTS. 

himself  and  his  highest  conception  of  being.  Resting, 
then,  on  this  universal  law  of  personality,  the  choice  of 
special  symbols  with  the  definite  meaning  given  to  the 
object  chosen  by  the  symbolizing  faculty  is  not  arbitrary. 
It  is  the  product  of  positive  relations,  as  organic  as  those 
of  language ;  and  though  the  individual  mind  becomes 
more  and  more  clearly  conscious  of  them,  they  are  never 
so  wholly  unrecognized  as  not  to  be  instinctively  pursued. 
In  this  way  we  must  explain  the  general  uniformity  of 
meaning  ascribed  by  different  ages  and  races  to  the  same 
element  or  phenomenon  in  Nature. 

In  view  of  this  universality  in  the  most  important  ele- 
ment of  religious  construction,  the  supposed  distinction 
between  polytheist  and  monotheist,  Pagan  and  Christian, 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  which  is  conveyed  by  the  use  of 
the  term  idolater  for  the  former  of  these  classes,  appears 
very  superficial.  In  both  classes  the  method  is  the  same ; 
the  result  is  a  symbol,  —  its  meaning,  as  well  as  its  choice, 
being  determined  by  the  laws  and  limits  of  human  experi- 
ence. Who,  then,  is  an  idolater,  and  what  is  an  idol?  We 
can  only  arrive  at  the  idea  that  any  people  endowed  with 
a  degree  of  social  consciousness  have  ever  worshipped 
"  stocks  or  stones  "  by  abstracting  from  the  object  that 
symbolic  significance  which  was  the  very  ground  of  its 
selection  and  the  substance  of  its  meaning.  It  represented 
an  ideal  in  the  mind  of  the  worshipper,  as  is  evident  enough 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  believed  to  enshrine  and  cover 
immeasurably  more  than  it  was,  or  could  be,  as  stock  or 
stone.  It  is  not  the  fetichist  only  who  confesses  this  when 
he  breaks  his  image  in  pieces  if  it  does  not  answer  his 
desire,  and  finds  another.  The  procedure  does  not  differ 
essentially  from  that  of  the  Christian,  who  venerates  an 
image  or  picture  so  long  as  it  represents  the  vision  of  his 
faith,  or  who  takes  an  historical  personage,  around  whom 
certain  religious  symbols  have  gathered,  as  the  representa- 


SYMBOLISM.  13 

tive  of  God,  or  as  God  himself;  and  then,  as  his  scien- 
tific, moral,  social,  spiritual  stature  enlarges,  comes  to 
demand  larger  symbols  of  his  ideal  life.  Or,  if  we  give  to 
religion  the  broadest  meaning,  as  simply  the  service  one 
pays  to  his  ideal,  in  whatever  form  that  may  stand  for  his 
thought,  must  it  not  necessarily  be  the  worship  of  some 
object  which  represents  symbolically  the  sum  of  his  best 
inward  desires?  Does  not  money,  or  fame,  or  fashion,  or 
culture,  serve  for  the  time  the  same  purpose  as  the  "  idola- 
ter's "  stock  or  stone?  Religious  symbolism  does  not  vary 
in  its  method :  it  varies  according  to  the  quality  of  the 
personality  of  which  it  constructs  the  palpable  ideal.  To 
suppose  that  in  one  case  it  is  the  work  of  a  perfect  organ 
of  vision,  made  to  see  objective  truth,  and  in  another  the 
work  of  an  organ  which  must  see  false  images  only,  is  en- 
tirely irrational.  However  superior  as  symbols  the  Jahveh 
of  the  later  Jews  and  the  "Father  "  of  Jesus  may  have  been 
to  gods  that  dwelt  in  gold  and  silver  statues  in  temples  of 
Babylon,  they  were  none  the  less  products  of  symboliza- 
tion,  not  objective  realities,  —  imperfect  types  of  the  inscru- 
table substance,  in  which  all  men  are  contained.  Just  as 
the  sun  has  been  universally  the  symbol  of  deity  in  these 
and  in  all  other  forms  of  worship,  just  as  light  has  been 
for  all  men  in  all  ages  the  undying  symbol  of  ideal  good,  by 
whatsoever  name  expressed,  and  yet  both  imperfect  sym- 
bols of  the  reality  to  which  they  point,  —  so  with  the  more 
distinctly  anthropomorphic  personal  ideals  in  which  men 
have  centred  their  faith  and  hope.  Both  the  Semite  and 
the  Iranian  have  found  a  loftier  and  purer  meaning  in 
rehgious  terms,  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which  they 
represent  the  pure  sense  of  personality.  But  that  the 
really  objective  truth  of  deity  should  be  given  in  any  of 
these  fragmentary  forms,  however  beautiful,  is  impossible, 
—  first,  because  deity  is  infinite;  and  second,  because  the 
symbolizer  can  only  deal  with  such  external  beings  or 


14  ELEMENTS. 

phenomena  as  correspond  to  his  inward  ideal,  which  grows 
as  he  grows. 

]/i  other  words,  rehgious  symbols  are  properly  our  hu- 
man ideals  taking  external  relation  to  us,  that  we  may 
adore  them  unselfishly,  not  as  our  own,  nor  as  ourselves 
at  all,  but  as  above  ourselves.  And  men  are  the  more 
able  to  make  such  use  of  symbolism,  the  more  their  emo- 
tion and  their  volition  are  expanded  by  social  and  moral 
communion.  The  history  of  man  is  a  striving  to  generalize 
his  experiences,  to  universalize  his  ideals ;  and  his  will, 
which  is  the  energy  that  shapes  these  in  its  own  likeness, 
is  also  the  diviner  power  that  seeks  and  strives  to  lose  it- 
self in  that  which  it  adores.  Thus,  in  the  first  flush  of 
self-conscious  power,  he  makes  his  controlling  experiences 
stand  for  creative  and  productive  gods.  Then,  dramatizing 
nature  and  life  in  their  interest,  he  constructs  mythologies, 
which  are  as  free  as  possible  in  their  origin  from  selfish 
purpose,  and  so  are  in  fact  poetry  and  prophecy  for  all 
time.  The  believers  who  saw  purity  in  the  fire,  might  and 
calm  in  the  ocean,  imperishable  guardianship  in  the  stars, 
divine  benignity  in  Nile  and  Ganges,  feeling  in  their  steady 
alternate  rise  and  fall  the  pulsation  of  a  mighty  heart 
which  forever  deposited  the  rich  loam  of  far  mountains  to 
receive  the  living  sunbeams  and  seeds ;  and  out  of  these 
symbols  builded  the  fair  humanities  of  old  religions,  so 
similar  through  remotest  spaces,  —  simply  did  what  we  are 
doing  when  we  fill  heaven  and  earth  with  the  signs  and 
tokens  of  whatsoever  we  most  sincerely  believe  in,  at  the 
same  time  showing  its  real  counterpart  in  our  human  con- 
duct. When  we  repeat  after  our  fathers  that  God  is  one 
and  omnipresent,  and  then,  like  them,  proceed  to  ascribe 
qualities  and  purposes  to  His  infinity  which  we  know  only 
through  finite  experiences,  and  worship  these  as  His,  what 
we  have  done  is  simply  to  lift  these  qualities  out  of  man, 
that  we  may  in  all  honesty  adore  them  as  above  ourselves. 


SYMBOLISM,  15 

We  are  as  truly  symbolaters,  or  "  idolaters,"  if  that  is  the 
word  for  the  heathen,  as  the  heathen  are ;  and  we  cannot 
help  it,  so  long  as  we  demand  forms  of  language  as  material 
for  religious  intercourse.  Love,  Power,  the  Father,  the 
Spirit,  the  Word,  are  symbolic  expansions  of  the  highest 
human  powers  and  virtues.  Races  of  men  most  marked 
by  self-assertion  have  always  made  their  religious  ideal  an 
Infinite  Will.  Or  if,  with  the  mystics  of  every  faith,  we 
reverently  refrain  from  ascribing  any  finite  or  definable 
mode  of  existence  to  the  Fulness  of  Being,  we  are  still 
reaching  forth  towards  that  pure  Essence,  which  is  known 
to  us  only  as  implied  in  our  own  consciousness  of  exist- 
ence. Finally,  the  Moral  Order  of  the  universe,  which 
religious  science  substitutes  for  all  forms  of  external  will, 
can  be  recognized  only  through  the  conception  of  Law; 
and  the  uniformity,  continuity,  and  fidelity  of  law  are  sym- 
bols of  a  moral  and  spiritual  allegiance  revealed  only  in  the 
constitution  of  the  soul.  Thus  the  progress  of  religious 
symbolism,  as  related  to  the  idea  of  God,  is  the  reflex  of 
the  phases  of  ideal  human  will.  As  related  to  the  conduct 
of  man,  the  highest  form  it  assumes  is  that  of  constructive 
work.  And  this,  too,  depends  on  the  growth  of  the  per- 
sonal ideal  out  of  passive  conformity  into  the  energies  of 
liberty  and  love.  Not  more  naturally  does  the  inward 
discipline  of  the  Quaker  select  silence  as  the  symbolic 
medium  of  worship,  or  the  sensuous  dependence  of  the 
Catholic  prefer  the  arts  of  pomp,  than  the  broad  free 
thought  and  open  sympathies  which  are  not  bound  to  sect 
or  form,  find  their  adequate  expression  in  ways  of  enno- 
bling work;  bearing  its  living  symbols  of  universal  truth 
and  good  as  the  tree  its  native  fruit. 

The  universality  of  the  symbolizing  process  indicates 
that  the  relations  with  which  it  is  concerned  are  real  and 
natural.  In  its  great  leading  lines,  therefore,  its  speech  is 
not  arbitrary,  nor  the  choice  of  fancy,  but  the  permanent 


1 6  ELEMENTS. 

expression  of  steadfast  harmonies  between  the  soul  and 
the  outward  world.  The  poet  speaks  to  the  common  heart 
simply  because  he  has  immediate  sense  of  these  natural 
correspondences,  which  prove  that  the  mirror  in  which 
men  see  themselves  is  one  and  the  same  for  all.  He  has 
no  license  to  alter  or  violate  or  ignore  these  relations. 
The  poetry  of  all  times  and  tribes  speaks  through  these  a 
common  language,  even  of  emotions;  and  alphabets  are 
but  vehicles  for  transporting  a  currency  everywhere  valid. 
Who,  for  example,  could  mistake  the  organic  meaning,  the 
momentous  human  interest,  which  in  all  mythologies  has 
centred  in  the  Tree?  In  the  Babylonian  sculptures,  in  the 
Bible  legend  of  the  Fall,  in  the  story  of  the  same  in  the 
Persian  Bundehesh,  in  the  Greek  Garden  of  Hesperides,  in 
the  old  Phoenician  vase-paintings,  in  the  beliefs  of  antiquity 
about  the  dragon-guarded  gold-dust  of  the  Scythian  North, 
we  find  the  same  image  of  a  Tree  of  Life,  guarded  or  in 
some  way  controlled  in  its  relations  with  the  aspirations  of 
man  by  mythical  dragons,  or  serpents,  typical  of  perils  of 
the  body  or  the  soul.  The  terrors  and  splendors  of  fire 
are  associated  with  it;  and  the  penalty  of  the  Promethean 
theft  of  fire  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  is  but  one  symbol 
out  of  many  of  the  awe  of  man  before  his  momentous 
possession  of  an  element  which  penetrates  all  nature  and 
all  thought  with  an  omnipotent  energy :  and  for  this  the 
early  Aryan  mind  could  find  no  better  type  than  to  call  it 
the  fruit  of  an  all-containing  Cosmic  Tree,  and  no  use  less 
universal  than  to  transmit  the  symbol  in  all  the  branches 
of  the  race.  From  first  to  last,  growtJi,  human  and  per- 
sonal, has  found  no  better  symbol  than  this,^  nor  any  that 
can  refuse  affinity  with  that  old  Norse  Yggdrasil,  whose 
ever-ascending  top  is  in  the  unmeasured  spaces,  its  roots 

'  This  is  the  sum  of  meaning  involved  in  the  universal  use  of  the  tree  in  Oriental  symbol- 
ism :  the  attempt  of  Lenormant  and  others  to  identify  the  Bible  "tree  of  life"  with  the  Per- 
sian haoma,  the  Indian  soma,  and  all  other  similar  representations,  is  made  in  the  interest  of 
Bible  revelation,  and  has  no  scientific  value.     Contemporary  Review,  September,  1879. 


SYMBOLISM. 


17 


watered  by  the  Fates  of  Time  and  the  Well  of  Truth ; 
while  the  squirrel  runs  up  and  down  with  incessant  defi- 
ances between  the  eagle  that  watches  in  its  boughs  and  the 
serpent  that  gnaws  at  its  foot. 

Nor  can  we  admit  that  the  older  religions,  as  contrasted 
with  Christianity  and  Judaism,  are  specially  chargeable 
with  worshipping  the  symbol  in  place  of  that  which  it  sig- 
nifies ;  in  other  words,  with  allowing  the  image  to  intercept 
and  absorb  the  honor  due  to  the  ideal.  Religious  senti- 
ment, of  necessity,  becomes  absorbed  in  what  represents 
its  ideal.  And  is  not  this  as  true  of  the  Christian  sym- 
bolism of  Trinity  and  Incarnation,  as  it  was  of  the  older 
worship  of  sun  and  stars?  Is  it  not  as  true  of  Hebrew 
Talmudism,  and  Catholic  Papism,  or  Mariolatry,  and  Pro- 
testant Bibliolatry,  as  it  is  of  the  Hindu's  recitation  of  his 
Gayatri  verses  ?  When  the  symbol  is  embraced  by  senti- 
ment, thought  becomes  identified  with  its  object,  and  what 
represents  its  God  practically  becomes  its  God.  In  no 
case,  however,  is  the  fact  disproved  that  there  exists  in  all 
civilized  thought  a  more  or  less  distinct  acknowledgment 
of  some  divine  transcendence  of  the  symbol  abiding  in  the 
deeper  experience.  And  while  it  is  true  of  the  cruder 
forms  not  of  one  but  of  every  religion,  that  the  symbol 
does  intercept  and  hold  the  worshipper's  interest,  veiling 
the  pure  truth  as  more  or  less  abstract  and  unreal,  —  even 
as  the  confessional  shuts  off  the  essential  meanings  of 
right  and  wrong,  and  as  the  religious  custom  or  creed 
hides  the  Infinite  Life  it  would  limit  and  define,  —  yet  it  is 
equally  true  of  the  higher  stages  in  all  religions  that  their 
symbolism  embodies  the  spirit  of  the  Brahman  prayer: 
"  Open,  O  world-sustaining  Sun,  the  entrance  to  truth, 
hidden  by  thy  vase  of  dazzling  light.  Soften  thy  splen- 
dors, that  I  may  behold  thy  true  being  !  From  the  unreal, 
lead  me  to  the  real !  "  ^ 

*  Brihad  Upanishad,  V.  xiv. 
2 


1 8  ELEMENTS. 

There  is,  however,  a  real  difference  between  ancient  and 
modern  symbohsm.  The  more  self-conscious  religion  be- 
comes, the  more  strongly  its  symbolism  tends  to  become 
distinctively  personal.  From  natural  phenomena  it  has 
passed  over  to  purely  human.  It  is,  of  course,  in  some 
points  of  view,  in  the  interest  of  progress  to  represent  the 
ideal  by  conscious  forces,  in  place  of  outward  physical 
types.  But  the  integrity  of  the  cosmos  requires  that 
thought  should  express  itself  by  things ;  that  man  should 
find,  or  make,  this  very  world  in  his  own  image.  The 
health  of  character  is  in  its  stress  to  outward  embodiment; 
and  whatever  divorces  religious  experience  from  this, — 
whatever  prevents  the  natural  escape  from  self-conscious- 
ness into  living  forms  of  action, —  represses  earnestness  and 
narrows  thought.  The  supreme  Ideal,  which  we  call  God, 
is  not  limited  to  personality,  to  the  individualism  of  con- 
scious will.  God  is  cosmical :  whatever  inscrutable  sub- 
stance that  adjective  may  typify,  is  God.  The  phenomena 
of  the  universe,  inclusive  of  human  activities,  interpreted 
by  its  laws  of  order,  are  the  true  symbolism  of  the  Spirit. 
Materialism,  as  expressing  the  direct  purpose  and  instant 
end  of  mind,  is  as  just  a  term  as  it  is  unsatisfactory  when 
used  to  define  the  origination  of  mind.  Science  restores 
this  natural  relation  of  man  and  the  world,  which  the  primal 
instincts  of  religion  affirmed,  but  which  theologies  absorbed 
in  self-consciousness  have  broken.  To  what  has  heretofore 
been  called  "  matter,"  with  little  regard  to  its  essential  re- 
lations to  spiritual  substance,  science  secures  its  forgotten 
rights.  As  a  consequence,  the  pure  identity  of  thought 
with  thing,  of  essence  with  manifestation,  of  substance  with 
symbol,  must  come  to  full  recognition,  bringing  withal  that 
directness  of  relation  between  thought  and  action  which  the 
highest  conscience  commands  in  the  name  of  integrity, 
and  which  ennobles  human  nature  by  due  respect  to  the 
senses  and  the  world.     This  directness  of  real  symbolism 


SYMBOLISM.  19 

amounts,  in  its  ideal,  to  nothing  less  instant  than  one's  un- 
conscious expression  of  his  emotions  through  the  features, 
or  of  his  vitality  through  the  lungs  and  the  heart.  And 
if,  as  yet,  we  are  far  from  apprehending  the  nobler  fruits 
of  these  ages  of  material  science ;  if  we  are  still  inapt  to 
find  the  higher  meanings  of  this  our  unfathomed  cosmos 
of  inviolable  laws,  —  doubtless  it  is  for  lack  of  those  ideals 
in  ourselves  which  would  give  such  symbolic  meanings  to 
what  we  see  and  do.  The  world  is  waiting,  not  for  our 
knowledge  only,  but  for  our  worship  and  our  love.  Is  it 
in  itself  the  less  capable  of  responding  in  living  parable  to 
the  noblest  aspirations  of  men,  because  as  yet  men  do  not 
demand  such  response ;  because  we  have  been  using  it  for 
merely  mechanical  and  competitive  purposes ;  because 
our  hot  haste  to  master  its  treasures  has  covered  with 
whirling  dust  the  meekness  of  the  wind-flower  and  the 
patient-girded  watch  of  the  stars? 

But  while  we  recognize  the  tendency  of  the  later  stages 
and  larger  development  of  self-conscious  personality  to 
check  in  some  ways,  for  a  time,  the  direct  contact  of  the  ideal 
in  man  with  pure  nature  through  symbolic  expression,  we 
must  again  emphasize  the  fact  that  it  was  the  earlier  stages 
of  the  same  self-conscious  will  that  gave  to  symbolism  its 
first  powerful  impulse ;  because  in  these  stages  man  first 
learns  to  act  as  a  force  distinct  from  his  surroundings,  and 
so  to  use  the  world  with  clear  knowledge  that  it  does  rep- 
resent his  own  ideal.  As  we  have  found  this  personal  ele- 
ment to  be  the  special  characteristic  of  the  Iranian  mind, 
we  are  prepared  to  find  symbolism  especially  prominent  in 
its  religion ;  and  in  this  we  are  nowise  disappointed.  The 
development  of  this  tendency  is  here  upon  a  scale  that  can 
be  called  no  less  than  typical  in  the  history  of  thought. 


20  ELEMENTS. 


THE    FIRE-SYMBOL. 


The  common  impression  that  the  rehgion  of  Zoroaster 
is  distinctively  the  rehgion  which  centres  in  the  Fire-sym- 
bol, is  erroneous.  Pyrolatry  is  common  to  all  religions. 
No  other  natural  element  so  perfectly  represents  supreme 
force  as  the  element  of  fire.  As  light,  it  is  the  universally 
recognized  symbol  of  truth ;  as  heat,  of  love ;  as  cosmic 
vital  energy,  of  conscious  being ;  as  astronomical  centre, 
of  unity;  as  all-producing  and  all-sustaining,  of  creative 
and  providential  care.  Like  personality  and  will,  it  mounts 
back  to  its  source,  and  will  not  be  cut  off  thence.  Pene- 
trating, stirring,  and  shaping  all  things,  it  is  the  image  of 
every  pure,  perfect,  irrepressible  power.  It  is  the  first- 
born of  creation  :  germ,  seed,  and  atom,  the  children  of  its 
play.  The  soul  itself  is  said  to  glance  down  from  heaven 
as  a  beam  of  light,  and  as  a  beam  to  return  whence  it  came. 
For  all  tribes  from  India  to  Peru,  the  fire  burning  on  the 
altar,  fed  by  the  purest  and  most  vigilant  that  it  may  never 
become  extinct,  is  the  type  of  security,  immortality,  and 
adequate  care.  Into  this  holy  hearth-flame  {Hestia), 
parent  of  the  city,  the  homestead,  the  shrine,  awful  to  gods 
and  inviolable  by  men,  no  defiled  thing  shall  enter.  For 
the  Greek,  the  solemnity  of  oaths  sat  there  to  rule  Olym- 
pus itself;  for  the  Roman,  the  guardianship  of  the  State. 
The  Vedic  Aryan  saw  Agni  rise  from  his  primitive  fire- 
churn,  to  bring  down  the  blessings  of  the  gods,  the  flame 
his  living  tongue,  his  leaping  steed,  swift  as  thought  to 
make  earth  and  heaven  one.  The  Turanian  Magi  of  Media 
adored  the  same  element.  How  the  Semite's  passion 
played  all  its  keys  on  this  element  of  fire,  —  Assyrian, 
Phoenician,  Hebrew,  —  in  symbols  of  creation,  preservation, 
destruction,  in  sexual  and  ascetic  rage,  in  a  self-abandon- 
ment which  could  find  no  fitter  image  than  passing  his 
children  through  the  flame  !     His  Jahveh  seals  covenants 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  21 

with  men  by  moving  in  a  smoky  flame  between  the  parted 
offerings;  ^  burns  in  Sinai,  in  the  desert  pillar,  in  the  face 
of  Moses,  over  the  Ark.  He  is  not  only  a  fire  that  devours 
the  sacrifice,  but  a  blaze  no  man  can  see  and  live.  To 
Christianity  he  descends  in  the  shining  cloud,  the  trans- 
figured countenance,  the  judgment-fires,  that  attend  its 
mythological  Christ.  Nor  can  Jesus  find  any  symbol  of 
the  coming  of  "  his  kingdom "  more  suitable  than  the 
lightning's  flash  from  east  to  west.  With  what  ease  and 
grace  this  type  absorbs  all  others !  "  Allah,"  says  the 
Koran,  "  is  a  flame  burning  like  a  star,  as  a  lamp  set  in 
pure  glass  within  a  niche."  ^  "  Ibrahim,"  says  El  Masudi, 
"  having  worshipped  the  stars  and  the  sun,  and  grown  to 
the  higher  worship  of  Allah,  was  thrown  into  flames  by  the 
giant  Nimrod,  but  the  flames  refused  to  burn,  and  not  a 
fire  could  be  kindled  anywhere  on  earth  that  day."  ^ 
"  Father  and  mother  of  all  gods,"  says  the  Aztec  hymn, 
"  is  the  fire-god  (lightning)  ;  a  bird  with  gleaming  wings  in 
the  centre  of  the  world."  The  modern  Kirghis  Tartars  so 
venerate  fire  that  they  will  not  spit  into  it.*  The  tribes  of 
Kafiristan  cast  their  offerings  through  flames.^  From  the 
simple  faith  of  the  Iroquois,  that  when  the  tribal  fire  went 
out  the  tribe  would  perish,  to  the  refined  myth  of  Prome- 
theus, evolved  from  the  primitive  mystery  of  the  generation 
of  flame  by  rubbing  two  bits  of  wood,  into  clear  and  full 
expression  of  the  pains  and  penalties  under  which  social 
progress  is  won  for  man,  —  through  the  endless  maze  of 
tender  and  yearning  superstitions  associated  with  produc- 
ing and  preserving  the  element  of  fire,  runs  the  conscious- 
ness of  mankind  that  this  element  is  the  centre  of  social 
relations,  the  fountain  of  home,  of  art,  of  culture,  of  civ- 
ilization. And  so  poetry  and  religion  anticipated  the 
crowning  recognition  by  science  that  life  and  growth  are 

^  Gen.  XV.  17.  *  Sura  xxiv.  '  Meadows  of  Gold,  etc.,  p.  83. 

*  Hutton  :  Central  Asia,  p.  325.  *  Central  Asia,  p.  421. 


22  ELEMENTS. 

but  the  extension  of  the  solar  fires.  So  continuous  is 
man's  organic  rapport  with  fire,  that  it  is  difiicult  to  draw 
the  hne  where  his  direct,  instinctive  fear,  awe,  or  love 
passes  into  conscious  use  of  the  symbol  to  express  his 
feelings  or  thoughts ;  still  harder  to  mark  where  the  per- 
sonal imagery  reaches  up  into  the  sphere  of  pure  imagina- 
tion, and  deals  in  essential  relations  and  creative  laws.  But 
that  this  one  visible  symbol  sweeps  the  whole  compass  of 
human  experience  in  its  plastic  power,  that  fire  is  the  very 
speech  and  garment  of  the  spirit  of  man,  is  sure. 

It  should  seem  more  practicable  to  distinguish  the  stage 
of  growth  in  which  fire  as  a  mere  element  is  the  all- 
absorbing  symbol,  from,  that  in  which  the  religious  sense 
is  concentrated  on  its  more  distinct  and  dominant  forms, 
especially  such  as  the  sun  and  stars.  Solar  mythology 
would  thus  mark  a  stage  beyond  the  primitive  forms  of 
pyrolatry,  as  representing  a  distincter  reference  to  personal 
meanings  and  an  escape  from  the  vagueness  of  unconscious 
instinct.  The  oldest  Aryan  fire-gods  do  in  fact  flow  into 
each  other,  as  if  their  common  symbol  merely  expressed 
those  transitions  of  feeling  which  in  the  rude  man  refuse  to 
be  held  in  prescribed  or  permanent  conditions.  Neither 
in  Bactria,  nor  in  Vedic  India,  more  than  in  Turan,  nor 
even  afterwards  in  the  Persia  of  Herodotus,  do  they  take, 
like  individuals,  to  dwelling  in  temples.  Their  simple 
altars  rise  on  mountain-tops,  in  the  open  spaces  of  light, 
where  sun  and  stars  are  but  portions  of  the  all-sufficient 
elemental  life  of  fire.  The  sun,  on  the  contrary,  has  always 
his  shrine,  usually  his  human  image.  In  the  terrible  arrows 
of  his  beams,  in  the  majesty  of  his  rolling  orb,  and  in  his 
battle  with  the  clouds  and  storms,  he  penetrates  man's 
consciousness  like  a  tremendous  will :  he  must  be  received 
through  some  softening  mediating  image,  in  some  walled 
space  where  his  splendors  shall  be  veiled.  The  moon  and 
stars  also  require  temples,  images,  and  human  mediators, 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  2$ 

for  the  opposite  reason  that  they  seem  so  far  away,  while 
yet  exercising  a  control  whose  grand,  silent  mystery  man 
ever  yearns  to  penetrate.  Hence  the  mythology  of  nations 
like  the  Irano-Persian,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  in  whom  the 
personal  life  has  been  developed,  centres  in  the  sun's 
course;  and  the  adventures  of  their  gods  are  even  trace- 
able through  all  the  mazes  of  Protean  names  and  dramatic 
situations,  back  to  his  all-embracing  movement,  the  stages 
and  strifes  of  his  diurnal  march,  the  alternation  of  day  with 
night  crowned  with  moon  and  stars.  In  this  relation  be- 
tween astrolatry  in  its  largest  sense  and  the  progress  of 
man  to  distinct  personal  consciousness,  it  is  perhaps  pos- 
sible to  find  historic  vestiges  of  two  distinct  stages.  Much 
ingenuity  has  been  spent,  and  not  without  success,  at  least 
for  the  study  of  Semitic  races,  on  proving  that  the  moon 
and  star  cult  is  older  than  that  of  the  sun,  —  representing 
the  nomadic,  as  that  does  the  more  developed  life  of  the 
agriculturist  and  townsman.  To  the  wanderer  of  the 
steppes,  night  brings  coolness  and  relief;  to  the  settled 
laborer,  the  sun's  bounty  is  more  conspicuous ;  and  it  is 
argued  in  detail  that  the  sun-myths  are  always  myths  of 
higher  civilization  than  those  of  the  moon  and  stars,  with 
which  they  are  historically  in  conflict,  as  the  war  of  nomad 
and  settled  laborer  is  the  standing  strife  of  the  early  world.^ 
That  the  real  and  historic  order  of  progress  is  here  caught 
sight  of,  is  probably  true. 

But  though  solar  myths  may  represent  a  social  advance 
in  comparison  with  lunar,  especially  among  the  Semitic 
races,  we  can  hardly  explain  the  star-worship  of  the  west- 
ern portion  of  Iran,  as  compared  with  the  pure  pyrolatry 
of  the  eastern,  upon  the  same  theory  of  advance  in  per- 
sonal self-consciousness.  In  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates, 
where  cities  and  cultures  supervened  upon  the  nomadic 
life,  astrolatry  was  a  natural  tradition,  passing  on  into  those 

1  Goldziher :  Mythology  among  the  Hebrews. 


24  ELEMENTS. 

astronomical  studies  in  which,  as  all  writers  agree,  the 
Chaldeans,  if  not  founders,^  were  at  least  typical  represent- 
atives in  the  ancient  world.  That  their  civilization  was  so 
self-conscious  and  intellectual,  may  well  explain  the  close 
connection  of  their  celestial  symbolism  with  personal  qual- 
ities and  emotions.  But  does  the  less  concentrated  pyrol- 
atry  of  eastern  Iran,  which  was  developed  into  the  religion 
of  Zoroaster,  imply  a  lack  of  personal  self-conscious  will? 
Our  whole  investigation  will  be  found  to  show  the  con- 
trary. If  I  am  not  mistaken,  the  explanation  of  the  differ- 
ence between  these  two  lines  of  symbolism  lies  in  the  more 
vigorous  sense  of  liberty,  individual  and  tribal,  which  dis- 
tinguished the  eastern  from  the  western  Iranians,  and  more 
particularly  the  Iranian  Aryans  from  the  Turanians  and 
Semites.  In  the  former  class  of  tribes,  the  will  claimed 
ideal  rights  for  itself;  while  in  the  latter,  its  peculiar  inten- 
sity, in  passion  and  desire,  which  made  self-control  and 
self-reliance  impossible,  drove  it  to  worship  such  ideal 
rights  in  some  supreme  authority,  whether  in  God  or  man. 
Thus  the  western  Iranians  fell  under  vast  imperial  or  relig- 
ious tyrannies.  The  eastern  tribes  worshipped  a  person- 
ality in  their  gods  and  heroes,  reflected  from  their  own ; 
and  therefore  dependent  on  their  free  spirit,  rather  than 
suppressing  it.  This  fundamental  distinction  is  of  the 
highest  importance,  and  will,  I  think,  be  made  fully  evi- 
dent in  our  future  studies.  It  goes  back,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  the  earliest  free  Aryan  or  Indo-Iranian  life;^  on  the 
other,  to  the  material  and  subservient  civilization  of  the  old 
Turanian  and  Cushite  races,  and  to  Semitic  self-abandon- 
ment to  the  passions. 

On  this  difference  of  character  is  based  the  contrast  in 
the  fire-symbolism  of  eastern  and  Avestern  Iran,  not  on 
any  such  distinction  as  that  of  nomadic  from  settled  life. 
The  Bactrian  Aryans  were  led  by  an  inherent  individual 

1  As  Pliny  calls  them.  ^  See  the  author's  India,  chapter  on  "  Primitive  Aryas." 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  2$ 

energy,  which  kept  them  broken  up  into  heroic  tribes, 
ever  standing  for  their  rights,  and  made  the  heroic  element 
the  all-controlhng  one  in  their  mythology.  Their  moral 
nerve  found  its  adequate  symbol  in  the  free  flash  of  fire, 
rather  than  in  any  permanent  or  fixed  image,  like  the  sun, 
moon,  or  stars.  Fire  itself,  in  its  pure  universality  and 
freedom,  was  more  to  them  than  any  such  exclusive  em- 
bodiment, moored,  as  it  were,  in  space  and  form.  The  very 
multitude  of  forms  and  names  under  which  they  celebrated 
it  in  their  later  ritual,  indicates  the  freedom  in  which  the 
symbol  moved.  It  seems  as  if  this  powerful  personality 
pursued  its  visible  counterpart  throughout  nature,  seizing 
all  possible  transformations  of  its  substance  for  its  own 
purposes,  resolved  to  use  the  symbol,  not  to  be  used  by  it. 
The  Zoroastrian  meant  by  fire  whatever  was  noblest  in 
personal  will ;  and  would  not  allow  that  it  ever  destroyed 
life,  even  when  one  was  burned  to  death.^  It  must  serve 
life,  not  destroy  it. 

The  pure  pyrolatry  of  the  East  was  not  therefore  a  mere 
crude  indeterminate  fear  before  the  element  of  fire,  but 
rather  that  intuition  of  its  essential  symbolic  relations 
which  could  take  up  any  visible  form  or  phase  of  it  at 
will,  and  put  religious  significance  into  all.  Even  in  the 
Vedas  the  freedom  of  choice,  now  described,  begins  to 
limit  itself;  and  while  the  simple  fire-churn  is  still  the 
centre  of  faith  and  awe,  hymns  to  the  sun  occupy  a  very 
large  place  in  the  imagination  of  the  poet.  There  can  be 
no  question  but  that  in  the  oldest  heroic  legends  of  Persia, 
which  the  Shah-Nameh  has  preserved,  and  whose  leading 
figures  —  Yima,  Thraetona,  Keregagpa,  etc.,  with  the  con- 
flict against  the  dragon  king  Zohak  —  are  celebrated  in  the 
Avesta  itself,  we  have  transformations  of  very  old  Aryan 
symbols  of  the  solar  fire,  in  its  visible  powers  and  relations, 
its  strife  with  the  rain-cloud  and  the  night.^     It  is  equally 

^  Vendidad,  v.  30.        ^  See  Darmesteter :  Ormazd  ct  A  hriman,  as  referred  to  further  on. 


26  ELEMENTS. 

probable  that  the  manifold  labors  and  sufiferings  of  heroes 
like  Rustem  and  Siavaksh  belong  in  their  original  forms  to 
the  same  solar  cycle,  and  correspond  with  those  of  the 
Greek  or  Tyrian  Heracles  (Dionysus).  This  transforma- 
tion of  the  fire-symbol  into  heroic,  rather  than  contempla- 
tive or  quiescent,  types  of  divinity  illustrates  very  forcibly 
that  freedom  from  oppressive  limitations  which  we  have 
already  ascribed  to  the  energetic  personality  of  the  eastern 
Iranians.  The  sun  was  their  typical  hero  in  the  fields  of 
heaven.  It  was  Ormuzd  casting  Ahriman  into  his  native 
darkness.  The  later  Persians  swore  by  the  sun.  Its  crys- 
tal image  hung  in  the  royal  tent,  and  the  king  was  called  by 
its  name.  "From  the  sun,"  says  the  Avesta,  "  are  all  things 
sought  that  man  can  desire."  Through  the  wliolc  history 
of  Aryan  faith  runs  also  the  fire-symbolism  of  Mithra, 
beginning  in  Vedic  vagueness,  as  the  kindled  fire,^  but 
concentrating  gradually  in  itself  all  noble  and  spiritual 
meanings,  recognized  by  the  psalmists,  which  could  be 
represented  by  the  sun,  and  especially  the  sovereignty  of 
truth  and  justice;  till,  mingling  with  Chaldean  elements, 
it  is  all  gathered  up  into  the  wonderful  Mithra- Yasht  of 
the  Avesta,  unsurpassed  in  its  symbolic  expression  of 
duty,  love,  and  power  in  the  life  of  man.  All  the  Greek 
authors  identify  Mithra  with  the  sun.  Nor  do  the  stars,  in- 
dividually or  as  constellations,  fail  of  honor  in  the  Avesta, 
—  all  the  conscious  functions  of  stellar  service  freely  mov- 
ing around  the  element  of  fire  as  their  common  and  central 
force. 

The  Iraniaa  Aryan  was  specially  gifted  w'ith  the  sense  of 
immediate  relation  between  ideas  and  things  :  his  main  con- 
cern was  to  bring  the  body  into  correlation  with  the  mind. 
This  was  the  sum  of  Avestan  ethics,  "  pure  mind  in  pure 
body."  Not  mind  here,  body  there ;  not  mind  above,  body 
below;  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  alone  living  by  its  own 

1  RiS-Veda,  v.  3,  1-3.    Muir,  pt.  iv.  p.  6S. 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  2/ 

force,  but  the  one  in  the  other,  representing  itself  by  the 
other.  Therefore  he  thought  and  hved  in  symbols  of  con- 
scious will.  Every  natural  form  that  could  possibly  reflect 
his  motive-energy  took  a  typical  personality  for  his  imagi- 
nation. No  equal  gift  of  personifying  abstract  qualities  and 
ideas  in  visible  images,  with  that  displayed  in  the  Avesta, 
appears  in  any  other  Bible  of  the  world.^  Even  the  latest 
construction  of  the  religious  cycle,  the  Zrvan-akarana,  or 
"  Time  without  Bounds  "  of  the  Sassanian  Persians,  was 
the  development  of  a  mere  category  of  existence  into  the 
supreme  personal  source  of  good  and  evil.  The  seven 
Ai/iesha-cpentas  are  mostly  abstractions  turned  into  gods. 
Every  religious  name  like  Haoma,  VoJm-mano,  Ako-vtano, 
is  at  once  a  personal  force  and  the  thing  which  suggests 
or  typifies  such  a  force.^  So  with  beggary,  treachery, 
poverty,  winter,  sleep,  desire,  the  evil  eye,  pride,  contempt, 
disease,  etc.*^  The  whole  cosmos,  in  its  multiplicity  of  ac- 
tive powers,  was  subjected  to  apotheosis  in  the  same  way. 
But  through  all  this  specialism  pyrolatry  itself,  the  love 
of  the  fire-element  itself  and  for  itself,  retains  its  control. 
The  Avestan  priest  is  AtJirava,  "  provided  with  fire." 
Down  to  the  present  day  the  Parsis,  like  their  fathers, 
regard  the  fire-altar  {Atesh-gdJi),  or  ever-burning  naphtha- 
spring,  the  hearth  of  their  faith.  They  discern  Ahuramazda 
himself,  not  in  the  solar  orb  exclusively,  nor  in  the  starry 
heavens,  nor  in  the  lightning,  but  \x\firc:  this  is  "  his  son," 
his  "  first-born,"  his  "  image,"  his  manifested  self*  To  fire, 
the  Persian  kings  addressed  their  prayer  before  battle ;  on 
their  death  it  was  solemnly  extinguished.  For  whatever 
purposes  used,  even  in  domestic  life,  in  labor,  or  in  art,  it 
must  be  brought  after  a  certain  period  to  a  holy  place,  as 
belonging  to  Ahuramazda.^ 

1  See,  for  illustration,  Spiegel's  Eranische  Alterihumskimde,  ii.  i. 
-  See  Bleeck's  Va(na,  ix.  note  i. 

3  'SifiS.  Eranische  Alterthuinsku>ide,\\.  135;   P'endiddd,  iCvx..  140;  ii.  116. 
*  Ya(na,  iv.  52.  ''  Vendidad,  viii. 


28  ELEMENTS. 

"  Offering  and  praise  I  vow  to  thee,  O  Fire,  son  of  Ahura  !  Be 
thou  honored  in  the  dwelHngs  of  men  !  Blessed  the  man  who  con- 
stantly brings  the  fuel  and  the  implements  of  service  to  thee  ! 

"  Mayest  thou  burn  evermore  in  this  house,  through  the  long  time, 
to  the  resurrection  day  !  Give  me  swift  brightness,  food,  and  means 
of  life  !  Give  me  wisdom  and  prosperity,  and  readiness  of  speech  ! 
Give  my  soul  sense  and  understanding  ever  growing;  courage,  the 
ready  foot,  and  swift  to  move  !  Give  vigilance,  abundant  posterity, 
pure  and  able  to  bless  my  house,  my  clan,  my  province,  my  country  ! 
Give  me  knowledge  of  the  better  world,  of  the  shining  abode  !  May 
I  reach  good  reward,  and  good  name,  and  my  soul's  bliss  !  "^ 

Other  symbols  had  Httle  value,  save  as  partaking  of  this, 
or  of  what  this  signified.  What  attracted  Iranian  imagina- 
tion was  not  any  fixed  form  or  function,  but  pure  energy 
of  life  and  growth,  which,  as  the  substance  of  personality 
v/ithin,  sought  its  own  fit  outward  type  in  the  free  element 
of  fire.  All  its  splendid  symbolism  meant  this  unquench- 
able ardor  of  desire  and  will.  There  was  the  Cypress,  life 
irrepressible,  flame-like  in  shape  and  in  persistent  upward 
pressure.  It  shall  be  type  of  immortality.  Zarathustra 
plants  it  before  the  fire-temple,  and  when  it  has  grown 
niajestic,  surrounds  it  with  a  golden  palace  like  a  sheath 
of  flame,  and  is  called  to  ascend  from  its  boughs  to  Para- 
dise.^ There  was  the  Pine-cone,  flame-like  again,  and  from 
perennial  fires  of  growth.  This  shall  be  the  Athrava's  type 
of  life,  which  he  bears  to  the  altar-service.  Both  these  are 
forms  of  that  clearest  symbol  of  life  and  progress,  the  Tree; 
from  which  man  and  woman  are  said  in  Iranian  mythology 
to  have  sprung,  the  two  from  one  stem.^  The  Haoma,  a.t 
once  divine  plant  and  beautiful  youth,  is  type  of  the  living 
and  saving  Word,  bringing  strength  and  joy  alike  to  soul 
and  sense,  making  the  poor  and  rich  equal.^  It  grows  in 
the  sea  that  flows  with  life  fountains,  where  birds  scatter 
the  seeds  of  life,  and  the  sharp-eyed,  swift-winged  eagle  of 

'  Va^na,  Ixi.  ^  See  Humboldt's  Cosmos  (quoting  Firdflsi),  ii.  n.  129. 

8  Bundchesh.  *  Kaf«a,  x. 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  29 

wisdom  (Simurgh)  and  the  watchful  fish  protect  it  from 
harm.^  Was  it  strange  that  the  morning  cock  and  the 
night-guarding  dog  should  be  associated  as  types  with 
these  practical  energies?  Especially  was  the  bull  sacred 
to  this  sense  of  vital  forces ;  and  his  "  soul  "  pours  out 
prayers  to  Ahura  for  protection  against  the  outrages  of 
evil  powers.^  Above  all,  the  Ferotirs  {FravasJns),  ideal 
types  of  the  souls  of  men,  hovering  above  their  heads,  were 
adored  for  the  glory  of  their  light,  —  pure  bodies  of  flame, 
and  defenders  of  man  against  evil;  and  their  title  signifies 
victory  and  growth.^ 

Instinctively  the  Persians  transferred  to  their  supreme 
God  that  Assyrian  symbol  of  deity,  the  winged  circle 
.enclosing  a  human  figure  in  vigorous  action.  The  bull 
with  open  wings,  the  eagle  with  hawk's  head,  the  four- 
winged  cherubim  aad  wheels  of  the  prophet's  vision,* 
were  all  suited  to  the  vital  personality  of  the  Iranian  mind, 
whether  of  Aryan  or  Semitic,  western  or  eastern  origin ; 
and  while  the  monuments  show  how  readily  these  were 
accepted  by  the  Persian  "  fire-worshipper "  from  races 
more  inclined  than  himself  to  fix  the  symbol  in  elaborate 
forms  of  art,  they  all  betray  limitations  in  the  expression 
of  nerve-energy  when  contrasted  with  the  unconfined 
ethereal  flame  with  which  he  had  already  satisfied  his 
demand  for  freedom. 

Such  was  the  imagery,  aesthetic  and  religious,  with  which 
the  eastern  Iranians  lifted  nature  to  the  height  of  their  own 
intense  life  of  aspiration  and  will ;  such  the  opening  stage 
of  those  forms  of  civilization  Avhich  have  followed  Iran  in 
giving  the  same  symbolic  meaning,  in  a  great  variety  of 


^  Ynsht  xii.  i  ;  xiv.  2g  ;  xvi.  7.     Spiegel's  Avesin,  iii.  xiv. 

2  It  is  liis  seed  that  makes  Nature's  fertility.  It  is  probable  that  the  symbol  goes  back  to 
the  old  Aryan  storm-cloud.  The  seed  of  the  bull  is  the  dew.  (Vashl,  vii.  4. )  The  cry  to 
Ormuzd  is  the  roar  of  the  storm  conflict.     Darmesteter:  Oriiinzd  et  A  hritnan,  ]i.  151. 

•  See  Neriosengh.     Schwenck,  Die  Mythologie  der  Perser.  p.  314. 

*  The  angels  guarding  Paradise,  in  Genesis,  were  these  Chaldeo-Assyrian  creatures. 


30  ELEMENTS. 

directions,  to  their  whole  social  existence.  So  that  we  are 
here  met  by  the  spontaneous  and  child-like  poetry  of  the 
grandly  awakening  human  consciousness  of  personal  Will, 
bearing  in  its  bosom  the  germs  of  three  thousand  years  of 
progress.  Here  are  no  mere  figures  of  speech  selected  by 
the  understanding,  no  allegories  consciously  constructed, 
but  natural  correspondences  intuitively  recognized.  This 
most  responsive  symbol,  which  stirs  and  waves  and  flashes 
to  heaven  with  the  motion  of  the  flame  within  the  soul,  is 
the  very  tongue  of  prayer,  the  very  garment  of  praise. 

We  may  theorize  as  we  will  on  the  organic  relations 
between  Iranian  nerve-force  and  its  physical  environment. 
This  at  least  is  certain :  Iran  was  indeed  the  true  fire- 
temple  of  Nature,  bespread  with  naphtha  springs,  meteoric, 
lights,  and  burning  mountains.  The  mystery  of  the  flame 
brooded  over  it  and  burst  from  its  bosom.  To  this  day 
the  hot  winds  parch  the  dry  grass  till  they  want  but  a 
spark  to  fan  it  into  flame ;  and  the  stars  shine  through  the 
clear  atmosphere  with  a  splendor  that  seems  articulate  with 
spiritual  meaning  and  relation.  No  religious  symbolism 
could  seem  more  natural  or  imperative  on  such  a  region 
than  that  of  fire.  Yet,  as  we  have  seen,  special  race-quali- 
ties greatly  contributed  to  the  result.  We  have  seen  that 
the  Persians  absorbed  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  imagery 
without  subordinating  their  passion  for  the  pure  fire-sym- 
bol to  any  of  these  distinctive  models.  The  reason  was, 
that  they  represented  the  Iranian  idealism  of  Will  in  a  freer 
and  more  personal  form  than  did  the  nations  farther  west. 
These  last,  directed  by  Semitic  self-abandonment  to  sen- 
suous impulse,  came  to  worship  will  in  the  form  of  great 
religious  and  political  systems  of  arbitrary  power.  In  the 
eastern  tribes,  the  preponderance  of  Aryan  energy  pro- 
duced a  high  degree  of  individuality.  The  Aryan  held 
fast  to  the  personal  pole  of  the  symbolic  process,  and  used 
the  external  object  as  representative  of  his  own  force.    The 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  3 1 

Semite  buried  himself  in  the  physical  side  of  the  same 
process,  and  suftered  its  organized  power  to  master  him. 
The  slavish  sensualism  of  these  Semitic  cults  was  illus- 
trated by  the  golden  bed  of  Bel,  spread  in  the  temple  at 
Babylon  by  his  priesthood,  for  the  sacrifice  of  virginity 
to  their  worship  of  the  senses.  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
chambers  of  imagery  had  become  the  synonym  or  type  of 
sensual  idolatry  in  the  East,  when  the  Persian  entered  them 
from  his  rude  mountains.  Upon  them,  as  upon  Egyptian 
polytheistic  rites  and  animal  worship,  he  came  down  in 
fires  of  judgment.  He  was  the  iconoclast  of  religious  sym- 
bols. In  the  name  of  his  "living  light"  he  smote  down 
the  bull  of  Egypt  and  blasted  the  couch  of  Bel.  He  sub- 
stituted for  the  older  gods  of  concrete  forms  ideal  genii  and 
immortal  powers,  —  unseen  hosts  warring  for  principles  in 
the  awful  names  of  good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong.  He 
suffered  no  name  to  stand  between  him  and  the  Almighty 
Spirit,  whose  son  and  messenger  was  the  living  universal 
flame. ^  In  this  claim  for  the  free  personality  of  man  in  his 
attitude  towards  forms  of  the  ideal,  the  eastern  Aryan 
stood  alone.  Even  the  Hebrew  escaped  the  common 
slavery  of  the  Semite  to  sensuous  symbols  through  his 
prophets  only,  and  there  only  partially.  When  his  fetich- 
ism  and  Moloch  worship  had  been  developed  into  Mono- 
theism by  an  intense  nationality,  even  its  intense  sorrows, 
and  the  sharp  disciplines  of  its  contact  with  other  races 
and  faiths,  could  not  bring  Jahvism  to  recognize  the 
rights  of  the  personal  Will.  Under  the  absolutism  of  its 
God,  the  demand  for  knowledge,  the  right  of  ethnic  sym- 
pathy and  expansion  became  almost  null.  In  his  nobler 
elements,    this    all-mastering   personality    represented    the 

1  Nothing,  I  think,  can  be  more  erroneous  than  the  statement  of  Rapp  {Zeitschr.  d. 
Deuisch-  JilorgeiU.  GeseUsch.  xix  )  that  Zoroastrianism  never  rose  beyond  the  standpoint  of 
immediate  naturalism,  while  Buddhism  and  Christianity  became  universal  religions.  If,  as 
he  says,  Zoroastrianism  was  only  fitted  for  Iran  (p.  37),  this  was  true  only  of  its  peculiar  form, 
not  of  its  essence 


32  ELEMENTS. 

authority  of  conscience  as  well  as  will ;  but  it  was  con- 
science raised  into  a  terrible  theocracy,  in  which  human 
freedom  was  systematically  sunk  to  that  degree  that  a 
religious  reaction  to  the  purely  inward  law  of  individual- 
ity, without  external  symbol  of  the  earlier  kinds,  became 
a  moral  necessity:  and  hence  Essenism  and  Christianity. 
But  Christianity,  itself  Semitic,  substituted  a  body  of 
equally  dominating  personal  symbols  for  the  old  institu- 
tional or  legal  ones,  and  the  authority  of  the  Christ  became 
as  exacting  a  mastership  as  that  of  the  law.  An  infinite 
Ruler  of  the  World,  a  Jahveh  conceived  as  Father  no  less 
than  Judge,  commissions  a  Messiah  to  save  the  world  that 
should  believe  in  Him,  or  his  Son;  to  establish  conditions 
of  salvation, — moral,  spiritual,  ecclesiastical.  And  this  per- 
sonal government  of  the  Christ,  this  continuation  of  the 
objective  Semitic  monarchy,  so  controlled  the  later  dog- 
matics of  Christianity  that  the  more  or  less  Aryan  element 
fell  into  its  track;  and  its  exaltation  of  the  man  Jesus  into 
Godhood  was  far  from  lifting  the  human  personality  as 
such  into  similar  spiritual  relations,  and  so  affirming  its 
proper  freedom.  This  exclusivcness  of  the  Christ-symbol 
the  real  Aryan  element,  embodied  in  science  and  free 
thought,  has  been  nearly  two  thousand  years  in  over- 
coming. 

For  the  Persian,  the  individual  was  the  living  flame  of 
Ahura,  in  full  and  pure  communion  with  His  purpose,  and 
like  Him  master  of  the  fulness  of  the  fire-symbol  and  its 
power  to  consume  all  the  evil  in  the  world.  Ahura  is 
indeed  person,  in  the  fullest  sense.  He  creates  the  world 
by  His  word,  like  Jahveh,  and  all  theories  of  cosmic  self- 
development  are  wholly  foreign  to  the  Persian  as  to  the 
Hebrew  or  Christian  mind.  But  the  human  is  not  so  lost 
in  Him  as  in  the  terrible  Jahveh,  whom,  none  can  see  and 
live ;  before  whom  human  will  is  blasphemy,  and  the  sole 
right  attitude  of  man  that  of  prostrate  abdication  of  every 


THE   FIRE-SYMBOL.  33 

claim  and  right  of  his  own.  Ahura  is  no  destroyer  per  se, 
no  mixture  of  good  and  evil,  but  the  pure  essence  of  good. 
It  is  true,  too,  that  Zarathustra  was  regarded  as  a  mediator; 
but  it  was  without  touching  his  purely  human  nature:  he 
is  treated  by  Ahura  simply  as  one  among  the  children  of 
men. 

The  Persian,  in  short,  was  an  influx  of  human  self-asser- 
tion ;  and  the  religion  in  which  his  energy  took  shape  was 
a  flow  of  spontaneous  inward  force.  When  the  inevitable 
period  of  organization  came,  absorbing  much  of  this  free 
spirit,  and  the  Athrava  became  merged  in  the  Magus  (prob- 
ably first  in  Media,  then  in  Babylonia),  the  original  impulse 
revived  in  the  reaction  by  which  the  Magi  were  suppressed 
and  the  pure  worship  of  Ahura  restored  by  the  great 
Darius.  But  of  course  the  tendency  of  time,  ritual,  organ- 
ization, and  traditional  forms,  in  Western  Asia,  was  to  sink 
this  freedom  of  the  fire-symbol  in  positive  heliolatry. 
When  the  sun,  as  personal  symbol,  usurped  the  place  of 
the  pure  flame  of  Ahura,  Iranian  genius  had  degenerated. 
This  is  evident  in  the  national  degradation  down  to  Sas- 
sanian  times.  Persian  edicts  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies commanded  that  the  sun  should  be  held  the  highest 
deity,  while  water  and  fire  should  have  inferior  service.^ 
Christians  were  persecuted  for  refusing  to  perform  these 
rites  in  Armenia.^  In  Rome,  Julian  centred  his  revival  of 
Paganism  in  the  philosophy  which  permitted  him  to  call 
the  sun  the  living  image  of  God,  and  even  God  himself'^ 
But  nothing  could  so  fully  indicate  the  disappearance  of 
the  pure  fire-symbol,  and  its  specially  Persian  type  of  per- 
sonality, as  the  mad  freak  of  Elagabalus,  who  worshipped 
the  sun  under  the  form  of  a  black,  conical  stone.^  The  old 
flame-symbol  had  meant  a  spiritual  power,  warring  against 

1  Act.  Martyr.,  quoted  in  Rapp,  Zeiisckr.  d.  Deuisck.  Morgenl.  Geselhch.  xix.  72. 
^  History  of  Vartan,  by  Bishop  Elisaeus  (translated  by  Newman),  p.  9. 
°   Gibbon,  chap,  xxiii. 
*  Ibid.,  chap.  vi. 

3 


34  ELEMENTS. 

evil  spirits  in  Nature  and  man.  It  did  not  so  much  seek 
to  put  God  into  shape  for  man,  as  to  put  man  in  the  way 
of  participating  in  God,  and  aiding  His  will  and  work.  It 
was  the  poetry  of  aspiration,  not  the  prostration  of  self- 
abandonment.  Its  deity  was  purpose,  will,  principle ;  too 
free  and  spiritual  to  need  temples,  too  personal  to  want  the 
flesh  of  sacrifice  when  he  could  receive  the  soul  of  the  vic- 
tim.^ Its  construction  of  special  rituals  and  statues  grew 
only  by  contact  with  Semitic  civilizations.^  Nothing  can 
be  more  free  from  ceremonialism  than  the  older  Gathas  of 
the  Avesta,  the  earliest  literature  of  the  faith.  The  Per- 
sian turned  the  gods  of  the  West  out  of  doors  to  confront 
Nature,  and  if  they  could  not  breathe  its  fresh  air,  to  die. 

*  Strabo,  chap.  xv. 

'  In  later  times  statues  were  common  in  Persia.  (See  Clem.  Homil.  ix.)  It  is  an  ab- 
surd theory  of  Spiegel,  that  Persian  hostility  to  images  came  from  Semitism !  (Erd?i. 
Alterth.  i.  393.) 


II. 

THE   MORAL   SENSE. 


THE  MORAL  SENSE. 

ELEMENTS   OF   ITS    CULTURE. 

THE  beginning  of  personality,  —  in  other  words,  the 
consciousness  of  self  as  distinct  from  its  surround- 
ings, —  is,  in  a  special  sense,  the  advent  of  the  Will  as  a 
positive  power.  It  opens  the  way  for  transforming  inward 
into  outward  force,  ideas  into  things.  The  mental  habit 
of  combining  the  two  sides  of  our  being,  making  ideal  use 
of  actual  materials,  is  the  condition  of  progress.  Neither 
an  individual,  nor  a  race,  nor  humanity  itself,  advances  by 
any  other  method  than  that  of  creating  symbols  of  its 
own  ideal  experience  in  the  world  of  the  senses,  through 
the  energy  of  personal  will.  Of  this  energy  the  Iranians 
were  the  typical  race  of  the  early  world,  heralds  of  the  will- 
power which  continues  to  transform  Nature  into  the  image 
of  humanity.  The  rare  union  of  sensuousness  with  ideality, 
of  physical  susceptibility  with  personal  force  and  earnest- 
ness, which  we  shall  find  to  have  distinguished  the  Persians 
from  the  races  around  them,  is  the  key  to  their  fire-cidtics, 
the  form  of  religious  symbolism  most  significant  of  these 
qualities.  Zoroastrianism  makes  this  element  the  ideal 
bond  of  man  with  the  universe. 

Our  metaphysical  analysis,  then,  explains  the  symbolism 
which  so  strongly  marks  the  Iranian  religions.  But  sym- 
bolism is  not  the  only  force  which  awakes  into  energy  at 
the  advent  of  the  conscious  will.  Of  course,  this  epoch  is 
the  true  birth  of  the  Moral  Sense  also :  not  of  conscience 
absolutely,  but  of  moral  choice  as  a  self-conscious  and 


38  ELEMENTS. 

creative  force.  Thus  we  should  expect  from  the  personal 
qualities  of  the  eastern  Iranians  that  their  ideal  would 
centre  in  moral  conflict  and  discipline.  It  was  in  the  fer- 
ment of  their  motive-energies  that  they  learned  the  pro- 
found meaning  of  moral  choice,  —  the  balance  of  the  soul 
and  the  world  'twixt  good  and  evil.  The  contrast  and  con- 
flict of  powers  in  Nature,  which  had  vaguely  impressed  the 
desires  and  fears  of  mankind,  were  for  them  drawn  more 
sharply  by  the  battle  of  moral  forces  within.  The  con- 
science had  awaked  with  the  will,  and  shared  its  ardor. 
When  we  consider  the  strength  of  their  impulse  to  put  the 
ideal  into  visible  and  natural  life,  we  shall  not  be  surprised 
at  the  part  played  by  moral  protest  and  reaction,  even  in 
warring  against  the  outward  obstacles  in  its  way.  The 
polarities  of  light  and  dark,  on  which  the  order  of  Na- 
ture turns,  embodied  and  reflected  this  strife  between  the 
senses  and  the  spirit.  This  was  symbolism  in  its  ideal 
form.  The  war  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  was  a  war,  not 
of  embodied  beings,  still  less  of  institutions,  but  of  essen- 
tial principles.  It  was  the  substance  of  their  brain,  and 
made  the  fires  that  ran  along  their  nerves,  back  and  forth, 
a  battle.  They  did  not  build  up  that  terrible  Dualism  with 
the  speculative  intellect.  We  have  little  to  do  here,  at 
least  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  faith,  with  theological  or 
philosophical  systems.  It  is  the  articulate  voice  of  the 
moral  alternative,  passing  judgment  upon  the  world  as  a 
whole,  rending  the  elements  asunder  in  a  schism  of  oppos- 
ing wills.  If  a  race  deserves  honor  in  human  annals,  in 
proportion  to  the  emphasis  it  has  given  to  the  radical 
conflict  of  principles  on  which  moral  progress  begins,  to 
/the  practical  energy  of  its  eff'ort  to  meet  and  solve  the 
antagonisms  of  experience,  a  very  high  place  is  due  to  the 
Persians  of  the  Avesta. 

With  these  Iranian  tribes,  then,  begins  the  consciousness 
of  a  shaping  power,  through  moral  conflict,  upon  Nature 


THE   MORAL   SENSE.  39 

and  life,  whose  epochs  are  the  steps  of  history  through  the 
modern  ages.  For  this  force  of  personal  Will  was  not  in 
the  lower  races  which  preceded  them  in  Africa  or  Asia. 
It  was  not  in  the  higher  civilizations  of  India  and  China, 
where  the  predominant  place  was  held,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  brain  or  muscle,  abstract  thought  or  concrete  work; 
while  in  Iran  it  belonged  to  the  nerve  that  makes  them 
one,  to  that  motive-force  of  will  which  quickens  the  mind 
to  progress  as  an  ideal  aim.  With  the  Iranians  begins  a 
poetic  ardor  for  self-discipline,  a  passion  for  winning  ideal 
virtue  by  honest  payment  of  the  price.  The  external  cir- 
cumstances by  which  these  powers  were  fostered  are  now 
to  be  stated. 

These  differences  between  the  Indian  and  Iranian 
branches  of  the  great  Aryan  family,  after  their  separation, 
—  the  one  to  the  south,  the  other  to  the  west  of  their 
common  home  on  the  plateaus  of  Central  Asia,  —  have 
been  regarded  as  of  a  very  radical  nature.  Nothing,  it  is 
thought,  can  explain  them,  especially  those  of  their  reli- 
gious beliefs,  but  a  bitter  schism,  resulting  in  the  transfor- 
mation of  the  gods  of  the  one  race  into  the  demons  of  the 
other.  But  this  theory,  of  which  history  certainly  affords 
no  other  evidence  than  that  of  language,  seems  quite  un- 
satisfactory, even  on  that  score.  It  is  sufficient  to  reply 
to  the  few  instances  given  of  such  reversed  meaning  in  the 
names  of  gods,  that  corresponding  changes  went  on  in 
at  least  one  of  these  names,  and  that  the  most  important, 
in  India  itself,  without  revolution,  simply  through  the  nat- 
ural evolution  of  Vedism  into  Brahmanism.^  Words  like 
"  Asura  "  and  "  Deva,"  both  originally  meaning  sovereign 
power,  had  of  course  a  terrible  as  well  as  a  friendly  side  ; 
and  in  process  of  time  each  name  would  naturally  enough 

1  The  word  "Asura,"  which  first  meant  "lord"  in  the  highest  sense,  in  Brahmanic 
times  received  a  bad  meaning. 


40  ELEMENTS. 

come  to  be  appropriated  to  the  one  side  or  the  other,  ex- 
clusively, without  losing  that  common  attribute  of  power 
whose  elements  it  had  become  necessary  to  distinguish. 
We  have  only  to  suppose  that  the  two  branches  of  the 
Aryan  family,  which  were  removed  from  each  other  in  space 
as  well  as  in  conditions  of  growth,  assigned  the  parts  thus 
differently  to  explain  the  whole  difference  in  the  mean- 
ings attached  to  these  words  "Asura"  and  "Deva,"  in  the 
Veda  and  the  Avesta,  respectively.^  Besides  linguistic 
oppositions,  it  is  true  that  the  two  civilizations  became 
subsequently  so  unlike  as  to  form  a  striking  psychologi- 
cal contrast.  But  the  original  resemblances,  linguistic  and 
religious,  are  so  numerous  that  they  can  be  referred  only 
to  the  common  Aryan  stock,  whose  elements  of  belief  be- 
came divergent  simply  under  the  stress  of  different  climatic 
and  social  conditions.  Terms  expressive  of  the  most  im- 
portant relations  continued  common  to  both  systems :  such 
as  designations  of  social  dignity  and  national  pride  {Arya)  ; 
the  priesthood  (At/irava,  Hotar)  ;  the  prayer  {^Mantra)  ; 
the  personified  offering  lySoma,  Haomd) ;  the  Supreme 
God  (^AJmra,  the  Indo-Iranian  Asura,  who  is  certainly  the 
ancient  Vedic  Varwid)  ;  the  light  considered  as  guardian 
of  truth  (^Mithra,  Mitray  usually  connected  respectively 
with  AJnira  and  with  Varwia)?  Haug  is  of  opinion  that 
the  thirty-three  Vedic  deities  correspond  with  the  thirty- 
three  genii  mentioned  in  the  Avesta  as  surrounding  the 
sacrificial  rite.^  And  the  Vedic  ceremonials  for  the  house- 
hold (in  the  Grihya-s^tras)  are  strikingly  parallel  to  those 
in  the  Avesta  of  a  similar  class.*     The  primary  personages 

'  The  word  dasyu,  employed  in  the  Vedas  to  describe  conquered  enemies,  and  in  the 
kx^%X.iL{dagyu)\.a  designate  subjects  of  the  nation,  is  a  similar  instance  of  the  natural  parti- 
tion of  a  common  meaning,  which  in  this  case  is  that  of  "subject."  See  Darmesteter's 
Orntazd  et  Akriman,  p.  270,  a  work  in  which  the  tlieory  of  a  schism  is  fully  disposed  of. 
The  Avestau  demon,  Indra,  is  probably  not  the  Vedic  "lightning  god,"  but  a  different 
name,  Aindra.     See  also  Justi. 

*  See  Lassen,  i.  319-23.  3  Essays,  etc.,  p.  276. 

*  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsck.  Morgenl.  Geselhch.,  vii.  527. 


THE   MORAL  SENSE.  4I 

of  the  Avesta  legend, — Yima,  Thraetona,  Keregagpa, — are 
Vedic  in  name,  have  correspondent  functions  with  their 
Vedic  analogues,  and  are  fully  shown  by  these  relations 
to  have  originated  in  the  solar  mythology  of  the  ancestral 
Aryan  race.  They  were  developed  types  of  that  conflict 
of  the  sun  with  the  cloud-serpent,  whose  continual  repeti- 
tion made  so  large  a  part  of  the  imaginative  interest  of 
those  early  tribes.^  The  preservation  of  the  common  con- 
ception and  of  the  names  associated  with  it  in  the  myths 
of  both  races,  proves  a  continuity  of  development  without 
break  or  radical  change,  from  the  interpretation  of  Nature 
as  a  physical  or  cosmical  strife  to  the  transfiguration  of  it 
with  moral  and  spiritual  meaning. 

Even  that  dualism  of  light  and  darkness  which  seems  so 
peculiarly  Avestan,  is  characteristic  also  of  the  Vedas.  It 
involves  nothing  like  hostility  between  the  two  systems. 
It  is,  in  fact,  the  response  of  Nature  to  the  contrarieties  in 
human  experience,  as  such,  which  belong  to  no  special 
race  or  religion.  The  oldest  faiths  rest  on  the  adoration 
of  the  light  and  the  dread  of  the  dark ;  but  it  was  not  the 
outward  light  and  dark  that  brooded  over  the  soul  so 
much  as  the  antagonism  felt  within  it,  giving  signifi- 
cance to  these  symbols  for  the  sense.  This  the  Aryan 
conceived  the  more  intensely  by  reason  of  his  peculiar 
endowments  of  clear  thought  and  energetic  will,  com- 
paratively free  from  those  violent  emotions  which  in  the 
Semitic  races  tended  to  blur  moral  outlines  and  drive 
blindly  from  one  extreme  of  susceptibility  to  another. 
The  exclusively  moral  interpretation  given  by  the  Iranian 
branch  of  this  ethnic  family  to  the  great  cosmical  antago- 
nism was  in  accordance  with  their  special  genius.     But  it 

^  See  Darmesteter's  fine  exposition  of  this  point  (Ormazd  ei  Ahrimei7t).  He  traces  all 
the  elements  of  Avestan  mythology,  certainly  with  great  ingenuity,  to  the  old  Aryan  myth  of 
the  storm-cloud  (pp.  96-216).  Barth  {Revue  de  PHisioire  de  Religion,  i.  116)  criticises  this 
theory  as  too  narrow,  showing  the  facility  with  whicli  all  expounding  theories  can  be  formed 
as  universal  keys  to  mythology.     So  Spencer's  Principles  of  Sociology,  vol.  i.  .xxiv. 


42  ELEMENTS. 

was  not  unrecognized  by  the  Indian  branch  also.  Not 
only  in  the  perpetually  recurring  myth  of  Indra's  war  with 
the  cloud-serpent  Vritra,  in  which  all  moral  as  well  as  phy- 
sical blessings  were  expected  from  the  pure  sunlight,  but 
more  especially  in  Varuna  and  Mitra,  the  personified  bonds 
of  truth  and  righteousness,  typified  in  the  same  image,  and 
in  the  sleepless  Adityas,  immortal  children  of  light,  from 
whom  came  every  good  and  perfect  gift,  —  in  all  these 
symbols  the  conscience  of  the  Vedic  worshipper,  his  ideal 
of  holiness,  were  the  passports  to  safety,  the  guard  against 
ill.  But  the  dark  power  was  not  here  emphasized  to  the 
same  extent  as  it  is  in  the  Avesta,  and  hardly  rises  to 
the  dignity  of  antagonist.  The  herdsmen  of  the  Indus 
felt  the  light  and  darkness  mainly  as  the  life  and  death  of 
their  cattle,  their  wealth  and  poverty,  their  success  and 
failure  in  the  strifes  of  rude  clans.  And  as  the  mighty 
flow  of  tropical  rivers  and  the  languors  of  a  refulgent  clime 
drew  them  to  a  contemplative  life,  repressing  self-assertion 
and  will,  —  not  only  the  light  and  the  dark,  but  all  other 
contrasts  in  experience  floated  and  melted  together  for 
the  thinker  into  the  one  sense  of  infinite  deity,  while  the 
masses  received  their  gospel  from  a  slowly  developing 
priesthood.  The  heroic  element  also,  which  though  by 
no  means  lacking  in  Hindu  life  was  yet  but  secondary 
and  left  the  religious  interpretation  of  Nature  to  a  higher 
caste,  could  hardly  be  expected  to  work  out  an  ethical 
symbolism  of  her  grand  phenomena  through  resources 
of  its  own. 

But  the  Iranian  saw,  in  the  Titanic  antithesis  on  which 
the  universe  revolves,  the  life  and  death  of  character.  Light 
was  truth  and  immortality;  darkness  was  falsehood  and 
decay.  The  Avesta  shows  us  a  late  stage  of  this  concep- 
tion, after  the  spaces  and  spheres  had  become  transparent 
to  the  fires  of  conscience,  prompting  to  escape  the  bonds 
of  evil  service  into  the  liberty  of  obedience  to  the  ideal. 


THE   MORAL  SENSE.  43 

How  far  this  had  entered  the  life  of  the  people  we  may 
not  say;  but  in  the  oldest  Gathas  the  evidences  of  an  in- 
tense moral  earnestness  are  beyond  question.  The  Dual- 
ism of  the  Aryans  was  germinant.  Mazdeism  referred  all 
good  and  evil  to  positive  principles  warring  for  the  posses- 
sion of  the  universe.  Its  defiant  protest  against  the  lower 
nature  wrote  itself  out  in  what  we  should  call  a  mystic 
hieroglyph,  were  not  the  feeling  too  direct  and  realistic,  all 
over  the  heavens  and  earth ;  so  that  they  could  tell  but  one 
tale,  —  the  war  of  truth  against  falsehood,  rightful  sover- 
eignty against  unrighteous  revolt,  heaven  against  hell ;  and 
the  rolling  days  and  nights  were  turned  into  the  everlasting 
Yea  and  Nay  of  the  soul.  The  very  order  of  the  elements, 
by  which  the  contrasts  are  mutually  sustained  and  com- 
pleted, became  the  constant  reflection  of  a  positive  rent  in 
the  moral  being  of  man.  Here,  in  the  opening  of  his  con- 
scious energies  of  will,  we  find  the  germ  of  those  terrible 
fictions  of  a  gulf  separating  him  from  God  on  which  later 
theologies,  especially  Christian,  have  been  founded,  and 
which  no  mediatorial  scheme,  in  the  view  of  enlightened 
reason,  is  competent  to  span.^ 

It  is  obvious  that  such  consignment  as  the  Avesta  makes 
of  half  the  visible  universe  to  malignant  powers,  and  of  the 
whole  to  an  internecine  personal  strife  between  the  spirit 
of  good  and  the  spirit  of  evil,  must  be  of  comparatively 
late  origin.  Not  only  does  its  abstraction  of  principles 
from  phenomena  imply  this.  That  all  these  shades  and 
degrees  of  mutual  dependence  in  the  phenomena  of  light 
and  darkness  which  would  naturally  establish  a  certain 
amount  of  cordiality  between  them  for  the  simpler  mind, 
should  be  eff'aced  in  the  general  battle-array  of  all- 
pervading  and  absolute  oppositions,  can  only  be  the  result 
of  long  stages  of  struggle  with  natural  obstacles.     Severe 

*  See  the  Author's  Indian  p.  6. 


44  ELEMENTS. 

conditions  of  social  and  physical  being  must  have  steadily- 
resisted  the  fulfilment  of  ideal  purpose,  and  kept  it  con- 
scious of  inward  checks  and  contradictions,  —  as  if  some 
opposing  principle  exerted  a  power  of  will  equal  to  its 
own,  working  through  inexorable  outward  forces.  To 
have  impregnated  all  Nature  with  this  personal  strife  of 
good  and  evil  for  the  soul  of  man,  testifies  to  a  developed 
moral  consciousness,  which  could  only  have  resulted  from 
permanent  external  conditions  of  resistance.  These  con- 
ditions are  not  far  to  seek. 

While  the  Indian  branch  of  the  Aryan  family,  from 
causes  already  given,  sank  their  native  energy  in  over- 
mastering social  and  religious  systems  that  rivalled  the 
uniformity  of  Nature,  the  Iranians  doubtless  hovered  for 
awhile  on  the  high,  cool  shelves  of  the  Hindu  Koh,  whose 
energizing  climate  is  shown  in  the  well-made,  industrious, 
and  spirited  Tajiks  and  Kafirs  of  modern  time,  —  the  true 
representatives,  in  speech  and  physique,  of  the  old  Iranian 
type.^  Thence  they  descended  into  the  Bactrian  highlands, 
a  rugged  region  of  alternating  heat  and  cold,  where  climatic 
contrasts  combined  with  Turanian  nomadic  tribes  to  make 
their  agricultural  life  a  constant  struggle  with  enemies  both 
physical  and  human,  in  which  ceaseless  vigilance  was  the 
price  of  victory.  On  one  side  the  mountain  heights  and 
snows ;  on  the  other  the  varieties  of  soil  and  scenery  that 
promised  due  reward  to  wise  choice  and  determined  will. 
In  these  cradle-lands  of  Iranian  energy  the  free  Afghan 
tribes  of  our  day,  however  degenerated  by  native  feuds 
and  foreign  diplomacy,  doubtless  retain  the  marks  of  these 
old  Aryan  conditions.  Bold,  vigorous  clans,  given  to  labor, 
and  passionately  fond  of  personal  freedom,  they  are  ren- 
dered contentious,  and  even  inclined  to  treachery,  by  the 
hard  necessities  of  their  life.^     The  old  Iranian  tribes  had 

1  Hellwald's  Russians  in  Central  Asia,  pp.  97,  101-2  ;  and  Hutton:  Central  Asia,  p,  257. 
*  Spiegel :  Eranische  Alterthumskuitde,  i.  311. 


THE   MORAL   SENSE.  45 

to  pay  their  way  by  steady  labor  on  a  rugged  soil.  The 
seasons  made  its  results  uncertain,  and  malice  lurked  in 
summer  drought  and  winter  storm.  The  farmer  must  have 
one  hand  free  to  fight  off  Turanian  marauders;  so  that  the 
soldier  had  a  social  respect  in  Iran  which  he  could  never 
reach  in  India.  The  Aryan  will  in  India  bent  before  gods ; 
in  Iran  it  bloomed  into  heroes.  The  primitive  man,  or 
king,  becomes  in  Hindu  legend  Yama,  god  of  the  future 
world ;  in  Iran  he  is  Yima,  builder  of  paradise  in  the 
present  world :  and  this  thoroughly  human  master  yields 
at  last  to  the  too  powerful  temptations  of  success,  thereby 
losing"  his  kingdom.  The  lie  by  which  Yima  fell,  ever 
afterwards  the  type  of  all  sin  for  the  Persian  conscience, 
was  evidently  man's  infidelity  to  that  implied  contract  with 
the  stern  forces  of  Nature  by  which  he  was  obliged  to  pur- 
chase all  he  possessed  by  steady  toil.  The  hero  of  Iranian 
legend  is  ever  the  truth-teller,  and  his  moral  power  must 
be  as  great  as  his  physical.  This  admiration  of  truth  was 
probably  a  measure  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  main- 
taining it;  perhaps  also  of  its  rarity.  We  are  disposed  to 
think  that  whatever  of  justice  there  may  be  in  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  later  Persians  for  insincerity,  in  contrast  with 
the  constant  exaltation  of  truth  and  reproof  of  falsehood 
in  the  religious  literature  of  the  nation,  may  have  had  its 
origin  in  the  inexorable  terms  of  a  strife  with  Man  and 
Nature  which  was  apt  to  prove  too  severe  even  for  a  never- 
forgotten  ideal.  The  strife  of  petty  clans,  the  law  of  the 
stronger,  the  precariousness  of  property,  the  caprice  of 
the  chmate,  the  seeming  tricks  and  lapses  of  Nature  from 
her  promises,  were  all  causes  of  demoralization ;  while  the 
free  spirit  of  the  mountaineer,  the  personal  energy  of  the 
race,  its  habits  of  industry,  and  its  aim  to  redeem  Nature 
to  productive  uses,  stimulated  honor  and  faith.  These 
ideals  asserted  themselves  the  more  strongly  for  the  peril 
in  which  they  stood,  and  the  constant  necessity  for  their 


46  ELEMENTS. 

warning  and  rebuke.  The  purely  heroic  legends,  which 
in  Iran  take  the  place  occupied  in  India  by  dreams  of 
spiritual  absorption,  even  among  Kshattriya  chieftains  of 
the  solar  and  lunar  races,  and  by  rivalries  of  saints  with 
deities  in  prayer  and  penance,  are  ample  evidence  of  the 
real  and  practical  stress  of  this  struggle  with  the  condi- 
tions of  life. 

The  whole  plateau  of  Iran  was  as  suggestive  of  the  war 
of  elements  as  it  was  provocative  of  human  struggle  to 
master  them.  It  is  a  world  of  broken,  heaving  strata,  "  a 
Cyclopean  workshop,"^  whose  violent  contrasts  of  fertility 
and  desolation  are  results  of  the  latest  convulsions  of  the 
planet.  Its  sharp  transitions  of  temperature  and  relief 
might  well  have  seemed  pronounced  hostilities  of  will, 
bits  of  fixed  or  capricious  purpose,  living  mutual  contra- 
dictions set  face  to  face.  Here  was  indeed  a  theatre  for 
the  opening  of  the  historic  epos  of  the  human  will !  A 
grand  natural  symbolism  of  moral  conflict,  of  success  and 
failure,  of  duty  and  opportunity,  girt  by  rewards  and  pen- 
alties, prodigality  and  hopeless  waste,  was  the  unwritten 
Bible  of  a  strife  between  hostile  principles  for  the  mastery 
of  the  world :  enormous  snowy  ranges,  half-extinct  vol- 
canoes, amidst  zones  of  cold ;  ^  salt  deserts  that  still  close 
up  around  Persian  towns,  and  border  paradises  of  verdure 
and  flowers ;  the  mocking  mirage,  the  moving  sand-col- 
umn ;  hot  blasts  of  summer  and  sweeping  winter  storms ; 
luxuriant  vales  where  the  rose  and  nightingale  reigned, 
and  barren,  waterless  reaches  that  defied  culture  and 
awed  the  husbandman  as  with  colossal  hate ;  insects  vora- 
cious and  poisonous  that  swarmed  in  the  coast-country  to 
the  south,^  and  the  great  Turanian  wilderness  on  the  north, 
with  its  predatory  tribes,  —  and  the  eternal  march  of  sun 

1  Gobineau:  Les  Perses,  i.  152. 

^  As  old  a  writer  as  Justin  describes  Parthia  as  possessed  by  extremes  of  heat  and  cold. 
Geographical  CJiaracter  of  Iran,  MSS   1.  32. 

3  Braun:  Gemdlde  der  Mohammedanischen  Welt,  pp.  299-350. 


THE   MORAL   SENSE.  47 

and  stars  through  the  alternations  of  day  and  night,  over  it 
all !  Here  was  indeed  the  fit  arena  for  the  hates  of  Ormuzd 
and  Ahriman ;  for  the  war  of  Mithra,  fertilizer  of  deserts, 
against  the  Daevas  of  darkness  and  cold ;  for  the  holy  work 
of  Avesta-saints,  the  destruction  of  noxious  creatures  from 
the  benignant  earth !  A  land,  too,  for  divine  legends, 
where  heroism  makes  the  saint.  The  sand-floods  of  Gobi 
have  covered  hundreds  of  towns. ^  The  volcanic  rifts  of 
Daghestan  are  still  a  terror  to  the  traveller.^  The  quick- 
sands of  Khorassan  swallow  caravans  in  a  moment.^  The 
prodigious  vegetation  of  Mazanderan,  land  of  demonic  and 
magic  lore  for  the  Iranian  imagination,  impenetrable  and 
dank,  still  propagates  disease,  and  drives  the  people  in 
summer  to  the  highlands  for  safety.'^  One  third  of  Seistan, 
the  home  of  legendary  and  epic  heroes,  is  moving  sand, 
the  rest  a  rich  mould ;  and  the  climate  oscillates  between 
violent  extremes.^  The  undulating  hills  and  rich  plains 
of  Azerbijan  tremble  with  subterranean  fires,  and  the  sand- 
storm and  naphtha-flame  were  in  very  truth  pillars  of  cloud 
and  fire  that  moved  "  along  the  astonished  lands."  ^  The 
fertile  oasis  of  Balkh,  "  mother  of  cities,"  is  girt  with 
waterless  desert  plains,  where  the  fierce  Scythian  still 
sweeps  over  the  steppes  upon  the  husbandmen  and  their 
villages,  like  the  hordes  of  demons  whom  Firdusi's  heroes 
had  to  fight.  The  paradise  of  Cabul  is  set  amidst  the 
terrors  of  mountains  that  frown  from  a  height  of  eleven 
thousand  feet,  and  above  that  rise  for  eight  thousand 
more,  white  with  eternal  frost;  relaxing  their  awful  brows 
as  they  look  down  on  the  "  joyousness  of  silver  streams 
and  emerald  gardens,  glowing  beneath  a  sapphire  sky,"'^ 
where  the  first  glance  of  the  sun  has  startled  all  seeming 
sterility  into   instant  splendor,  like   a  creative   word.     In 

I  Huttnn:  Central  Asia,  p.  348.  2  Von  Thielmann  :  Journey  in  the  Caticasus. 

3  Markham's  Persia,  p.  334.  ••  Markliam's  Persia,  p.  346. 

^  Ferrier:  Caravan  yoiirneys  in  Persia,  etc.,  p.  427. 

6  See  Lesley's  Report  on  Coal  (1862).  ?  Harlan's  Agricultural  Report,  1834. 


48  ELEMENTS. 

fact,  Persia  properly  has  two  climates,  a  warm  and  a  cold, 
—  the  narrow,  dry,  but  palmy  strip  on  the  southern  coast; 
and  the  land  of  passes,  to  the  centre  and  north,  cut  by 
deep  gorges  and  rising  into  rugged  heights,^  wondrously 
colored  by  the  living  light,  or  swept  by  arctic  snows. 
Travellers  tell  us  that  no  tracks  in  the  world  are  more 
difficult  than  those  between  the  great  towns  of  Persia, 
across  Alpine  passes,  which  only  mules  can  traverse,  even 
after  the  many  ages  of  civilization  that  have  succeeded 
each  other  in  the  land.^  As  you  approach  Persia  from 
the  west,  you  are  met  by  a  barrier  ten  thousand  feet 
high ;  and  through  this  mountain  rampart  the  resolute 
and  persistent  streams  fail  not  to  cut  their  way  to  the 
Mesopotamian  plains,  turning  at  right  angles  to  their 
natural  course  between  the  limestone  ridges,  and  making 
for  great  rifts  in  the  crystalline  mass."^  In  such  wondrous 
figure  does  Nature  reflect  the  majestic  opening  of  the  his- 
tory of  personality,  —  another  Avesta  writ  in  mountains 
and  floods ;  first  real  consciousness  of  the  freedom  to 
choose  and  to  achieve. 

Such  was  the  physical  environment  of  the  Iranian  tribes ; 
such  the  school  of  their  imagination  and  conscience.  How 
profound  was  the  effect  on  both,  we  may  see  in  that  im- 
portant chapter  of  the  Vendidad,  which  gives  a  list  of  the 
evils  created  by  Ahriman  to  infect  the  difTercnt  regions  of 
Iran.  Whether  this  curious  passage  enumerates,  as  has 
been  generally  supposed,  the  successive  migrations  of  the 
Aryan  tribes,  or,  as  is  more  probable,  the  difTerent  coun- 
tries opened  to  Zoroastrian  faith,  it  at  all  events  describes 
salient  experiences  of  the  people,  and  shows  how  closely 
physical    and    moral   elements   were    associated   in   their 

*  Kiepert:  Lehrbuch  der  Alien  Geographies  p.  63. 
"  A.  Arnold,  in  Contemporary  Review,  June,  187G. 
8  Loftus:  Travels  iti  C/ialdea,  p.  310. 


THE   MORAL   SENSE.  49 

minds.     Some  of  the  evils  specified  are  obviously  marks 
of  developed  forms  of  religion,  with  positive  rites. 

"As  the  first  best  of  regions,  I,  Ahuramazda,  produced  Airyana- 
Vaejo,  of  good  capacities.  Thereupon,  as  opposed  to  it,  Angro-main- 
yush,  the  deadly,  formed  a  mighty  serpent  (storm-cloud)  and  frost 
(snow)  from  the  Daevas :  ten  months  of  winter  and  two  of  summer, 
and  dire  disasters  from  the  snow.  As  the  second  best,  I  produced  Gdu. 
Thereupon  Angro-mainyush  formed  a  pestilence  fatal  to  cattle.  As 
third,  I  produced  Marv,  the  righteous  ;  then  Angro-mainyush  formed 
war  and  pillage.  As  fourth,  I  produced  fortunate  Bdklidhi.  with  lofty 
banner  ;  then  Angro-mainyush  formed  insects  and  poisonous  plants 
["hostile  horsemen,"  —  Harlez\.  As  fifth,  yV/j-azy  and  Angro-main- 
yush formed  the  curse  of  unbelief.  As  sixth,  Haroyii  (Herat),  the 
water-diffusing ;  Angro-mainyush  produced  hail  and  poverty.  As 
seventh,  Vaekereta  j  and  Angro-mainyush  produced  the  witch.  As 
eighth,  Urvd,  abounding  in  pastures  ;  Angro-mainyush,  the  curse  of 
devastation  ["  crimes," — Harlez\.  As  xi\'t\\h,  Kluienta  j  Angro-main- 
yush, the  inexpiable  deeds  [of  lust]  against  nature.  As  tenth,  the 
fortunate  Haraqaiti ;  Angro-mainyush,  the  wickedness  of  burying 
the  dead.  As  eleventh,  Haetuntat,  the  brilliant;  Angro-mainyush, 
evil  sorceries.  As  twelfth,  Ragha,  with  three  races  ;  Angro-main- 
yush, the  curse  of  over-scepticism.  As  thirteenth,  Chakhra,  the 
strong  ;  Angro-mainyush,  the  evil  deed  of  burning  the  dead.  As 
fourteenth,  Varetta  j  Angro-mainyush,  untimely  periods  of  women 
(ill-boding  omens),  and  non-Aryan  plagues  (invasions  ?).  As  fif- 
teenth. Land  of  the  Seven  Rivers  (India)  ;  Angro-mainyush,  untimely 
menstruations  and  irregular  fevers.  As  sixteenth,  those  who  dwell 
without  ramparts  on  the  sea-coast ;  Angro-mainyush,  frost  from  the 
Daevas."  —  Fargard,  i. 

The  Zend  commentary  adds,  "  There  are  other  fortunate 
regions,  valleys,  hills,  and  plains."  ^ 

The  length  of  this  list  of  places  and  evils,  its  artificial 
construction,  the  institutional  nature  of  some  of  the  ills 
mentioned,  and  especially  the  resolution  of  all  this  experi- 
ence into  the  dual  action  of  principles  embodied  as  persons, 
indicate  a  comparatively  late  origin  of  the  chapter.    But  its 

^  This  translation  is  from  Haug  (abridged):  Essays,  etc.,  pp.  227-230. 


50  ELEMENTS. 

testimony  to  the  persistent  action  of  the  physical  causes 
above-mentioned  is  all  the  more  impressive. 

Such  a  process  of  abstraction  and  personification  could 
not  be  the  product  of  an  early  stage  of  culture.  It  is  more 
intellectual  than  that  monotheistic  tendency  which,  both 
in  the  Semite  and  the  Aryan,  is  itself  of  later  origin  than 
polytheism.  Its  rise  in  the  Iranian  tribes,  under  the  con- 
ditions now  stated,  must  be  explained  by  the  intensity  of 
their  imagination  and  will.  It  is  highly  improbable  that 
in  the  distinct  and  elaborate  form  in  which  we  find  this 
conception  of  a  world-strife  in  the  Avcsta,  and  especially  in 
the  earliest  Gathas,  it  was  very  widely  spread  among  those 
tribes.  The  seat  of  its  elaboration  was  probably  the  Bac- 
trian,  or  eastern  borders  of  Iran  ;  and  the  manner  in  which 
the  worshippers  of  Daevas,  or  false  gods,  are  spoken  of 
points  to  a  reaction  on  older  and  less  spiritual  beliefs. 
The  moral  protest  that  informs  it  proves  a  great  move- 
ment of  reformation,  to  which  the  name  of  Zoroaster  was 
attached,  but  whose  roots  were  in  powerful  tendencies 
fostered  by  the  physical  and  social  causes  we  have  thus 
far  traced. 


DEVELOPMENT. 
I. 

AVESTAN   DUALISM. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM. 

/^F  the  long  process  by  which  this  spiritual  and  moral 
^-^  dualism  was  wrought  out,  history  gives  little  record. 
When  we  first  find  the  faith  of  Zoroaster,  the  old  fire- 
cultus  has  found  a  twofold  personality,  the  substance  of 
which  is  this:  Ahuramazda, —  "the  living  creator,"^  "  all- 
wise  Lord,"^  "  source  of  light  for  the  world, "^  "  creator  of 
the  stars  by  his  inborn  fire  "  (or  "  mingling  glory  with 
the  hghts"*),  and  "by  his  intellect,  of  the  good  crea- 
tures, ruled  by  the  inborn  good  mind  (  Vo/m-mano'),  Thou, 
heavenly  Mazda,  makest  them  grow,"^  "  giving  with  hands 
full  of  help  to  the  good,"  "  by  the  warmth  of  his  pure  fire 
strengthening  the  good  things,"  ^  "  creator  of  all  good 
through  the  tongue  of  the  good  mind,"  "  father  of  all 
rectitude"  (or  "purity"')  in  thought,  word,  and  deed, 
"  appearing  in  best  thought  and  rectitude,"  "  giving  per- 
fection, immortality,  wealth,  and  devotion,"^ — is  opposed 
at  every  point  by  Angro-mainyus,  "the  hurtful  spirit,"^  or 
"the  evil  mind  "  (^Akein-mano),  "spirit  of  lies  "  or  destruc- 
tion, who  poisons  the  mind  with  his  impurity  of  thought, 
word,  and  deed.  The  one  creates  all  that  works  for  the 
good  of  man,  physical  and  moral ;  the  other  in  pure  moral 
opposition,  and  at  the  same  time,  produces  all  evil  thoughts 
and  things.  TJms  all  things  have  their  moral  and  physical 
contraries  in  one. 

1  Haug:  Essays,  etc.,  p.  302.  2  Spiegel:  Avesta,  Bd.  iii.,  Einleitung,  i. 

3  ]  rtf«a,  xliii.  2;  Haug.  *   FfTfwa,  xxxi.  7  ;  Spiegel. 

6  Ibid.,  xxxi.  7  ;  Haug.  6  Ibid.,  xliii.  4  ;  Haug. 

■^  Ibid.,  xlvi.  2  ;  Spiegel.  8  ibid.,  xlvii.  i  and  2  ;  Haug. 

'  Haug  :  Essays,  etc.,  p.  304. 


54  DEVELOPMENT. 

These  two  spirits  or  principles  are  called  primeval  tzvins; 
nor  is  there  any  distinction  affirmed  as  to  their  origin.  Good 
and  evil,  right  and  wrong,  exist  before  them  in  the  nature 
of  things,  it  would  seem ;  since  they  are  said  to  have 
chosen  between  these,  each  his  own  part  according  to  its 
wisdom  or  its  folly,  its  truth  or  falsehood.^  They  simply 
are  here,  stand  before  the  soul,  and  it  must  choose  between 
them.  It  takes  its  part  and  pays  its  vows.  These  two 
united  have  created  the  facts  of  "  life,  death,  and  how  the 
world  shall  be."  ^  The  increaser  says  to  the  destroyer, 
"  Neither  our  thoughts,  doctrines,  wills,  vows,  words,  acts, 
laws,  nor  our  souls  agree."  ^  The  soul  of  a  man  cannot 
belong  to  both:  "May  we  be  such  as  help  the  renovation 
of  the  world,  and  the  wise  spirits  shall  help  us.  This  is  to 
be  united  with  wisdom."'*  "  Ahuramazda  hears  the  help- 
ers of  good.  May  he  guide  me  by  his  perfect  wisdom  ! " 
"  May  thy  kingdom  come !  O  Ahura,  give  good  to  the 
pure  man  who  lives  righteously."^  "  So  falls  on  the  pow- 
ers of  falsehood  {Drujo')  annihilation.  They  who  enlarge 
the  glory  of  the  good  pass  to  the  abode  of  the  good  mind 
(^Vo/i7Mnaiid) ,  of  the  wise  {Mazda),  of  the  righteous 
{Asha)."'^  "Therefore  perform  the  commandments  which 
Mazda  has  given  to  men ;  for  they  are  the  perdition  of  the 
wicked,  but  profit  to  the  pure,  the  fountain  of  happiness."^ 
"  To  the  good  the  spirit  of  the  earth  tells  the  everlasting 
laws  given  by  thy  intellect,  which  none  can  abolish  "  ^  (or 
"  deceive  "  ^). 

Somehow  by  the  very  coming  of  good  things  come 
their  negations,  fired-  with  living  hate.     "  Ahriman  bored 

^  Ya(na,  xxx.  5;  Spiegel  and  Harlez  Haug  translates  "one  created  reality;  the  other, 
non-reality,''''  by  which  term  he  cannot  mean  nothingness,  but  falsehood. 

2  'Vafna,  xxx.  3  and  4. 

3  y'aftta,  xliv.  2  Haug,  who  does  not  think  the  two  essentially  opposed,  translates  "  do 
not  all  these  things  follow  us?"     Va(na,  xlv.  2. 

*  Krtf«a,  xxx.  9 ;  Haug,  Harlez,  Spiegel  ^  y'afna,  lii.  9. 

*  Vafna,  xxx.  10;  Spiegel.     Haug  says,  "All  perfect  things  are  gathered  there." 

'  Vafua,  xxx.  11.  ^  Krtf«a,  xliii.  6  ;  Haug.  ^  Harlez. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM. 


55 


through  the  earth,"  says  the  Bundehesh,  "  so  that  it  was 
rent  by  lies  and  strife,  and  at  midday  was  dark  as  night."  ^ 
Powers  of  good,  spiritual  and  holy,  sometimes  represented 
as  qualities,  sometimes  almost  personal  (on  the  verge  of 
becoming  so  at  least,  the  idea  hovering  between  these  on 
the  wings  of  the  imagination  and  feeling),  aid  Ahuramazda 
and  his  good  souls.  Embattled  hosts,  forces  of  fraud, 
falsehood,  destruction  {Daeva),  war  in  the  elements  against 
them,  to  be  resisted  by  prayer,  by  vows,  by  abjurations  of 
their  service,  by  praises  of  the  best,  and  by  good  thoughts, 
words,  and  deeds.  Indispensable  is  industry,  raising  cattle 
for  food  and  wealth  and  progeny.  "  In  Ahuramazda  was 
the  earth-spirit  {Armaiti),  in  him  the  spirit  that  formed 
the  cow  when  he  made  her  paths  that  she  might  go  from 
the  tiller  of  the  soil  to  him  who  does  not  cultivate  it."  ^ 
"  Of  these  two,  she  prefers  him  who  cultivates  with  care 
filled  by  the  good  spirit.  But  he  who  does  not  till  her,  but 
worships  the  Daevas,  has  no  share  in  her  good  tidings."^ 
Ahura  protects  the  settled  life  of  the  (shepherd  or)  tiller. 
"  Listen  not  to  the  teachings  of  the  wicked  [robber  tribes, 
doubtless],  for  he  gives  to  destruction  house,  village,  dis- 
trict, province;  but  kill  them  with  the  sword,"  or  "  drive 
them  away  with  strokes."'*  "The  wicked,"  says  Zoroas- 
ter, "  protect  those  who  oppose  the  holy  and  forbid  the 
cattle  to  roam  through  the  lands ;  whoever  drives  them 
out  [foes  of  agriculture]  follows  the  ways  of  wisdom  in 
what  concerns  the  herds."  ^ 

These  passages  certainly  seem  to  refer  to  the  herdsman's 
life  as  opposed  to  that  of  the  wild  brigand,  or  nomad  in  the 
f  worst  sense.     Harlez  does  not  think  it  means  anything  like 
settled  agricultural  industry.^     So  Spiegel.     Haug's  transla- 
tions are  free  and  bold,  and  cover  fixed  settlements.     But 

1  Bundehesh.     Justi,  chap.  iii. 

2  Ya(;na^  xxxi.  9;  Haug :  "  to  call  upon  him  to  till  the  soil." 

3  Yacnn,  xxxi.  10  ;  Haug.  <  Ya(tia,  xxxi.  iS. 
6  Yagna,  xlv.  ;   Harlez.  «  Avesia,  ii.  28. 


56  DEVELOPMENT. 

at  all  events  it  is  industry  that  is  enforced  as  against  idle- 
ness, amidst  severe  discouragements  from  foes  human  or 
demoniac,  or  both.  "  Whoso  cares  for  the  cattle  with 
diligence  is  in  the  service  of  the  good  mind,"  ^  or  "  shall 
inhabit  the  fields  of  the  righteous  and  good  "  ^  (that  is, 
paradise).  TJiese  zvicked  interlopers  innst  not  be  spared. 
"  I  will  remove  from  thy  community  disobedience  and  the 
evil  mind,  the  despising  of  relationship,  the  Druj  nearest 
the  work  [that  is,  idleness],  the  disdainer  of  obedience,  the 
bad  measure  of  the  fodder  of  the  cattle."^  It  is  difficult 
to  understand  who  were  the  Daeva-worshippers  who  be- 
longed to  the  army  of  Ahriman.  In  a  confession  of  faith, 
which  is  evidently  of  later  origin  than  what  has  already 
been  quoted  as  Zoroastrian,  they  are  spoken  of  as  sorcer- 
ers and  robbers  (of  the  earth,  or  cattle),  and  as  doing 
damage  to  the  quarters,  or  clans,  of  the  true  worshippers.* 
The  Avesta  gives  no  account  of  the  origin  of  these  unbe- 
lieving tribes.  They  are  taken  as  existing  facts,  known  as 
children  of  Ahriman  by  their  unbelief  in  the  pure  law  and 
their  corresponding  habits, — just  as  the  Zoroastrians  were 
known  as  of  Ahura's  creation  by  their  creed  and  conduct. 
It  should  seem  that  they  were  Ahriman's  offset  to  the 
humanity  produced  by  the  Good  Principle.  As  the  Daevas 
are  positively  said  to  be  propagators  of  lies  and  unbelief, 
something  of  a  speculative  nature  probably  entered  into 
the  grounds  of  strife. 

But  that  the  sense  of  moral  reprobation  had  at  least  as 
much  to  do  with  it  as  a  difference  of  creed  is  evident  from 
the  stress  laid  on  personal  character,  and  the  root  of  the 
dualism  itself  in  thoroughly  ethical  contrasts.  This  ser- 
vice of  Ahura,  this  hate  of  Ahriman,  is  a  living  fire ;  the 
symbol  has  mounted  to  the  heavens  of  conduct.  And  if 
the  infidel  is  hateful  because  he  rejects  the  holy  law,  the 

^   J'iZfKfl,  xxxiii.  3  ;  Spiegel.  ^  J'^^,;^,  xxxiii.  3  ;  Haug. 

2  Ibid.,  xxxiii.  4  ;  iSpiegel.  *  Ibid.,  xii. ;  Haug.     Were  they  Turanian  raiders? 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  57 

law  itself  is  holy  only  because  it  commands  things  manly, 
becoming,  just,  and  helpful,  —  which  things  to  hate  and 
persecute  is  infidelity. 

Let  it  be  noted,  then,  that  whatever  the  original  germs 
in  natural  phenomena  out  of  which  this  dualistic  personi- 
fication was  evolved,  its  substance  is  the  moral  earnestness 
of  personal  will.  As  we  go  on  to  those  portions  of  the 
Avesta  which  represent  a  later  stage  of  it  than  Zoroaster's 
Githas,  we  find  the  usual  twofold  evolution,  of  extensive 
application  on  the  one  hand,  and  intensive  confinement 
on  the  other.  The  hosts  of  spiritual  forces,  good  and 
evil,  multiply  around  the  central  ideas  of  righteousness 
and  iniquity ;  while  the  saving  warfare  tends  to  run  down 
into  the  narrow  ruts  of  petty  ritualism.  From  the  oldest 
and  simplest  Gathas  down  to  the  latest  Yashts  must  have 
required  nearly  a  thousand  years  of  growth;^  and  not  only 
do  the  details  of  religious  personification  accumulate  to 
the  last,^  but  the  wearisome  iteration  of  names  and  powers 
in  the  prayers  and  praises  of  the  ritual,  and  of  symbolical 
gestures  and  forms  of  purification,  and  the  comminutia  of 
religious  service  upon  all  the  various  kinds  of  waters  and 
fires,  come  to  surpass  all  other  known  rites,  till  the  fire  on 
the  altar  has  survived  the  spirit  of  the  rite,  and  Zoroas- 
trianism  remains  a  monument  of  the  self-destructiveness 
of  personal  worship.  But  for  a  time  this  evolution  of 
Dualism  was  a  form  of  living  purpose,  pressing  into  uni- 
versal meaning,  and  inflaming  all  Nature  with  its  fiery 
spirit.  The  Aryan  instinctively  passed  from  the  abstract 
to  the  concrete,  and  the  moral  quality  was  sure  to  identify 
itself  with  some  material  relation.  In  the  Vendidad  (or 
law  for  expelling  Daevas),  still  more  in  the  Yashts  (prayers 
and  praises  with  legends),  the  objects  and  qualities  at  first 
blended  in  the  substance  of  Ahura  and  his  work  became 

1  1200-400  B.C.     Haug :  Essays,  etc.,  262-65. 

*  Spiegel :  Er&n.  Alterth.  ii.  and  Avesta,  Bd.  iii.,  Einleitung,  describes  them  all. 


58  DEVELOPMENT. 

positive  persons,  —  "  multiplications  "  of  him  ;  ^  "  benefi- 
cent immortals  ;  "  like  the  Vedic  Aclityas.  These  were  : 
Vohu-mano  (the  good  mind) ;  Asha-vahista  (best  purity);^ 
Khshathra-vairya,  wealth-giver  (desired  kingdom  ;)3  Ar- 
maiti  (spirit  of  earth,  or  obedience)  ;  "  all  of  like  mind, 
speech,  action,  like  their  father  and  maker;  each  beholding 
the  soul  of  another,  meditating  the  best  life."  ^  Add  to 
these,  Haurvatat  and  Ameretat  (health  and  immortality), 
and  we  have,  with  Ahura  himself,  the  sevenfold  personal- 
ity of  righteousness,  against  which  are  drawn  up  Ahriman 
and  his  six  spirits  of  evil, — will  against  will.  Later,  these 
powers  that  work  good  become  distributed  through  the 
material  world  as  presiding  genii  over  animals,  healing 
plants,  remedies,  metals,  food,  —  all  things  from  which 
benefit  was  derived.^  The  pure  order  of  worship,  em- 
bodied in  the  sacrifice,  as  Haoma,  becomes  a  beautiful 
youth,  who  stands  by  Zoroaster  in  the  flame  to  protect  and 
teach  him.*^  And  the  very  sentences  of  holy  writ  {^AJmna- 
vairya)  are  no  less  than  a  divine  being,  forever  victorious 
(^Hofiovar).  Then  come  hosts  of  Yazatas  and  Fravashis, 
genii,  and  spirits  of  the  just,  or  the  higher  selves  of  good 
men,  hovering  over  their  conflict  of  good  and  evil,  watchers 
and  guardians  of  the  right,  —  for  these  ideal  souls  are  all 
on  the  side  of  good,  and  are  invoked  individually  by  the 
names  of  good  men,  by  the  hundred  and  thousand  at  a 
time,  covering  surely  a  long  history,  of  which  we  know 
no  more ;  "^  and  against  these,  innumerable  Daevas,  Yatus, 
Drujas,  personified  evil  habits,  diseases,  monstrosities,  or 
other  horror  in  the  phenomena  of  Nature  or  the  imagina- 
tion of  man.^  And  the  good  spirits  gather  about  the  east- 
ern  mountain   Alborz    (Hara-berczaiii) ,  the  world-centre, 

1  Darmesteter:  Ormazd et  Ahrima7i,\>.  i,T,.  ^  Haug,  306. 

3  Perfect  king,  Harlez.  *  Fravardin  Yashi,  83,  84. 

5  Darmesteter:  Haurvetatet  Ameretat.  ^  Vafna,  ix. 

'  See  Boissier:  Religion  Romnifie,  ii.  131.     Fravardin  Yasht. 
'  See  Harlez  :  Avesta,\.  43. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM. 


whence  Mithra  rises  with  his  horses  of  the  Dawn  to  'give 
light  and  safety  to  the  world,  where  there  is  no  night,  nor 
cold,  nor  heat.^  And  the  demons  gather  at  Arezilra,  the 
world  of  darkness,  and  the  gate  of  hell.^ 

To  these  personal  antagonisms  correspond  physical 
ones,  —  happy  cultivated  lands  of  believers,  loved  of  the 
earth,  and  of  Ahura,  and  helped  by  all  useful  creatures, 
the  cow,  the  cock,  the  dog,  the  ox,  on  one  side ;  and  on 
the  other,  rude  wastes,  noxious  creatures,  dark  and  deadly 
forces,  like  storms  and  droughts,  and  scourges  that  can 
and  must  be  expelled  from  the  holy  earth. 

"  Who  rejoices  the  earth,  O  Ahura  ?  —  He  who  adorns  it  with  <jrain 
and  grass,  and  fruit-trees  ;  who  dries  the  moist  lands,  and  waters  the 
dry  places." 

"  Whoso  cultivates  barley,  cultivates  virtue.  When  the  wheat  ap- 
pears, the  demons  hiss  ;  when  sprouts  come,  they  whine  ;  when  the 
stalks  stand  up,  they  cry  ;  and  when  the  grain  is  in  ear,  they  flee  in 
rage  and  despair." 

"  The  earth  must  not  lie  untilled,  but  be  ploughed,  that  she  may 
be  no  longer  childless,  but  produce  bulls  for  man,  and  be  their  beauti- 
ful dwelling-place.  Whoever  tills  her  with  both  hands,  to  him  she 
bears  fruit,  as  a  lover  brings  a  son  to  her  beloved.  Whoever  tills  her 
not,  to  him  she  says,  '  Thou  shalt  stand  at  another's  gate  begging  food 
of  those  who  have  much.'  "  ^ 

To  destroy  noxious  insects  is  the  penance  for  sins. 
Plant  the  wilderness,  drain  the  marsh,  turn  streams  into 
the  sands,  raise  flocks  and  herds,  is  the  battle-cry  of  this 
race  that  goes  forth  to  possess  the  world  and  conquer  evil 
by  force  of  productive  work.  The  sun  in  his  victorious 
course,  dispelling  darkness  and  turning  death  to  life,  was 
the  eternal  monitor  to  this  human  war.  And  the  helpers 
were  ever  at  hand. 

"  Praise  to  thee,  O  holy  Bull,  who  givest  increase;  praise  to  thee, 
gift  of  the  Creator  for  the  pure  who  are  yet  unborn  !     Rise,  O  Clouds, 

'   Mihr-  Yaski.  2  Vendi'dad,  xix.  140-147. 

3   Vendid&d,  iii.  11-14;  gg-ioS ;  79-95. 


60  DEVELOPMENT. 

come  !  let  the  waters  fall  and  spread  abroad,  thousand  ten  thousand- 
fold waves,  to  destroy  disease  and  death  !  Rise,  O  Sun,  with  swift 
steeds  over  Alborz,  and  illumine  the  creatures,  on  the  path  which 
Ahura  hath  made  !  The  holy  word  says,  '  I  will  consecrate  thy  birth 
and  growth,  thy  body  and  strength  ;  will  make  thee  rich  in  children, 
in  milk  and  fatness,  in  the  cattle  which  roam  the  fields.  Rise,  O 
Moon,  that  boldest  the  germs  of  the  herds  !  ^  Rise,  O  splendid  Stars 
[or,  hid  in  depths],  ye  who  hold  the  seed  of  the  rain."  * 

The  stars  fight  in  their  courses  against  Ahriman.  The 
battle  of  the  star  Tistrya  with  the  demon  Apaosha  (or  the 
drought),  as  two  horses,  in  the  great  sea  Vouru-kasha,^  is 
the  old  storm-myth  of  the  Vedas,  expanded  and  endowed 
with  higher  meaning.  On  the  other  hand,  the  later  my- 
thology, probably  under  Semitic  influence,  treats  the  seven 
planets  in  the  old  Chaldean  fashion,  as  evil  powers  warring 
on  the  orderly  constellations,  which  they  seemed  to  invade 
like  roving  nomads  with  their  ever-varying  aspects  and 
moods.^  The  earth  itself,  as  the  soul  of  the  primal  Bull, 
makes  complaint  to  Ahuramazda  that  it  is  torn  in  pieces ; 
to  which  Ahura  replies  that  this  (which  means  ploughing) 
is  for  the  sake  of  harvests  for  man;  and  Zarathustra  is 
bidden  to  teach  this  gospel.^  Perhaps  the  soul  of  the  Bull 
is  not  the  earth,  but  the  cattle  themselves,^  the  useful  brute 
creation,  whose  weal  and  woe  are  matters  of  profoundest 
interest  for  this  religion.  From  the  seed  of  the  slain  Bull 
(slain  by  Ahriman)  come,  in  the  later  myth,  the  progeni- 
tors of  all  animals  and  plants."  Animals  are  pure  or  im- 
pure, by  rigid  rule;  but  their  relation  to  good  and  evil 
is  determined  not  so  much  by  their  moral  as  by  their  phy- 
sical qualities ;  often  by  some  obscure  or  incidental  asso- 
ciation, or  by  transference  from  the  old  Aryan  myth  of 
the  elemental  strife,  —  as  in  the  case  of  the  beaver,  by  the 

1  The  dews.  *   Vendidad,  xxi. 

3  The  atmosphere  (Dannesteter).  *  Mitiokkired,  viii.  i ;  Bundehesh,  v. 

^  Yacna-i  xxix.  ;  Haug.  The  Bundehesh  says  it  was  comforted  by  being  shown  the 
Ferouer  of  Zarathustra  (chap.  iv. ). 

8  This  is  Roth's  view ;  the  other  is  Haug's.  1  Bundehesh,  chap.  x. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  6 1 

resemblance  of  his  color  to  that  of  the  light  in  the  cloud  ;^ 
or  of  the  ant,  by  that  of  the  cloud  to  an  ant-hill,  covering 
up  a  swarming  life ;  ^  or  of  serpent-like  animals  in  general, 
which  inherit  the  bad  name  of  the  ancient  cloud-serpent.'^ 
Ardvi-gura,  the  strong  healer,  pours  her  waters  for  the  re- 
lief of  men  and  heroes.  Saviors  from  disease  and  death 
are  running  streams  and  growing  trees.  The  Bundehesh 
makes  a  mighty  rain  from  heaven  destroy  evil  creatures 
and  Tistrya  take  the  form  of  a  white  horse  to  remove  the 
poisonous  smell  of  their  dead  bodies.*  But  whatever  the 
origin  of  these  notions  about  certain  classes  of  animals, 
such  is  the  force  of  religious  association  that  most  of  these 
impure  creations  are  regarded  by  the  later  Parsis  as  really 
injurious.^  As  in  other  religions,  traditional  doctrine  had 
to  be  reconciled  with  facts  by  feats  of  accommodation. 
The  Bundehesh,  which  classes  animals  by  external  char- 
acters, —  mostly  arbitrary  and  accidental  ones,  —  makes 
Ahura  say  to  the  falcon,  who,  as  the  lightning,  is  one  of 
his  creation :  "  You  do  Ahriman's  will  rather  than  mine, 
since  you  destroy  so  many  smaller  birds.  But  if  I  had 
not  made  you,  Ahriman  would  have  done  so,  and  made 
you  so  great  that  no  small  bird  could  have  lived."  ^ 
Ahriman  made  the  peacock  a  harmless  bird ;  but  it  was 
only  to  show  that  he  could  make  a  good  thing.  All  grow- 
ing things  were  for  man's  use.  The  great  waters,  which 
the  star  Tistrya  had  to  win  from  the  evil  demon  by  a  ter- 
rible struggle,  held  the  seeds  of  all  plants,  which  fall  in  the 
rain  upon  the  earth ;  and  ten  thousand  of  them  are  for  the 
healing  of  as  many  diseases."  Haoma,  death-dispelling, 
shall  refresh  the  immortals.     Every  flower  belongs  to  a 

^  Darmesteter :  Ormazd et  Ahriman,  2S1,  —  again  the  old  storm-myth. 
-  See  Rig-  Veda,  iv.  ig,  g. 

3  Darmesteter  ;  Ormazd  et  Ahriman,  282-83.    These  explanations,  however  apparently 
fanciful,  have  undoubtedly  very  strong  foundations  in  mythological  evolution. 

^  Bic!idehesh,\'\\.  ^  Darmesteter:  Ormazd  et  A hri>nau,  285. 

•^  Darmesteter:  Onnazd  et  Ahriman,  2S6  ;  Bundehesh,  x\v. 
'  Bu?idehesh,  {:<.. 


62  DEVELOPMENT. 

guardian  god.-'  Seventeen  kinds  of  water  were  purified 
by  Zoroaster.^  Into  the  great  sea  there  run  a  hundred 
thousand  golden  conduits  from  the  mountain  at  the  eartli's 
centre  {Hara-berezaiti),  and  the  earth  is  fertilized,  in  aid 
of  human  toil,  by  streams  and  seas.^  "  Slowly  through 
ages  rises  the  great  mountain  to  the  everlasting  Light," 
and  two  thousand  mountains  spring  from  it  to  hold  the 
earth  firm.^ 

The  paradise  of  the  Avesta  is  the  transfiguration  of 
labor.  It  is  a  region  of  nine  hundred  kingdoms,  full  of 
cattle,  beasts  of  burden,  watch-dogs,  and  ruddy  flames. 
The  weapons  of  Yima  are  a  golden  spear,  for  piercing 
the  earth ;  also  a  golden  plough  (perhaps  shovel) :  with 
these  he  brings  forth  its  fruits,  expanding  it  threefold.^ 
Work  was  the  true  "  purification," —  live  work  of  men  on 
Nature.  The  facts  of  the  world  were  not  to  be  dodged ; 
the  senses  were  not  to  be  ignored.  The  material  was  not 
put  over  against  the  spiritual  as  essentially  evil.  The  good 
Ahura  had  made  good  things,  and  good  laws  for  expand- 
ing their  area  by  complying  with  their  conditions  and 
paying  their  price.  There  stands  the  world,  visible  as  the 
fire  that  animates  it,  —  our  battle-ground  to  be  redeemed 
from  physical  evils  and  from  the  moral  evil  which  poisons 
and  desolates  it.  This  practical  dualism  was  no  dream, 
but  sober  earnest.  Even  long  slumber  is  a  demon  to  be 
spurned.^ 

"  The  cock  lifts  up  his  voice  with  every  splendid  dawn,  and  cries  : 
'Arise,  ye  men!  praise  the  Best!  destroy  the  Daeva  that  would  put 
back  the  world  into  sleep!  Long  sleeping  becomes  you  not.  Turn 
not  away  from  the  three  best  things,  —  right  thoughts,  riglit  words, 
right  works  ;  turn  from  the  opposite  of  these  !'  'Arise,  'tis  day,'  says 
one  to  his  bedfellow ;  '  who  rises  first,  comes  first  to  paradise.  .  .  . 
Bring  fire,  and  be  blest  with  herds  and  ofTspring." '' 


'  Bundehesh,  xxvii.  '  Ibid  ,  xxi.  ^  Ibid,  xiii.  *  Ibid.,  xii. 

^  Vendidad,  ii  ^   Vendidad,  xi.  2^-36.  '   Vendidad,  xviii.  36-60. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  63 

There  shall  be  no  asceticism ;  no  self-torture ;  no  self- 
contempt;  no  excessive  fasting  nor  violent  grief ;  nothing 
that  can  enervate  the  soul  and  body  by  whose  toil  the 
world  shall  be  redeemed  with  the  righteousness  of  man. 

"  'T  is  an  offence  to  the  earth  when  the  mourners  for  good  people 
go  about  covered  with  dirt  and  loudly  lamenting."  "  He  who  does 
not  eat,  has  no  strength  to  live  according  to  right  order,  nor  to 
work."^  "To  be  helpless  and  enervated  is  the  nature  of  a  Druj 
(evil  demon)."  ^ 

Here  was  a  religion  that  could  makejieroes,  but  never  a 
monk.  It  poured  out  imprecations  on  all  that  caused  sick- 
ness or  death.  It  erected  its  altars  to  medicine,  and  made 
heahng  the  noblest  art.^  Thrita,  the  hero,  is  honored 
as  the  first  physician,  —  as  in  the  Vedas  also,  where  he  is, 
as  might  be  supposed  from  the  difference  of  the  races,  a 
saint,  —  and  the  Yazata  Airyama  is  invoked  to  smite  sick- 
ness and  death."*  "  We  praise  thee,  O  Earth,  our  dwelling- 
place  ;  and  thee,  the  lord  thereof,  Ahuramazda !  and  may 
there  be  in  my  dwelling,  summer  and  winter,  whatever 
brings  health  and  long  life  to  cattle,  to  men,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  the  pure."^  It  allowed  no  deed  to  be  put  off  till 
the  morrow  which  could  be  done  to-day.  It  is  wholly  in 
the  spirit  of  the  earlier  faith  that  the  later  Bundehesh  says, 
"  Remember,  in  the  resurrection  the  lost  ones  will  say  to 
you,  'Why  did  you  not  teach  me  to  do  right,  that  so  I 
might  have  been  saved?'" 

The  household  and  the  clan  (town)  must  be  purified  by 
the  same  holy  war. 

'  Vendidad,  'm. -ib,  ■ij  ;  112-114.     Harlaz's  note  on  this  seems  unreasonable. 

2  Vendidad,  xviii.  72. 

3  The  art  of  healing  is  made  the  subject  of  curious  provisions.  The  surgeon  shall  make  trial 
of  his  skill  on  the  Daeva-worshipper  first ;  and  if  he  fails  three  times  on  the  true  worshipper,  he 
shall  not  try  again.  His  prices  are  fixed  by  law  for  men  and  beasts.  Of  the  three  kinds  of 
physicians,  users  of  knives,  herbs,  and  holy  spells,  they  who  use  the  last,  the  sacred  formulas, 
are  the  best.      Veiididdd,  vii.  94-120. 

*   Vendidad,  xx.  11  ;  xxii.  E  Yagna,  xvii.  53-55. 


64  DEVELOPMENT. 

"  May  obstinacy  be  destroyed  by  obedience  in  this  dwelling,  dis- 
cord by  peace,  avarice  by  generosity,  vanity  by  wisdom,  lies  by  truth- 
fulness, that  the  Immortals  may  long  bless  it  with  good  maintenance 
and  friendly  help  !  Never  be  the  splendor  extinguished  of  prosperity 
or  progeny,  that  we  may  shine  with  purity,  and  see  thee,  O  Ahura, 
attaining  unto  thee  ('  without  end,'  —  Harlez).''''  "  May  there  be  given 
to  this  clan  purity,  dominion,  profit,  majesty,  splendor!"  ' 

Profoundest  of  all  antagonisms  was  that  of  Life  and 
Death  ;  and  in  that  centred  the  meaning  of  work.  By  his 
whole  nature  the  Iranian  was  a  reformer  of  the  actual 
world,  by  creating  whatever  belonged  to  life,  and  destroy- 
jing  whatever  belonged  to  death.  (^  Life  was  the  fire  he 
worshipped;  living  growth  his  ideal  good,  ^  No  sin  more 
deadly  than  suicide.^  Never  should  die  the  flame  of  his 
enthusiasm  for  consuming  all  morbific  and  fatal  things, 
for  turning  the  dead  clod  into  living  organism,  for  sweep- 
ing the  lines  of  cultivation  farther  and  farther  through  drift- 
ing sands  and  wide  salt  plains  and  snowy  wastes,  —  like 
quickening  Mithra,  life-giving  Haoma,  and  Ormuzd,  source 
of  fire.  Death  he  put  far  from  him,  his  absolute  negation: 
no  contact  with  its  decay.  Let  the  corpse  be  carried  out, 
away  from  living  earth,  from  living  streams,  from  the  abodes 
of  the  living,  and  committed  to  the  open  Dakhma,  and  the 
solvent  of  the  desert  air;  let  him  that  has  touched  it  be 
impure,  and  the  demon  be  expelled  from  member  to  mem- 
ber till  she  leaves  his  body  as  a  fly.^  For  letting  it  remain, 
even  though  but  a  dog's,  in  the  ground  two  years,  there  is 
no  atonement  forever.^  Not  for  fifty  years  does  the  earth 
become  pure  again.  Not  till  dust  be  turned  to  dust,  does 
the  very  Dakhma  bear  to  be  approached  by  the  pure.^ 

\  Death  is  the  chief  weapon  of  Ahriman,  In  the  spirit  of 
the  whole  faith,  the  later  myth  tells  us  that  he  begins  by  slay- 
ing the  primeval  creatures  of  Ahura,  the  man  Gayomard 

1  yafna,]\x.  -  Haug :  Essays,  elc,  313.  '   VeK^iddd,  v'm. 

*   Vendidad,  iii.  135.  6  Vendidad,  vii.  125,  127. 


AVESTAN    DUALISM.  65 

and  the  Bull,  who  have  lived  in  heavenly  bliss  six  thousand 
years, — a  celestial  union.^  Thus  is  opened  the  long  world- 
tragedy,  by  an  act  typical  of  the  whole.  But  the  seed  of 
Gayomard  was  purified  by  the  sun,  and  the  whole  race  of 
man  was  born  from  it,  to  wage  war  against  the  murderer 
till  he  should  be  utterly  subdued.'^  Of  a  divine  necessity, 
life  overswept  death  just  as  good  conquered  evil;  for  both 
were  one  conception.  "  The  soul  of  the  righteous  desires 
immortality  and  the  strength  that  overwhelms  the  wicked,"  ^ 
or  "attains  to  immortality,  but  that  of  the  wicked  has  ever- 
lasting punishment."^  According  to  his  choice  in  this  life, 
the  other  holds  him  to  the  master  to  whom  he  belongs ;  he 
goes  to  the  "  house  of  hymns  "  {Gard-demdna)  or  the 
"house  of  destruction"  {Driyd-de3ndna),3iCvoss  the  "bridge 
{Chinvai)  of  the  judge  "  or  "  gatherer,"  where  the  ques- 
tioning of  his  conscience  concerning  his  life  determines 
whether  there  be  width  enough  for  him  to  pass,  and  the 
angels  or  the  demons  take  their  own.^  The  wicked  spirits  ■ 
tremble  when  they  breathe  the  perfume  of  the  spirit  of  the 
pure.  "  Vohu-mano  rises  from  his  golden  throne  in  para- 
dise, and  asks.  How,  O  pure  One,  hast  thou  come  hither, 
from  the  mortal  to  the  immortal  life?" 

"Joyously  go  the  pure  souls  to  the  golden  throne  of 
Ahura  and  his  immortal  ones."  ^  "For  he  who  knows 
purity,  knows  Ahura;  to  such  he  is  father,  brother, 
friend."  ''  "  Teach  me  to  know  thy  laws,  O  Ahura,  that  I 
may  walk  by  the  help  of  thy  pure  spirit,  beholding  and 
communing  with  thee."^  Through  one's  own  soul  he  is 
justified  or  condemned.  A  fragment  from  one  of  the  latest 
writings  of  the  faith  (Minokhired),  but  fully  in  the  spirit  of 
the  earlier  ones,  describes  the  soul  of  the  pure  after  death 
as  met  on  its  way  by  a  sweet  wind  from  the  mid-day,  in 

*  Biindehesk,  xv.  '  Bundehesh,  xv. 

^  Ya{;na,  xliv.  7  ;  Harlez ;  Spiegel.  *  Yai^na,  xlv.  7  ;  Haug. 

6  Vetididad,  xix.  95,  96,  107.  *   Vendidad,  xix.  108 ;   103,  104. 

'  Yagtui,  xliv.  ;  Haug,  xlv.  *  Yag?ia,  xxxiii.,  xxxiv. 


66  DEVELOPMENT, 

which  comes  the  law  of  his  own  character,  as  a  beautiful 
and  stately  maiden,  who  declares  to  him  his  own  good 
words,  thoughts,  and  deeds,  and  their  heavenly  rewards, 
and  leads  him  to  the  divine  ford,  bestowed  at  Ahura's  own 
command ;  and  the  soul  of  the  wicked,  met  in  like  manner 
by  his  own  law,  as  an  evil  odor,  which  brings  him  to  the 
great  darkness  without  beginning,  and  the  poison  from 
Ahriman's  hands. ^  How  Christian  dogma  is  here  antici- 
pated ! 

It  is  noticeable  also  that  the  parallel  with  Christian  Dual- 
ism is  carried  out  in  the  creation  of  an  evil  humanity  by 
Ahriman,  in  opposition  to  the  good ;  ^  only  the  curse  is 
not  a  doom  of  depravity  on  the  whole  race,  but  the  crea- 
tion of  wicked  portions  outside  of  the  law.  The  war  of 
elements  in  the  old  storm-cloud  must  transfuse  the  life  of 
mankind  and  of  the  race.  This  appears  in  epos  and  his- 
tory as  the  strife  of  Iran  with  Turan.  Such  the  unceasing 
'Warfare  for  possession  of  the  soul  of  man. 

Immortality,  in  the  Avesta,  is  not  involved  in  trans- 
migration like  that  of  Brahmanism,  nor  in  ^nrvdua,  the 
Buddhist's  refuge  from  transmigration ;  it  docs  not  tend 
to  absorption  in  Ahura;  it  does  not  mingle  man  with  the 
brute,  nor  merge  him  with  the  god.  It  is  distinctly  and 
completely  personal;  the  beginning  of  that  relation  to  the 
future  which  has  given  Christianity  its  hold  upon  the  Aryan 
world.  All  the  tragedy,  all  the  poetry,  which  has  gathered 
around  the  conception  of  the  individual  as  a  boundless 
possibility  of  good  or  evil,  not  in  this  life  only,  but  for 
everlasting  existence,  has  its  germ  in  the  religion  of  Iran. 
The  Jews  did  not  come  out  of  their  gloomy  and  shadowy 

'  See  Spiegel's  K/iardai-Avesia,  xxxvu'i.  The  Bimdehcsk  says  tlint  at  the  judgment 
"  every  one  will  see  his  own  works,  good  or  evil,  as  clear  as  white  from  black;  each  receives 
the  reward  of  his  doings;  the  good  weep  for  the  bad,  and  the  bad  for  themselves."  (Chap, 
xxxi  )     Jiisti. 

-  Darinesteter :  Ormazd et  Ahrhnan,  287.  Rut  the  later  mythology  derives  all  race?,  in 
all  the  seven  quarters  of  the  world,  as  well  as  all  the  strange  amorphous  kinds  of  men  with 
which  imaguiation  had  peopled  the  wastes  of  Central  Asia,  from  the  seed  of  Gayomard. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  6/ 

Shedl  till  Persia  had  taught  them  in  the  exile  this  idea  of 
the  permanence  of  individual  being ;  nor  did  Christianity 
add  anything  to  the  positiveness  of  this  older  faith  in  a 
future  existence. 

Man's  infinite  worth  divides  the  universe  and  draws  all 
living  powers  to  the  one  or  the  other  side.  On  him,  their 
central  sum  and  purpose,  the  poles  of  creation  turn.  And 
it  is  no  mere  strife  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  one  of  spirit 
against  spirit  waged  in  the  world  of  moral  volition.  Here 
is  a  race  that  converts  its  sensualities  into  ideas  that  it 
may  master  them  in  their  essence.  It  is  will  and  it  is  pur- 
pose that  infects  or  purifies  the  elements ;  and  nothing 
shall  move  man's  desire  or  dread  in  them  but  their  reflex 
of  his  own  spiritual  attractions  to  the  light  or  to  the  dark. 
He  surrounded  himself  with  legions  of  intensely  active 
wills,  rank  over  rank,  sphere  beyond  sphere,  penetrating 
and  animating  Nature,  giving  significance  to  its  forces  and 
forms  ;  not  moving  in  the  play  of  harmony  before  the  out- 
ward eye,  like  the  gods  of  the  aesthetic  Greek ;  not  in 
mystical  illusion,  like  the  passive  Hindu's,  —  but  arrayed 
against  each  other,  like  the  warring  hosts  of  Milton's  Chris- 
tian epic  (which  is  but  a  modern  Avesta).  the  rent  republic 
of  the  spiritual  universe  in  arms.  The  Platonic  to  haifxo- 
viov,  the  immeasurable  ideal  space  through  which  the  per- 
fection of  deity  gradually  descended  into  union  with  the 
human,  Avas  here  brimming  and  seething  with  the  deadly 
conflict  of  opposing  wills.  The  Iranian  Satan  was  no  poor 
monster  with  nostrils  fire-breathing,  with  horns  and  hoofs 
of  beast ;  no  Lucifer  fallen  from  heaven  to  play  the  rebel 
against  God,  on  a  throne  of  desperation  and  under  omni- 
potent thunderbolts  of  doom, —  but  an  invisible  Presence, 
armed  with  personal  power  equal  to  his  hate  of  good, 
infecting  alike  the  outward  and  the  inward  worlds.  The 
righteous  purpose  only  could  resist  and  overcome  him; 
and  its  weapons  were  threefold. 


68  DEVELOPMENT. 

1.  The  spirit  of  Ahura:  — 

"  O  Father  over  the  herds  and  over  the  just  through  his  love  of 
justice,  over  the  pure  creation  through  its  purity  :  Thou  manifest 
giver  of  good,  whose  greatness,  goodness,  and  beauty  we  desire  (to 
augment  1)  !  May  he  protect  us,  direct  us,  by  [our]  purity,  activity, 
liberaHty,  and  tenderness,  with  the  fire  of  Ahura."  -  "  Inquire  of  me, 
with  a  right  spirit,  —  of  me,  the  Creator,  who  is  ready  to  answer  ;  so 
shall  it  be  well  with  thee,  and  thou  shalt  attain  to  purity  if  thou  seek- 
est  me."  ^ 

2.  The  word  or  law  of  Ahura  {Mdthra-^penta):  mean- 
ing, first,  the  revelation  through  Zoroaster,  probably  the 
five  Gathas;  then  the  three  sacred  formulas,  especially 
Ahuna-vairya  embodying  the  praise  of  obedience  and 
purity,  and  succor  to  the  poor,  as  the  kingdom  of  God,* 
which  "  was  before  the  heavens  or  the  earth,  the  righteous 
or  the  unrighteous  powers,"  —  and  of  which  the  recitation 
should,  like  the  Hindu  Gayatri,  bring  salvation;  but  the 
taking  away  of  any  part  of  it,  in  utterance,  banishment  as 
far  from  heaven  as  the  world  is  wide  :^  and  as  the  priestly 
ritualism  increased,  the  efficacy  of  words  to  save  became 
extended  to  a  host  of  formulas  for  invocation  and  service, 
until  the  Persian  Bible,  in  common  with  all  Bibles,  became 
a  missal  of  superstition ;  and  last,  came  the  sacred  author- 
ity of  spoken  truth  to  punish  and  destroy  lies.  A  word  is 
the  first  of  sanctions  which  are  called  mithras  ;  and  of  a 
word  in  this  sense  Mithra  is  the  guardian  and  avenger. 
"  Break  not  a  promise  {iJiithra),  neither  with  a  just  man, 
nor  an  unbeliever,"  —  for  it  is  for  the  good  and  the  bad 
alike.     He  who  lies  to  Mithra   destroys  the  whole  land ; 

1  Harlez.  2  Vacnft,  ]vu.  10-12;  Spiegel. 

^  Vendidad,  xviii.  18-20.  All  the  powers,  symbolical  and  spiritual,  consecrated  by  the 
traditional  faith  as  belonging  to  Ahura,  were  instrumental  in  his  aid.  Thus  the  Yashts  say 
(xiii.  77)  that  Ahriman  is  driven  back  by  Atar  and  Vohu-mano,  or  fire  and  good  thought:  as 
in  the  Vedas  by  Indra  and  Prayer  ;  that  Asha-zmhisia  fire  keeps  guard  over  him  in  hell ;  that 
the  multitudinous  Ferouers  watch  the  wall  which  Ahura  has  built  around  the  holy  mountain. 

*  Spiegel;  Khordah-Avesta,'^di.m  3.  ^  Kaf«n,  xix.  12-15. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  69 

slays  as  many  as  a  hundred  evil  doers. ^  "For  Mithra  can- 
not be  deceived.  Those  who  deal  not  false  with  him,  he 
brings  out  of  all  their  trouble ;  from  the  arms  of  liars  he 
takes  away  might,  from  their  feet  strength,  from  their  eyes 
sight,  from  their  ears  hearing.  Mithra,  who  watches  with 
ten  thousand  eyes,  all-knowing,  may  not  be  deceived."  ^ 
Haug  has  well  said  that  "  the  angel  RasJmu-razishta,  the 
rightest  righteousness,"  whom  the  Yasht  in  his  praise  de- 
scribes as  present  in  all  beings,  places,  and  forms,  repre- 
sents the  eternal  laws  of  Nature  and  morality,  like  the 
Themis  of  the  Greeks.^ 

3.  Work:  the  sacred  efficacy  of  labor;  the  praying, 
with  the  hands  fulfilling  the  prayer,  —  as  real  three  thou- 
sand years  ago  as  to  us  to-day.  The  sweat  of  the  brow 
was  no  curse  to  these  builders  of  their  heaven  out  of  the 
conditions  of  the  earth;  no  bitter  fruit  of  a  Fall,  as  with 
the  Hebrew.  Praise  and  prayer  went  with  it,  —  service 
of  God,  redemption  of  man.  Yima  widened  out  the  world, 
filled  his  paradise  with  cattle,  beasts  of  burden,  busy, 
happy  men ;  and  the  Earth  answered  his  prayer  and  the 
stroke  of  his  spear,  or  plough,  with  her  increase ;  and 
at  command  of  Ahura,  he  drove  his  herds  to  milder 
climes,  and  bore  the  seeds  of  plants,  and  with  work  of 
hands  and  heel  made  a  golden  land,  where  harvests  did 
not  fail,  where  was  no  wrangling,  no  beggary,  nor  false- 
hood, poverty,  nor  sickness,  nor  ravenous  creature  of 
Ahriman,  —  all  before  his  bitter  fall.*  So  Egypt  ascribed 
the  plough  to  Osiris,  the  Greeks  to  Ceres,  the  Chinese  to 
mythic  kings ;  the  Vedic  Hindus  to  the  Acvins,  "  sons  of 
the  sky;"  the  Scythians  thought  it  fell  from  heaven.^  It 
was  said  that  Hesiod,  in  his  sentence,  "  the  idle  are  ene- 
mies of  the  gods,"  set  a  new  law  in  place  of  the  law  of 
Oriental  society.     But  Iran   disproves  the  assertion.     To 

1  Mihr-Yasht,  i.  ^  Mihr-Yasht^  6.  ^  Essays,  etc.,  205. 

*   Vendidad,  ii.  *  Herod,  iv.  s- 


70  DEVELOPMENT. 

the  Mazdean  belongs  the  honor  of  having  clearly  and 
practically  conceived,  through  the  moral  and  religious 
earnestness  of  his  grasp  on  the  stern  conditions  of  life, 
that  divine  work  depends  on  human,^ — not  only  on  man's 
hand-work,  but  the  praise  and  prayer  which,  while  fulfilling 
the  law, assures  its  growth.  "Grow, O  Haoma, through  my 
word."^ 

The  whole  of  this  spiritual  armor  against  evil  is  summed 
up  in  one  sentence,  the  ever-recurring  formula,  —  "  Right- 
ness  of  thought,  word,  and  deed ;  "  often  called  "  purity,"^ 
and  constantly  associated  with  forms  and  rites  of  purifi- 
cation, which  are  minutely  detailed  for  priest  and  people 
in  the  Vendidad  chapters,  but  by  the  very  terms  of  the 
formula  clearly  centring  in  inward  aspiration  and  moral 
endeavor.  Neither  thought, word,  nor  deed,  alone  suffices; 
but  their  integrity  in  the  will.  "  Turn  not  away  from  the 
well-considered  thought,  the  well-spoken  word,  the  well- 
done  action."  ^  "  Call  him  the  true  fire-priest,  who  the 
whole  night  seeks  guidance  from  a  righteous  understand- 
ing, fit  for  the  bridge  of  judgment,  and  obtaining  the  life, 
righteousness,  and  perfection  of  paradise  [the  best  life]." 
"  Inquire,  O  Just  One,,  of  me,  who  am  the  Creator  most 
bounteous  and  wise,  and  readiest  to  answer,  —  inquire,  and 
it  shall  be  well  with  thee."^  For  indeed  "purity"  is  no 
less  than  Ahuramazda  himself,  who  is  ahv^ays  called  the 
"  Pure  One,"  and  can  be  found  only  by  the  will  that  is  at 
one  with  his.  A  perpetual  warfare  to  redeem  to  its  ori- 
ginal goodness  as  his  creation  what  his  moral  and  physi- 
cal opposite  had  poisoned,  involved  prescribed  methods 
of  procedure,  based  at  first,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  on 

'  See  Tistrya  and  Fravardin  Yashts ;  Spiegel.  2  Ya(:na,-!i.  11. 

3  A  ska  —  commonly  rendered  "purity,"  which  was  applied  at  once  to  gods  and  men,  and 
which  expressed  at  first  the  cosmic  order,  the  religious  norm  and  truth  of  things  —  became  the 
vague  expression  of  moral  order;  and  the  Asliavan  man  became  the  good  man,  who  fulfilled 
the  duties  of  the  law,  etc.     Darmesteter  :  Ormazd  et  Ahrimatt,  p.  18. 

*   Vendidad,  xviii.  15-17,  Haug;  41-42,  Spiegel. 

5  Ibid.,  xviii.  6,  7,  Haug;  13-20,  Spie;,e!. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  7 1 

obvious  relations  to  the  object  in  view;  and  even  as  they 
went  on  multiplying  by  mere  prescription,  they  still  repre- 
sented at  least  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  Being  through 
them  adored  and  served.  They  were  very  much  concerned 
in  protecting  against  the  contact  of  dead  bodies.  As  the 
fire  of  life  was  the  very  body  of  virtue,  so  death  was  ab- 
horred and  accursed  as  the  symbol  of  evil.  Diseases,  and 
all  apparently  abnormal  physical  conditions,  or  those  which 
were  accompanied  with  startling  or  mysterious  phenomena, 
were  also  sources  of  impurity.  It  would  be  unprofitable  to 
trace  the  various  kinds  or  grounds  of  purification,  which 
were  multiplied  by  the  immediate  relation  of  religion  to 
the  bodily  condition  of  the  physical  world.  But  all  puri- 
fication has  value  only  as  it  helps  to  purity  in  thought, 
word,  and  deed.  The  very  formula  betrays  the  essence 
of  virtue  to  have  been  truth,  earnestness,  the  hate  of  lies, 
the  love  of  the  real.  And  this,  which  marks  the  whole 
history  of  Iranian  belief,  from  the  oldest  Gathas  to  the 
latest  Achsemenian  inscription,  is  the  natural  expression 
of  that  peculiar  sense  of  dignity  and  worth  in  the  person 
which  enters  the  historic  field  with  Iranian    Will. 

The  Avesta  has  no  theory  of  the  origin  of  evil  other 
than  as  a  fact  involved  in  that  freedom  of  choice  which 
belongs  to  personality.  Ahriman  chooses  falsehood  before 
truth.  It  is  only  in  the  latest  Parsi  books  that  he  is  repre- 
sented as  the  result  of  doubts  in  the  Supreme  Mind,  —  a 
notion  which  shows  the  persistence  of  the  same  theory. 
Yima's  fall  from  paradise  is  due  to  his  fall  from  truth, 
under  temptation  of  Ahriman.  Mashya  and  Mashyana, 
the  first  man  and  woman,  —  according  to  the  same  later 
mythology,  mixed  with  Chaldean  and  Semitic  traditions, 
—  at  first  seeing  the  truth,  and  aspiring  to  do  like  the 
Yazatas,  soon  freely  yield  to  the  temptation  of  the  Parsi 
Satan  to  believe  the  lie  that  he  was  the  creator.  They  fall 
into  delusions  about  eating  and  drinking,  which  deprave 


72  DEVELOPMENT. 

their  bodies ;  are  driven  to  searching  out  inventions  for 
their  support;  lose  their  love,  and  dwell  apart,  and  then 
sacrifice  to  Daevas.^  Seven  couples  proceeding  from  them 
give  birth  to  different  nations,  while  this  Parsi  Adam  and 
Eve  become  "like  unto  demons,  and  their  souls  will  be  in 
hell "  till  the  resurrection.^  Their  descendants  go  back, 
reversing  their  track,  to  the  pure  life  which  needs  no 
food ;  and  when  Sosyosh,  the  redeemer,  comes,  all  is  re- 
stored by  the  ordeal  of  fire.^  This  very  artificial  story  is 
made  up  of  foreign  elements,  and  has  obviously  no  philo- 
sophical value.  It  is  significant  only  as  showing  the  per- 
sistence of  the  old  Iranian  instinct  to  trace  all  human 
experience  to  the  free  personality  of  man. 

Here,  then,  is  the  earliest  affirmation  of  human  liberty 
as  the  substance  of  a  religion,  —  the  first  genuine  escape 
of  man  from  the  dominion  of  Fate,  and  introduction  to  the 
law,  life,  and  progress  of  individual  and  personal  energy. 

In  this  way  the  Iranian  solved  the  problem  of  evil,  stern 
and  inevitable  then  as  now ;  pointing  out  and  entering  the 
path  of  solution  which  all  religions  that  succeeded  him 
have  followed.  He  did  not  ignore  evil ;  tried  neither  to 
think  it  away  by  abstraction,  nor  to  hide  it  under  a  heap 
of  interests  and  pursuits.  He  bravely  met  it  in  his  own 
will  and  in  the  Avorld ;  pursued  it  through  soul  and  sense, 
to  the  very  bounds  of  his  thought,  battling  it  down  with 
Ahuramazda's  purity  of  thought  and  life,  and  Yima's 
dagger  of  work. 

Is  it  correct  to  define  the  Avesta-religion  as  Dualism? 
That  is,  does  it  consciously  affirm  two  equal  forces,  coeval 
in  being,  and  eternally  at  war?  The  language  certainly 
implies  this,  since  the  Good  and  the  Evil  principles  are 
even    called    "  primeval   twins "  *    in    the    oldest    Gathas, 

*  Bundehesh,  chap.  xv. :  Justi.  ^  Ibid. 

*  Bundekesh,  chap,  xxxi.;  Justi.  *  Va(na,  xxx.  3. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  73 

ascribed  to  Zoroaster  himself.  Nothing  could  be  more 
strongly  stated  than  the  intrinsic  antagonism  of  these 
powers.^  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  Haug  can 
reconcile  with  the  whole  tenor  of  these  writings  his  theory 
that  the  older  portions  at  least  are  purely  monotheistic,  in 
the  sense  that  the  two  "  minds,"  good  and  evil,  are  both 
included  in  the  conception  of  Ahuramazda;  and  still 
further,  that  the  one  represents  the  real,  and  the  other  the 
unreal,^  —  mere  "destruction  or  lie"  {DniJ), —  these  two 
being  "united  in  the  one  God"  as  his  "two  spirits." ^  The 
passages  which  Haug  translates  in  accordance  with  this 
theory  are  differently  rendered  by  Harlez,  Spiegel,  and 
Bleeck,  who  also  agree  with  each  other.'*  Zoroaster's 
theology,  in  Haug's  view,  recognizes  one  Creator  of  light 
and  darkness,  good  and  evil,  like  the  Hebrew  Jahveh;^ 
and  is  to  be  distinguished  from  his  philosophy  of  evil, 
which  was  dualistic.  The  distinction  is  a  rational  one, 
though  in  the  absence  of  certainty  whether  the  specific 
Gathas  on  which  it  is  based  are  rightly  ascribed  to  Zoro- 
aster, and  in  view  of  the  disagreement  of  translators,  it 
is  doubtful  if  we  are  yet  justified  in  making  it.  As  to 
Jehovah,  there  is  a  distinction  to  be  made.  Hebrew  and, 
Iranian  conceptions  differ  in  respect  of  the  focal  distance 
of  deity,  as  seen  by  man,  —  a  distance  so  great  in  the  one 
case  (Hebrew),  that  the  act  of  creating  evil  could  not  be 
supposed  to  involve  anything  analogous  to  human  respon- 
sibility, especially  responsibility  to  human  reason  or  con- 
science, on  a  positively  unlimited  will,  which  might  at  its 
pleasure  have  transformed  evil  into  good,  or  right  into 
wrong;  a  distance  in  the  other  case  (Iranian)  so  imper- 
ceptible, that  to  ascribe  evil  to  God  would  be,  first,  to 
make  Him  directly  responsible  for  that  which  it  was  His 

1  See,  especially,  Vendidad.  '  Essays,  etc.,  p.  303. 

8  Yagtia,  xix.  9.  <   ]'«(■««,  xix.  g  ;  xlv.  2  ;  Haug. 

*  II.  Samuel  xii.  11  ;  Isaiah  xlv.  7  ;  Haug:  Essays,  etc.,  p.  302. 


74  DEVELOPMENT. 

very  life  to  break  down  and  destroy,  as  His  essential  oppo- 
site and  innate  foe;  and  next,  to  contradict  that  present 
character  by  which  alone  He  was  known  to  man.  For  the 
Hebrew,  good  and  evil,  moral  and  physical,  could  more 
readily  be  ascribed  to  one  creative  source,  because  crea- 
tion was,  if  not  exactly  production  out  of  nothing,  yet 
approaching  to  it,  since  the  thing  created  was  somehow 
external  to  the  Creator;  but  for  the  Iranian,  to  whom 
creation  was  simply  a  spiritual  self-affirmation,  distinctly 
significant  of  its  maker,^  good  and  evil  were  expressions 
of  positively  antagonistic  wills,  and  could  hardly  as  such 
be  thrown  back  upon  one  and  the  same  person.  The 
attempt  to  do  so  was  made  in  later,  probably  Sassanian, 
times  (fifth  century  of  Christianity),  under  Semitic  influ- 
ence, doubtless  Babylonian,^  and  is  still  adhered  to  by  the 
Parsis.  Schemes  prevailed  deriving  the  world  from  Time, 
Fate,  Light,  Space.  Both  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  were  made 
to  spring  from  Zrvan-akarana,  "  Boundless  Time,"  —  a 
substance  sufficiently  vague  to  be  but  semi-personal,  if  not 
impersonal,  —  in  hopes  to  reconcile  the  older  Dualism  with 
a  distincter  demand  for  unity  in  the  religious  conception. 
A  partial  basis  for  this  idea  was,  according  to  Haug,  in 
the  mistranslation  of  a  passage  in  which  it  is  said  that 
the  weapons  to  smite  Ahriman  were  "made  /;/  boundless 
time."^  But  the  history  of  the  doctrine  points  to  a  deeper 
meaning.  And  although  Haug  considers  Dualism  to  have 
been  merely  the  philosophy,  and  monotheism  the  theology, 
of  the  older  Avesta,  he  cannot  but  think  that  a  philosophy 
which  reconciles  itself  with  monotheism  by  making  a  good 

1  "The  idea  of  creation  is  expressed  in  the  Avesta  by  the  root  da,  to  institute,  poser." 
Darmesteter  :  Orinazd  ei  Ahriman,  \).  23. 

2  See  Lenormant  :  Chaldean  Magic,  English  edition,  p.  230.  So  Spieiel  :  Siudien  iiber 
das  Zend.ivesta  [Zeitsckr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  v.  221).  Rapp  (in  the  same,  xix. 
S3).  Rawlinson,  who  identifies  Zrvan-akarana  with  Eel  Ziru-banit  of  the  Assyrian  inscription 
(Jour.  Royal  Asiatic  Soc.  xv.  p.  245,  note  2).  Pictet :  Les  Origines  Indo-Europeennes,  ii.  717. 
Carrfe  :  L'Ancien  Orient,  ii.  p.  375. 

2  Haug:  Essays,  etc.,  p.  24. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  75 

spirit  create  a  bad  one,  in  such  way  that  the  latter  becomes  a 
"twin  spirit"  witli  itself,  is  a  speculation  on  the  question  of 
origin,  which  we  should  hardly  expect  to  find  in  the  early 
stages  of  a  religion,  or  even  in  a  monotheistic  reformer  at 
such  a  stage.  It  is  only  an  advanced  and  refined  mono- 
theism that  would  abstract  the  positive  quality  of  evil,  espe- 
cially moral  evil,  so  completely  as  to  subsume  it  under  the 
plans  and  methods  of  a  perfect  being,  —  for  example,  upon 
ontological  grounds,  such  as  the  necessity  of  imperfection 
in  all  finite  processes.  Hebrew  monotheism  was  by  no 
means  consistent.  Yet  the  Hebrews  never  ascribed  human 
passions  and  vices  to  Jahveh,  except  so  far  as  they  could 
justify  these  to  themselves  by  their  nature  or  effects.^ 

For  myself,  I  do  not  think  Zoroastrianism  shows  any 
signs  whatever  of  a  philosophy  of  evil,  any  more  than 
Judaism.  It  is  a  moral  and  spiritual  protest  against  evil ; 
and  it  uses  the  phraseology  of  a  twofold  creation  simply 
to  concentrate  and  antagonize  the  two  sides  of  actual 
experience,  behind  which  it  goes  not. 

I  agree  with  Haug  so  far  as  this,  that  I  do  not  find  pure 
Dualism  in  the  religion  of  the  Avesta;  but  still  less  do  I 
find  one  good  God  dividing  himself  through  creation  into 
twin  antagonistic  principles.  The  Avesta  affirms  Ahura  as 
superior,  and  Ahriman  as  inferior. 

I.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Ahura  is  the  Iranian 
representative,  even  genealogically,  of  the  old  Aryan 
Varuna,^  supreme  Lord  (Asura),  and  omniscient  {vicva- 
vedas)  ordainer  of  the  laws  of  the  universe  and  of  the 
moral  order,  whose  eyes  behold  every  deed  of  man,  and 
whose  bonds   (or  nooses)  are   the   inevitable   penalties   of 


1  In  the  earlier  of  the  Jehovah  passages  referred  to,  the  word  "  evil  "  is  not  used  posi- 
tively, but  with  reference  to  its  quality  as  penalty  inflicted  by  Jehovah,  and  therefore  as  good; 
and  even  in  the  later,  as  the  antithesis  to  "peace,"  it  signifies  trouble,  which  is  here  referred 
to  God,  thus  changing  it  into  blessing, 

^  In  Indo-European  period,  as  Varana  (Gr.  Ouranos).  See  the  author's  India,  chapter 
on  "  The  Hymns." 


^6  DEVELOPMENT. 

his  sin.^  The  same  quahties  and  symbols  belong  to  both ; 
they  are  both  associated  with  Mithra  (the  sun)  ;  both  are 
gods  of  fire,  parents  of  the  Atharvan,  or  personified  sacri- 
ficial flame;  both  "masters  of  all  the  gods."  Each  is 
chief  of  a  band  of  seven  immortal  powers,  —  the  one  Adi- 
tyas,  the  other  Amesha-^pentas.  Varuna  was  the  far  depth 
of  space,  the  rounding  heaven,  the  limits  of  thought  and 
power;  and  thus,  and  thus  only,  naturally  associated  with 
the  mystery  of  night,  as  well  as  with  the  orderly  movement 
of  the  heavenly  bodies,  which  night  in  fact  revealed.  Now 
it  was  easy  for  the  Iranians  to  make  this  grandest  of  the 
old  Asuras  their  supreme  Ahura;  but  it  was  scarcely 
possible  that  they  should  have  made  him  the  source  of 
Ahriman,  since  it  was  precisely  this  absoluteness  of  his 
moral  being  that  determined  them  to  choose  him  from 
among  all  the  old  deities  as  their  supreme  God.  He  is 
the  unity  of  truth  and  light;  he  is  light  because  truth. 
And  this  is  precisely  the  significance  of  Ahura.  The 
very  essence  of  Ahriman,  on  the  contrary,  is  the  unity  of 
falsehood  and  darkness ;  he  is  the  one  because  the  other. 
It  is  true  that  Varuna  was  also  associated  with  the  dark- 
ness of  night ;  true  also  that  there  were  aspects  in  his  laws 
of  penalty  which  fear  might  have  turned  into  signs  of 
hate:  the  "nooses  of  Varuna"  were  doubtless  the  terror 
of  the  wicked.  His  anger  is  indeed  often  spoken  of."^  "As 
the  night  sun,"  says  a  commentator,  "  he  is  even  regarded 
as  the  god  of  evil."^  But  evil  from  Varuna  could  only 
have  been  the  penal  suff"erings  of  the  sinner,  —  the  sign,  not 
of  moral  evil  in  the  god  himself,  but  of  righteousness.  He 
is  even  called  merciful  to  the  sinner,  and  supplicated  as 
providential  care.*  There  is  nothing  to  hint  of  Ahrimanic 
quality  in  Varuna's  bonds  of  moral  order,  more  than  in  his 
grand  paths  in  the  nightly  sky. 

1  Rig-Veda,\\'\\.  ^2,\\  ii.  27,  lo  ;  vii.  86.  See  also  Darmesteter  :  Orwrts^^^i"  ^/;yiV«rt«,  42. 
*  See  "  Hymns  to  Varuna,"  in  Langles'  Bibliothique  Orientale,'p  3S6.  Rig-Veda,\n.  86. 
s  Langles'  Bib.  Orient.,  p.  126.  *   Pig-Veda,  vii.  86. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  7/ 

2.  I  observe  that  evil  is  everywhere  conceived  as  infe- 
rior and  secondary ;  and  so  far  from  being  commanded  to 
worship  it  as  he  does  good,  the  behever  is  to  hate,  spurn, 
and  destroy  it.  If  it  were  a  part  of  Ahura's  own  being,  that 
could  not  be.  There  is  no  such  mysticism  in  Zoroaster  as 
to  inculcate  the  service  of  one  spirit  of  God  by  destroying 
another  spirit  of  God.  Religion  is  ever  the  service  of  the 
ideal.  But  it  is  idle  to  imagine  that  which  a  man  hates 
and  fights  through  what  he  holds  higher  and  nobler  than 
it,  to  be  his  ideal,  —  in  other  words,  to  be  his  God.  He 
may  worship  many  gods,  and  some  in  fear  of  their  power, 
as  the  Vedic  Aryans  did ;  but  when  he  has  gathered  up 
the  forces  of  the  universe  into  two  principles, — the  one  in 
accordance  with  his  sense  of  duty  and  right,  and  his  idea 
of  constructive  good  ;  and  the  other  utterly  and  absolutely 
in  opposition  thereto,  —  and  believes  himself  called  to  the 
extirpation  of  the  one  and  the  exaltation  and  triumph  of 
the  other,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  he  can  be  said  to 
believe  the  two  to  be  equal  principles,  or  to  worship  the 
one  as  well  as  the  other,  or  the  one  as  a  modification  or 
expression  of  the  other.  That  only  which  he  holds  high- 
est and  best,  to  which  he  gives  his  service,  is  his  God. 

Now  the  Avesta  is  wholly  in  accordance  with  this  rule. 
Ahura  is  the  first  to  create.  Ahriman  creates,  not  inde- 
pendently, but  only  in  opposition  to  Ahura ;  or,  if  Haug's 
translation  be  correct,  creates  "non-reality"  only.^  Ahura 
makes  good  things,  with  calm,  full  consciousness  of  their 
inherent  goodness  and  of  their  good  issue.  Ahriman 
makes  evil  things,  under  a  delusion  about  their  value,  and 
learns  their  evil  destiny  only  when  it  comes  upon  them. 
He  is  powerless  when  strongly  opposed.  His  essential 
weakness,  disappointment,  and  despair  get  the  better  of 
him  on  all  momentous  occasions, —  as,  for  instance,  the 
birth  of  Zoroaster,^  when  he  flies  with  all  his  hosts  to  bury 

^  Yafna,  xxx.  3,  4.  2   Vendiddd,  xix.  147. 


78  DEVELOPMENT. 

himself  in  hell.  He  cannot  prevent  the  good  genii  from 
striking  him  and  driving  away  his  powers.^  Even  in  the 
later  writings,  —  in  which  the  two  powers  are  so  equalized 
that  the  one  is  throned  in  eternal  light,  the  other  in  pri- 
meval darkness,  —  Ahura,  by  superior  knowledge,  cheats 
Ahriman  into  a  truce  for  nine  thousand  years  before  their 
war  should  begin,  thereby  securing  to  himself  the  victory, 
anticipating  him  by  creating  the  world  of  matter  and  man 
between  their  two  realms,  as  a  bulwark,  and  then,  repeat- 
ing the  formula,  A/mna-vairya,  so  terrifies  him  at  the 
discovery  of  what  he  has  conceded  that  he  hides  himself 
for  three  thousand  years.^  Down  to  the  tenth  century, 
and  the  heresy  of  Anselm  of  Canterbury,  tlie  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Atonement  afhrmed  a  similar  stretch  of 
cunning  practised  by  Christ  upon  the  Devil  to  deprive 
him  of  his  legitimate  rights  to  the  soul  of  man.  Every- 
thing in  the  Avesta  points  to  nonentity  as  the  end  to 
w'hich  Zoroastrianism  would  pursue  its  evil  principle.^ 
Some  later  Persian  sects  conceive  of  its  relation  to  the 
good  simply  as  that  of  the  shadow  to  the  light.'^  Cud- 
worth^  quotes  Plutarch  and  Theopompus  to  prove  that 
Ahriman  was  inferior  and  transient;  and  affirms  that  the 
"  Ditheists  "  (Magi)  started  with  "  a  firm  persuasion  of  the 
essential  goodness  of  the  Deity,"  but  to  explain  the  evil 
in  the  world  had  "to  suppose  another  animalish  principle,*^ 
self-existent,  or  an  evil  god."  Ahura  loves  the  good,  and 
so  creates  it.  But  Ahriman  exists  only  by  negation,  and 
only  creates  evil  because  he  hates   the   good,  and  wishes 

*  Spiegel:  Eranische  Alterthumskunde.,  ii.  p.  123.  Tahmurath  binds  and  rides  him  in 
form  of  a  liorse  {Yasht,  xv  12  ;  xix.  2g)  He  is  powerless  when  sacrifice  is  made  to  the  air 
(Yasht,  XV.  56).     Zoroaster  "reaches  him  against  his  will"  [Yashty  xvii.  19). 

'  Bundehesk,  chap.  i. ;  Justi.     See  also  Spiegel  :  Avesta,  iii.  1.  lii. 

8  Biineiehesh,  chap.  i. 

*  Hyde  :   Veienun  Persanim  .  .  .  Religionis  Historia,  cap.  xxii. 
5  Intellectual  System,  \-  354,  379. 

^  Plutarch  {Isis  and  Osiris,  xlvi.)  distinguishes  Zoroaster  from  those  who  "  make  two 
rival  gods,"  as  "calling  the  father  God,  the  other  Daemon."  So  Aristotle:  Metaphysics, 
xiii    4. 


AVEST.\N   DUALISM.  79 

to  kill  it ;  and  this,  says  the  Bundehesh,  is  his  eternal  dark- 
ness.-^  He  is  the  god  of  negation.  This  anticipation  of  the 
highest  sense  of  civilization,  which  sees  in  moral  evil,  as 
Goethe  presents  it  in  Mephistopheles,  "  the  spirit  that 
denies,"  and  in  physical  evil  the  dark  force  that  waits  to 
be  mastered  by  the  light,  shows  how  profoundly  rooted  in 
human  intuition  is  the  reality  of  moral  order,  and  the  unity 
of  the  moral  and  physical  universe.  Evil,  then,  is  here  not 
God ;  it  is  the  Adversary.  It  is  not  original,  but  second- 
ary. It  follows  up  good  with  its  opposite,  and  that  in  the 
minutest  details,  but  in  a  merely  mechanical  and  imitative 
way;  not  as  representing  the  essential  possibility  of  misuse 
and  disproportion  in  every  power  of  good,  but  putting  out 
something  else  as  its  external  antagonist  over  against  it. 
Its  logic  is  futile  and  helpless,  so  far  as  it  has  any,  and 
amounts  to  mere  contradiction,  which  is  not  only  not  dis- 
cussion, but  the  most  contemptible  form  of  resistance  ;  and 
though  succeeding  so  far  as  to  seduce  men  to  their  destruc- 
tion, is  doomed  to  essential  failure,  having  no  root  in  the 
original  purpose  of  things.  Though  without  known  be- 
ginning, it  must  have  an  end. 

The  Avesta  has,  I  repeat,  no  philosophy  of  evil.  Ahri- 
man  is  regarded  as  a  mere  purpose  of  destruction,  without 
even  so  much  as  the  ulterior  end  of  pleasure  in  destroying 
others ;  at  least  we  find  no  emphasis  laid  on  such  motive, 
so  little  reflective  reason  is  there  in  this  religion  of  pure 
personal  will.  How  evil  originated,  how  it  is  related  to 
the  universal  good,  how  it  could  have  power  to  resist 
this,  do  not  enter  into  the  question.  The  moral  conflict 
has  become  all-absorbing,  and  speculative  problems  are 
barred  out,  or  postponed  for  the  tremendous  realities 
of  the  conscience ;  everything  centres  in  the  divided  will, 
and  all  that  can  be  done  is  to  expand  the  experience 
to  cosmical  proportions,  as  a  conflict  of  opposing  wills. 

1  Chap.  i. 


8o  DEVELOPMENT. 

And  these  forces  are  dealt  with  simply  as  actual  beings, 
not  as  data  for  theogony  or  philosophy.  But  it  is  no 
more  possible  that  the  two  should  have  been  regarded 
as  equal  gods,  than  that  the  evil  mind  in  the  worshipper 
should  have  seemed  to  him  to  have  equal  rights  with  the 
good.  There  was  but  one  Supreme  God ;  and  the  simple 
point  for  us  to  consider  as  between  them,  is,  which  did 
this  religion  honor  and  trust  most,  which  does  the  law- 
book pronounce  fittest  to  be  trusted,  mightiest  for  good, 
worthiest  to  be  loved  and  pursued?  The  answer  is:  it 
nowhere  concedes  to  Ahriman  one  attribute  of  deity,  and 
nowhere  refuses  one  to  Ahura.  Take  for  instance  creative 
power :  — 

"  I  ask  of  Thee,  tell  me  the  right,  O  Ahura  !  How  arose  the  best 
(present)  life  ?  The  beneficent  spirit,  O  righteous  Mazda,  is  the 
guardian  to  ward  off  every  evil  from  man:  the  friend  for  all  life 
(worlds'). 

"  I  ask  of  Thee,  etc.  Who  was  the  father  and  creator  of  righteous- 
ness in  the  beginning?  Who  established  the  sun  and  the  stars  in 
their  way  ?  Who  causes  the  moon  to  wax  and  wane .''  These,  with 
what  is  known  else,  I  desire  to  know. 

"  I  ask  of  Thee,  etc.  Who  upholds  the  earth  and  the  skies  that 
they  fall  not  ?  Who  made  the  waters  and  the  trees  ?  Who  is  in  the 
winds  and  storms  that  they  so  swiftly  run  ?  Who,  O  Mazda,  has 
created  the  good  (spiritual'^)  minded  beings  ? 

"  I  ask  of  Thee,  etc.  Who  created,  perfect,  the  light  and  the  dark  ? 
Who  the  sleep  and  the  activity  [watching]  ?  Who,  morning,  noon, 
and  night,  and  the  laws  which  tell  the  priest  his  duties  ? 

"  I  ask  of  Thee,  etc.  Who  has  created  the  Bactrian  home  (devised 
wisdom  ^)  with  its  properties  (the  kingdom  *)  ?  Who  fashioned,  by 
weaving  motion,  the  excellent  son  out  of  the  father  ?  (Who  has  ren- 
dered the  son  dear  to  the  father?^)  (Created  the  love  of  the  father  to 
the  son  ?  ^)  To  know  these  things,  I  aj^proach  thee,  O  Mazda,  bounte- 
ous giver  of  all  good,  creating  all  beings  !  "^ 

"  Ahura  :  who  created  us,  who  formed  us,  who  keeps  us.* 

1  Harlez.  =  Ibid.  ^  Spiegel.  *  Ibid. 

*  Harlez.  ''  Spiegel. 

^  Yafna,  xliv.  ;  liaug,  xliii. ;  Spiegel  and  Harlez.  ^  Vapia,  i.  4. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  8 1 

"  Ahura  :  for  whose  kingdom,  power,  and  mighty  works,  we  praise 
him  above  all  beings  worthy  to  be  adored,  who  dwell  with  our  herds  to 
protect  them.  The  Fravashis  of  the  pure,  we  praise  ;  the  best  purity, 
fairest,  immortal,  glorious,  containing  all  that  is  good  ;  the  good  spirit, 
the  good  kingdom,  the  good  law,  and  the  pure  wisdom. ^ 

"  The  clouds  and  mountains  f  all  which  the  eye  beholds  through 
the  good  mind;  sun,  stars,  and  morn  which  ushers  in  the  day,  —  all 
move  to  thy  praise,  O  righteous  Ahura  !  And  I  with  my  mouth  will 
sing  thy  praise,  in  truth,  as  long  as  I  have  breath.  Let  the  creator 
aid  with  good  mind  all  that  increaseth  right  conduct,  by  his  will."3 

Zarathustra  asked  Ahuramazda  :  "  Most  munificent  spirit, 
which  was  the  word  that  thou  spakest  to  me,  which  was 
before  the  heavens,  before  the  water  or  earth,  or  animals, 
or  trees,  or  fire,  or  before  the  righteous,  before  the  demons 
and  savage  men  (Daevas  and  impious  men^),  before  the 
whole  material  world?  "^ 

Then  for  absolute  and  pure  trust,  take  the  first  of  the 
Gathas :  for  the  all-embracing  names  of  Ahuramazda,  the 
Ormazd-Yasht.  Ahriman  has  no  honor  but  the  fear  and 
hate  his  purpose  inspires.  And  though  the  earlier  books 
have  left  the  issue  of  this  great  war  to  be  inferred  from  this 
spirit  of  zeal  and  victory  which  animates  them,  yet  the 
later  writings  have  worked  out  the  trium.ph  of  the  good 
principle  in  a  very  positive  eschatology.  The  Gathas 
hint  this ;  they  give  Ahuramazda  the  place  of  law-giver 
and  final  judge  over  all  men.  "  Creator  of  blessing  for 
the  evil  as  well  as  the  good,  they  only  who,  taught  by  his 
spirit,  increase  the  purity  of  men,  will  come  to  thy  king- 
dom,"^ or  "  shall  be  taught  thy  law.""  "  Rewarding  words 
and  deeds,  thou  appointest  evil  to  the  wicked  and  blessing 
to  the  good,  through  thy  holiness,  at  the  last  end  of  the 
creation."^  The  Yashts,  of  later  origin,  describe  the  effect 
of  the  coming  of  a  prophet  {CaosJiyanq)  at  the  last  day,  "  to 

*  !'«(■««,  xxxvii.  ;  Spiegel  and  Harlez.  ^  Luminaries  ;  Haug. 

*  Ya<;na.  xlix.;  Harlez.  *  Yn(;na,  xix.  ;  Harlez. 

8  Ibid.,  Haug.  6  Ibid.,  xlii.  4,  6;  Spiegel. 

7  Ibid.,  Harlez.  8  Jbid.,  5  |  Harlez. 


82  DEVELOPMENT. 

make  life  everlasting,  incorruptible,  full  of  vigor,  when  the 
dead  shall  rise  again,  and  imperishable  righteousness  fill 
the  world ;  when  the  evil  one  (or  ones)  will  disappear,  and 
his  whole  seed  perish."^  Similar  testimony  to  this  victory 
of  Ahura,  the  destruction  of  Ahriman,  and  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead  to  immortality,  is  given  by  Plutarch^  and  by 
Theopompus^  (fourth  century  B.C.).  To  this  end  of  the 
struggle  of  three  thousand  years  many  prophets  bring 
their  aid,  from  Zoroaster  to  Sosyosh,  all  of  whom  have 
clear  foreknowledge  of  the  predestined  triumph  of  good. 
According  to  the  Bundehesh,  latest  of  all,  fifteen  of  these 
male  saints  and  heroes,  and  as  many  female,  will  return 
at  this  glorious  day  and  share  its  wondrous  regenerative 
work.  The  purification  by  fire  shall  burn  away  all  the 
dross  of  evil,  even  in  Ahriman  and  the  Serpent ;  hell  shall 
fall  to  dust  and  disappear,  and  its  place  be  filled  with 
purity  and  bliss.  The  symbolic  Bull  and  the  mystic  Haoma 
of  the  old  faith  will  also  reappear  as  the  consummation 
of  all  sacrifice,  bringing  immortal  life  and  becoming  im- 
mortal food  for  all,  and  Ahura  dispense  to  men  imperish- 
able garments  and  eternal  bliss.* 

In  all  this  the  doctrine  of  bodily  resurrection  is  of  course 
implied,  and  it  seems  quite  superfluous  to  inquire  after  evi- 
dences of  its  antiquity.  The  personality  consisted  of  soul 
and  body,  and  their  union  was  implied  in  all  personal  ex- 
istence. So  Jewish  Rabbis  taught :  it  is  impossible  for  the 
dead  to  "  rise  "  out  of  graves  except  in  bodies.  In  the 
oldest  Gathas  the  resurrection  idea  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  worked  out,  and  the  simple,  immediate  spiritual  judg- 
ment of  the  Chinvat  bridge  precludes  the  sleep  in  dust 
which  that  idea  involves  after  death.^     The  Zamyad-Yasht 

'  Zamyiid-i'asht,  ii,  12.  2  /sis  und  Osiris. 

3  See  Haug:  Essays,  etc.,  p.  S,  9.  ■*  Bimckhesh,  xxxi.;  Justi. 

*  The  beautiful  description  of  the  spirit  after  death,  led  on  the  third  night  across  the 
Bridge  and  the  Holy  Mountain  to  the  world  of  Ahura, — "the  pure  souls  go  contented,  to 
the  golden  thrones  of  Ahura,"  etc  {Vendidad,  xix. ), — shows  that  this  belief  continued  on 
to  a  later  period. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  83 

perhaps  intimates  a  visible  immortality  on  this  earth.  I 
cannot  but  believe  that  the  primitive  Zoroastrian,  like  the 
Vedic,  faith  gave  the  spirits  of  good  men  a  body  of  fire, 
while  the  wicked  were  invested  with  symbolical  bodies  of 
darkness  and  decay.  But  so  closely  was  soul  related  to 
sense,  and  sense  to  life,  in  Iranian  conceptions,  that  these 
vague  notions  gradually  gave  way  to  that  of  a  purely 
physical  resurrection;  and  this  involved  a  delay  of  judg- 
ment till  the  end  of  the  world,  when  the  dispersed  atoms 
could  at  once  be  miraculously  restored  to  every  personal 
form.^  The  Bundehesh  enters  into  an  argument,  which 
is  substantially  the  model  of  the  Christian,  to  show  that 
even  this  was  possible  to  the  omnipotence  of  Ahura- 
mazda,^  and  declares  that  each  is  to  rise  so  unmistakable 
that  men  will  recognize  each  other's  bodies  and  souls, 
and  ask  with  earnest  anxiety  concerning  their  conduct 
since  they  met  in  life ;  the  very  period  of  life  in  which 
each  died  shall  appear  in  him ;  the  child's  dust  rise  as 
youth,  the  man's  as  a  man  ;  and  in  the  heavenly  state,  where 
no  more  children  shall  be  born,  each  family  shall  keep  its 
earthly  form  intact.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  this  final 
resurrection  doctrine  had  much  practical  influence,  even  if 
it  existed,  during  the  period  of  the  Avestan  compositions, 
when  there  seems  to  have  been  a  constant  sense  of  the 
immediate  presence,  at  least,  of  the  Fravashis,  or  spirits  of 
the  pure,  as  of  those  who  had  already  passed  the  Chinvat 
bridge  into  their  reward.^  In  Christianity  the  same  vague 
inconsistency  of  sentiment  prevails  concerning  the  state  of 
souls  after  death ;  on  the  one  hand,  they  are  thought  of 
as  conscious,  if  not  present,  and  as  already  passed  to  eter- 
nal judgment ;  and  on  the  other,  as  awaiting  the  last  trump 
to  rise  from  the  dead  at  the  end  of  the  world.     The  con- 


1  Rabbins  also  same.  -  Bundehesh,  xxx.  i.  ;  Justi. 

^  Frtf««,  xxiv.  14  ;  xxvi.  34.     But  in  the  Bundehesh,  Ahura  creates  the  Fravashis  before 
mankind ;  chap.  ii. 


84  DEVELOPMENT. 

fusion  of  blind  instincts  concerning  a  state  as  yet  unknown 
of  course  explains  this  inconsistency  in  both  religions;  but 
in  both  the  determination  of  every  man's  future  throughout 
all  time  is  held  to  belong  to  the  just  and  righteous  God, 
and  resurrection  and  judgment  alike  to  prove  His  triumph 
over  the  powers  of  evil. 

A  conflict  like  this  could  end  only  in  the  utter  destruc- 
tion, or  the  perfect  conversion,  of  the  powers  of  evil.  Both 
these  issues  are  asserted  in  the  Zoroastrian  writings,  the 
latter  only  in  the  latest.  The  earlier  are  too  much  absorbed 
in  the  internecine  battle  itself  to  dogmatize  as  to  the  way 
in  which  the  triumph  should  be  used,  or  to  speculate  as  to 
the  conditions  absolutely  requisite  to  the  permanent  sup- 
pression of  evil-will.  Heaven  for  the  good,  hell  for  the 
wicked ;  the  corporeal  world  of  Nature  and  man  between 
these  two,  and  the  battle  raging  for  the  mastery  of  every 
soul,  —  this  was  all.  Both  these  spheres  are  said  to  be 
without  beginning,  and  immortality  is  affirmed  of  heaven; 
while  hell  is  nowhere  said  to  be  without  end.^  Had  evil 
been  regarded  as  a  principle  only,  or  as  simply  a  fact,  there 
would  have  been  room  for  a  philosophy  of  its  origin,  func- 
tion, and  end;^  but  as  it  was  gathered  up  into  a  personal 
will,  actuated  by  personal  hate,  and  antagonized  by  equal 

1  The  only  passage  in  all  the  older  Zend-Avesta  which  seems  to  assert  eternal  punishment 
is  one  where  it  is  said  of  the  idolatrous  priests  that  they  are  so  hardened  that  they  ought  to 
avoid  the  Bridge  of  Judgment,  "  to  remain  forever  in  the  dwelling-place  of  destruction." 
(Vafna,  xlvi.  ii  ;  Haug.)  This  can  hardly  serve  to  prove  the  dogma  of  eternal  punishment 
in  the  absence  of  every  other  proof.     Yet  Carre  so  thinks  (L''Ancien  Orient,  ii.  326). 

^  According  to  the  Bundehesh,  the  interpretation  of  which  is  extremely  uncertain,  the  good 
and  evil  shall  at  last  be  raised  with  their  bodies,  to  pass  for  three  days  (after  separation  accord- 
ing to  their  characters)  through  liquid  fire  of  the  molten  earth,  and  so  be  purified  ;  the  end 
whereof,  either  by  the  destruction  of  the  very  bad,  at  all  events  by  a  sifting  process,  or  rather 
distilling,  by  which  all  evil  should  be  worked  off,  shall  be  a  pure  world,  without  stain  of  evil 
mind.  That  this  can  mean  that  the  worst  people,  those  who  have  been  already  in  Duzakh 
(hell)  for  ages,  should  in  three  days  become  perfectly  pure,  is  incredible:  the  annihilation 
interpretation  is  more  probable.  And  it  is  equally  improbable  that  all  should  come  into  the 
same  bliss,  since  a  new  and  more  perfect  heaven  is  said  to  be  created  for  the  good.  (See 
Bundehesk,  xx.xi.  ;  Justi.)  The  Dabisiau  gives  traditions  of  Zoroaster  from  the  Mobads,  one 
of  which  is  that  he  said,  "  God  has  commanded  me,  '  Say  thou  to  mankind  that  they  ;ire  not 
to  abide  in  hell  forever;  when  their  sins  are  expiated,  they  are  delivered  out  of  it.'"  — 
Dabistan,  i.  363. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM. 


85 


hate  on  the  part  of  another  will,  the  question  was  simply- 
one  of  victory,  and  the  interest  purely  personal  and 
instant.  And  so  it  continued  after  the  religion  became 
accepted  and  instituted,  and  leisure  was  afforded  for  con- 
ceiving it  as  a  whole,  with  all  the  final  consequences  it 
involved.^ 

The  Avesta  asks  not,  What  is  the  meaning  of  evil ;  what 
ends,  spiritual  and  progressive,  it  is  bound  to  serve ;  what 
its  future  in  human  and  finite  conditions ;  what  its  justifi- 
cation as  an  element  of  growth?  No  such  questions  can 
enter  this  purely  personal  system ;  but  rather.  What  shall 
finally  be  done  with  these  wicked  wills,  and  with  this  pri- 
mal wicked  will  when  conquered,  to  insure  their  total  sup- 
pression? Zoroastrianism,  then,  could  not  be  satisfied  with 
eternal  punishments ;  it  would  purify  the  whole  universe, 
—  and  such  a  hell  would  immortalize  impurity.  Zoroaster 
would  utterly  suppress  evil,  —  and  such  a  hell  would  be 
an  endless  demonstration  that  the  evil-will  stood  fast, 
even  in  chains.  It  was  too  much  in  earnest  not  to  wish 
the  terrible  strife  to  end.  There  were  only  two  ways  to 
end  it :  either  to  annihilate  the  hostile  will,  or  to  convert 
it.  The  interpreters  of  the  Bundehesh  are  divided  on  the 
question,  whether  Ahriman  would  be  destroyed  by  the 
purifying  fire  of  judgment,  or  brought  to  sing  the  praises 
of  Ahura  with  all  his  hosts.^ 

Both  these  solutions  are  maintained  in  the  modern  Parsi 
church ;  and  both  seem  to  have  been  developed  naturally 
enough  out  of  the  genius  of  the  Zoroastrian  faith.  They 
certainly  were  not  added  to   it  through  contact  with  the 

1  In  the  Hindu  pantheistic  view  of  evil,  it  was  natural  that  the  early  symbols  sliould  grad- 
ually change  their  meanings,  even  passing  into  opposite  ones.  They  floated  in  the  haze  of 
metamorphosis,  where  deity  became  all  things  in  turn,  and  all  things  deity.  Thus  the  serpent, 
originally  the  cloud-demon,  slain  by  the  god  of  lightning,  became  in  India  the  coiled  bed  of 
the  preserving  God.  But  no  symbol  of  evil  became  in  Iran  a  type  of  good ;  the  moral  empha- 
sis was  too  strong.  So  the  conflict  of  the  gods  unknown  to  the  Veda  is  a  great  feature  of  the 
eschatolog>'  of  the  Avesta,  especially  the  Bunde/tesh.  as  also  of  the  Edda. 

*  See  Bundehesh,  chap,  xxxi.,  translated  in  Schwenck,  Mythologie  der  Perses,  324-25. 


86  DEVELOPMENT. 

religions  of  Media  and  Babylonia.^  The  old  Accadian 
writings  contain  no  working  out  of  the  problem  of  evil 
either  by  annihilation  or  conversion.  The  strife  was  against 
cosmical  demons  out  of  the  abyss,  who  disturbed  the 
order  of  the  world,  and  brought  disease,  calamity,  death, 
and  unnatural  or  insane  conduct  upon  men  :^  and  these 
were  to  be  repelled  by  conjuration  and  spell ;  but  their 
relation  to  the  moral  being  was  external,  and  the  need  was, 
not  of  their  extirpation,  but  their  defeat.  The  ethical  in- 
terest of  the  Iranian  offset  his  horror  of  physical  death 
by  the  heaven  prepared  beyond  it  for  the  good,  but  the 
Accadian  sent  both  good  and  evil  to  a  sheol  of  "dark- 
ness, where  there  is  no  food  but  dust ;  "  and  though  there 
were  seven  (astronomical)  zones  in  this  unblcst  land  of 
shadows,  these  had  no  bearing  on  the  final  solution  of  the 
war  of  evil  against  good.  To  a  faith  so  entirely  absorbed 
in  the  present  life  as  the  Accadian,  a  resurrection  of  the 
dead  to  judgment,  and  a  consequent  purification  of  the 
spiritual  universe,  could  have  no  meaning.  The  epic  of 
Izdubar  contains  only  one  hint  looking  this  way,  —  a  foun- 
tain of  life  in  the  depths  of  the  world  of  shades,  described 
as  affording  power  to  Ishtar  to  return  from  these  gloomy 
realms  to  the  light  of  day. 

Neither  in  a  spiritual  nor  ethical  point  of  view  does  the 
Accadian  religion,  nor  any  of  its  combinations,  compare 
with  the  Zoroastrian.  Good  and  evil  are  not  distinctly 
separated,  and  are  often  represented  by  the  same  deity .^ 
The  Assyrio-Babylonians  merely  inherited  Accadian  gods, 
and  the  Semitic  element  brought  by  Assyria  added  nothing 
to  the  development  of  these  questions.  Asshur  and  Bel 
and  Nebo  and  Merodach   exercised   no   such   function  in 

1  The  passages  in  Anquetil's  translations  from  the  Yai^na  which  teach  this  doctrine  are 
mistranslated.     They  are  quoted  in  Nicolas  :  Doctrines  Religieuses  des  Jui/s,  p.  302. 

2  See  Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic,  Eng.  ed  ,  pp.  29,  30. 

3  See  Schrader:  H'dllcnf.  der  I  star;  and  Records  of  The  Past,  vol.  i.  p.  139;  and  in 
the  Allgemcine  Zeitung,  Augsburg,  June  19,  1S72.     Also  Lenormant,  p.  165-66. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  8/ 

regard  to  evil  as  Ahuramazda;  represented  no  moral  con- 
flict, nor  looked  to  any  final  dealing  with  the  woes  and  sins 
of  the  world.  Sensual  excess,  which  Ahura  put  far  from 
him,  was  in  fact  involved  in  the  Semitic  conception  of 
deity  itself;  and  Baal,  Moloch,  Jahveh,  as  gods  of  fire, 
were  worshipped  by  rites,  even  of  human  sacrifice,  which 
would  have  been  incongruous  with  the  spiritual  meaning 
of  that  element  in  the  Iranian  faith,  and  made  it  unfit 
to  serve  as  a  purification  of  the  world  from  sin.  So 
that  neither  Accadian  nor  Semitic  beliefs  could  have  sug- 
gested a  final  disposal  of  evil  through  purifying  fire,  which 
should  destroy  the  wicked  seeds  or  convert  their  malignant 
will.  On  the  other  hand,  this  eschatology  was  a  natural 
development  of  Zoroastrian  beliefs,  even  as  presented  in 
the  Gathas.  And  to  their  historical  influence  must  be 
ascribed  its  prominence,  not  only  in  the  Bundehesh  of  the 
Sassanian  epoch,  but  in  Hebrew  literature  subsequent  to 
the  exile ;  as  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the  apocalyptic  Enoch 
and  Ezra,  and  in  the  early  Christian  belief  concerning  the 
future  life,  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  last  judgment.^ 
Eternity  of  punishment  belongs  to  a  very  different  class 
of  ideas,  since  it  is  as  far  as  possible  from  recognizing  the 
final  purification  of  the  universe  from  evil,  or  the  final 
supremacy  of  good,  although  of  course  intended  to  do  this 
in  some  degree.  It  is  therefore  thoroughly  anti-Iranian, 
and  its  promulgation  in  Christianity  and  later  Judaism  must 
be  ascribed  to  the  peculiar  intensity  of  those  personal  feel- 
ings in  which  the  great  moral  reaction  of  Christianity  origi- 
nated, and  especially  to  the  Messianic  apocalyptics  of  the 
two  centuries  preceding  the  birth  of  Jesus,  —  prominently, 
the  Book  of  Daniel.^ 

^  The  doctrine  of  tlie  resurrection  of  the  body  was  penetrating  Palestine  in  the  time  of 
Christ,  and  that  of  the  iinmortality  of  the  soul,  derived  from  Platonism,  spreading  in  Alexan- 
dria.    But  these  two  excluded  each  other.     Nicolas  :  Doctrines  Religietises  des  Juifs,  p.  316. 

^  See,  for  Hebrew  ideas  of  hell-punishment,  Sirach,  vii.  17;  of  immortality  in  post-exilian 
period,  IVisdatn  of  Solomoii,  ii.  23;  Josephus,  B.  J.  ii.  8,  11:  of  resurrection,  Ecclesiastes 


88  DEVELOPMENT, 

But  the  whole  tenor  of  the  Avesta  impHes,  —  and  this  is 
the  grand  thing  about  it,  —  the  victory  of  good  over  evil, 
of  right  over  wrong,  the  sovereignty  of  the  law  proclaimed 
in  the  conscience.  As  Ahuraniazda  was  first,  so  He  shall 
be  last.  Man,  his  creation,  born  radiant,  with  eyes  look- 
ing upward,  shall  soar  above  his  evil  stars ;  and  this,  not 
by  the  destruction  of  his  personal  will,  but  by  the  natural 
and  noble  exercise  of  it.  The  Bundehesh  says  that  "  with 
consciousness  and  the  Fravashi  [ideal  soul]  Ahura  brought 
love  and  wisdom  unto  men."  "  Which  will  ye  choose,  O 
ye  souls  of  men,  about  to  take  earthly  form,  — to  be  made 
for  warring  against  evil,  that  ye  may  afterwards  become 
immortal,  or  to  be  protected  against  evil  from  the  begin- 
ning?" "And  by  their  wisdom  they  choose  to  be  made 
as  creatures,  to  strive  for  immortal  life."  ^  This  worship- 
per of  light  could  see  all  things  resolving  themselves  into 
light  at  last.  In  the  Gathas,  his  living  trust  in  being  on 
the  side  of  Ahura,  the  just  and  pure  one,  is  his  all-suffic- 
ing confidence,  while  the  fate  of  the  evil  is  simply  to  be 
conquered  at  last.  In  the  later  Ya^nas,  Vendidad,  Yashts, 
and  the  Bundehesh,  there  gradually  grew  up  a  historic  or 
rather  prophetic  construction  of  the  process  by  which  the 
end  should  be  reached.  The  world-history  is  divided  into 
four  periods  of  three  thousand  years  each,  —  during  the 
first  two  of  which  Ahura  creates  freely  his  good  world ; 
during  the  third  the  strife  begins  and  deepens ;  and  during 
the  fourth,  opening  with  Zoroaster,  three  prophets  appear 
at  intervals  of  a  thousand  years,  the  last  of  whom,  Sosyosh, 
brings  the  resurrection  of  bodies,  judgment  of  souls,  and 
destruction  of  evil, —  according  to  the  Bundehesh,  by  puri- 


xlvi.  12;  xlix.  10;  II  Maccabees,  vii.,xii.  44:  of  last  judgment,  Rabbins:  of  resurrection  of 
body,  Rabbins.  Duscliak:  Die  biblisch-tahnud.  Glaubenslehre ^  etc.,  pp.  181,  182.  The  ex- 
treme resemblance  of  Persian  escliatology  with  that  of  Daniel  is  traced  in  Nicolas:  Doctrines 
Religieuses  des  Jiiifs,  p.  303.  Resurrection,  with  Daniel  and  Maccabees,  is  partial  only,  how- 
ever. See  also  Duschak  :  Die  biblisch-tahitud.  Glaubenslehre,  etc.,  p.  173- 
1  Bundehesh,  ii.;  Justi. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  89 

fication  of  all  good  and  evil,  through  fire,  into  capacity  for 
blessedness.  For  this  end  the  corporeal  world  is  brought 
into  being,  that  the  good  principle  might,  by  mastering 
the  intervening  space  between  his  own  realm  and  the  op- 
posing one,  absorb  the  latter,  and  make  the  universe  one 
in  himself.^ 

Lenormant-  thinks  it  was  "from  rejecting  the  notion  of 
original  sin,  and  substituting  the  doctrine  of  emanation  for 
that  of  creation,  and  fatalism  for  freedom,  that  most  of 
the  peoples  of  pagan  [Aryan]  antiquity  were  led  to  the 
melancholy  theory  of  the  Four  Ages,  as  we  find  it  in  the 
sacred  books  of  India  and  the  poems  of  Hesiod  ;"  whereas 
the  Bible,  regarding  man  as  free  and  not  subject  to  fate, 
does  not  contain  the  idea  of  world-decadence.  But  there 
seems  to  be  as  much  practical  fatalism  in  the  Hebrew  con- 
ception of  a  tendency  to  sin  in  human  nature —  capable 
of  causing  man  first  to  be  expelled  from  Paradise,  then  to 
be  almost  extirpated  by  a  deluge,  and  through  all  ages 
to  be  scourged  by  a  divine  wrath,  from  which  even  the 
chosen  people  are  not  free,  and  from  which  only  a  divine 
Messiah  could  deliver  him  —  as  in  that  pantheistic  evolu- 
tionism of  the  Aryan,  which  if  resulting  in  a  more  definite 
idea  of  a  cycle  of  degeneracy,  yet  involved  also  the  further 
consequence  of  a  renewal  of  good  beyond  the  destruction 
of  an  evil  world.  Surely,  the  God  who  creates  man  after 
His  own  pleasure  is  as  truly  a  power  of  fate  as  the  law 
that  makes  his  history  a  decadence,  and  its  end  a  disso- 
lution of  the  evil  it  has  caused.  In  fact  the  Hebrews,  as 
well  as  the  Hindus  and  Persians  and  Greeks,  were  led  to 
the  "melancholy"  theory  of  world-destruction,  —  certainly 
not  less  melancholy  because  it  was  to  be  the  consequence 

*  Spiegel:  Eran-  Alterih.  ii.  142.  The  Hebrews  did  not  reach  this  till  very  late;  and 
Paul's  description  of  the  triumpli  of  Christianity  at  the  last  juflgment,  resolving  all  evil  into 
obedience  to  God,  is  a  carrj'ing  out  of  it  ( i  Cor.  xv.  24).  The  doctnne  of  final  restitution  of 
the  world  gradually  penetrated  Jewish  beliefs,  and  the  later  Cabalistic  writiugs  resemble  in 
this  the  Zoroastrian.     Nicolas  :  Doctrines  Kehgicuses  des  Jui/s,  p-  306. 

2  Contemporary  Review  for  September,  1879. 


90  DEVELOPMENT. 

of  original  sin,  than  if  it  had  been  the  sequel  of  gold,  silver, 
brass,  and  iron  periods.  In  fact,  the  Hebrews  believed 
in  such  penal  destruction,  and  transmitted  the  idea  to 
Christianity,  which  made  it  a  fundamental  motive.  As 
for  freedom,  no  race  ever  abased  itself  before  a  personal 
God  more  than  the  older  Hebrews ;  who  believed  that 
their  jealous  Jahveh  punished  curiosity  by  expulsion  from 
Eden,  and  aspiration  to  social  progress  with  confusion  of 
tongues.  They  were  more  oppressed  by  that  sense  of 
separation  from  God  which  came  from  the  emphasis  laid 
on  their  freedom  to  sin,  than  the  Aryan  was  by  the  sense 
of  an  emanation,  even  by  fatality,  which  did  not  break  the 
unity  of  Being.  Semite,  as  well  as  Ar}'an,  had  his  myth 
of  a  Golden  Age  and  of  man's  fall  from  it,  thus  confessing 
the  power  of  historic  decadence  and  that  element  of  fate 
which  cannot  be  ignored.  And  of  these  the  Aryan  has 
been  the  prophet  of  progress :  this  was  the  meaning  of 
destiny  for  him,  and  his  doctrine  of  lost  things;  and  his 
evolution  is  the  philosophy  of  hope.  The  Persian  was  the 
very  apostle  of  earnest  ethical  endeavor.  He  also  had  his 
myth  of  "  original  sin,"  of  a  Fall  (of  Yima,  king  of  Para- 
dise) through  a  lie ;  and  Lenormant  himself  finds  in  the 
serpent  created  by  Ahriman  to  poison  his  Eden  and  effect 
his  ruin  an  echo  of  the  same  tradition  on  which  the  Bible 
story  rests.  This  writer,  even  while  making  use  of  these  re- 
semblances to  aggrandize  Bible  authority,  is  candid  enough 
to  confess  that  the  Zoroastrian  scriptures  gave  moral  value 
to  the  older  Chaldeo-Semitic  conceptions  of  the  Fall.^ 

Now,  we  have  said  that  this  religion  does  not  deal  in  the 
metaphysics  of  evil ;  it  dwells  simply  on  the  practical 
antagonism  of  right  and  wrong,  and  of  the  things  which 
make  for  the  one  and  for  the  other.  It  was  not  introver- 
sive  enough  to  find  the  root  of  evil,  as  later  systems  have, 
in  human  nature.     It  was  too  much  absorbed,  as  it  seems 

*  Contemporary  Review,  September,  1879. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  9 1 

to  me,  in  the  hatred  of  it  to  ascribe  it  to  the  perfect  God. 
It  did  not  undertake  to  justify  its  existence  under  a  wise 
Providence,  as  discipHne,  or  culture.  It  does  not  anywhere 
say  positively,  "This  struggle  shall  develop  moral  strength 
and  spiritual  growth."  But  did  it  not  practically  affirm 
this?  Do  men  make  it  the  life  of  their  religion  to  war 
against  wrong,  without  discovering  that  this  resistance  is 
after  all  to  draw  out  and  educate  their  v.ills  by  the  pursuit 
of  the  ideal? 

There  is  no  failure  here  to  recognize  the  strength  of  the 
foe;  the  cup  of  evil  is  drunk  to  the  dregs.  The  tragedy 
of  sin  and  penalty,  the  martyrdom  of  heroism  and  love, 
the  stern  conditions  of  victory,  the  inexorable  mathematics 
of  moral  and  spiritual  cost,  are  acknowledged  in  the  whole 
structure  of  the  religion,  in  every  detail  of  the  epos  and 
dogma  of  this  mighty  strife  for  the  possession  of  the  soul 
of  man.  Never  docs  the  power  of  Ahriman  fail  to  prove 
itself  in  the  bodily  life  of  the  righteous.  Never  does  the 
weakness  of  Ahriman  fail  to  be  made  manifest  in  the  moral 
gain  and  growth  for  the  whole  creation,  that  follow  on  his 
terrible  but  impotent  revenge.  The  myth  is  at  pains  to 
foreshow  this  issue  by  infusing  into  his  whole  conduct  of 
the  strife  an  element  of  folly  and  fear.  Through  this 
earlier  "  holy  war "  there  runs  the  Iranian  instinct  to 
overpoise  the  past  with  the  future,  experience  with  pro- 
phecy ;  to  make  failure  and  loss  the  stepping  stones  to 
progress.  Darmesteter,  who  with  marvellous  ingenuity 
has  traced  the  whole  Avestan  mythology  as  a  process  of 
evolution  from  the  strife  of  the  elements,  has  hinted  this 
higher  spiritual  meaning  in  a  striking  summary,  which 
deserves  to  be  quoted :  — 

"  Thirty  years  Ahriman  is  powerless  against  the  Bull ;  ^  three 
thousand  years  he  trembles  before  Gayomard  ;  ^  thirty  years  he  gnaws 

'  The  Bull  is  Ahura's  good  creation,  slain  by  Ahriman,  from  whose  seed  spring  fertility 
and  the  human  race.  2  The  first  man,  slain  by  Ahriman. 


92  DEVELOPMENT. 

the  bit  under  the  spur  of  Tahmurath  ;i  but  at  last  all  tliese  perish. 
The  stone  and  word  of  Zoroaster  plunge  him  into  hell ;  but  Zoroaster 
himself  must  perish.  According  to  the  legend  preserved  by  Clemen- 
tine Homily,  he  is  struck  by  the  demon  with  lightning ;  according  to 
Firdusi,  he  is  slain  by  the  Turanians  in  the  sack  of  Balkh.  Accord- 
ing as  the  imagination  conceives  the  thunder-storm  in  view  of  the 
light  which  preceded,  or  that  which  follows  it,  the  god  of  light  dies  or 
is  victorious.  But  the  dead  god  is  succeeded  by  another;  the  slain 
is  avenged  by  some  relative,  son,  or  brother  in  the  myth.  And  the 
final  victory  is  won  by  all  the  early  heroes  returning  again;  or  by  a 
descendant  of  Zoroaster,  Caoshyani;."  ** 

The  impressive  fact  about  this  Iranian  myth  is  that  it 
affiHatcs  each  martyr  of  Ahura's  gospel  both  to  his  suc- 
cessor and  to  his  predecessor;  so  that  the  sacred  seed 
proves  itself  immortal,  and  death  is  constantly  swallowed 
up  in  necessary  victory.  Ga}'6mard  comes  from  the  seed 
of  the  Bull ;  from  Gayomard  comes  the  line  of  heroes  who 
fight  the  dragon,  or  slay  the  demons,  or  hold  the  Devil  him- 
self in  curb ;  from  their  line  comes  the  prophet  with  his 
word  of  doom,  before  which  Ahriman  trembles  ;  and  when, 
spite  of  all  the  saints,  heroes,  and  martyrs,  the  earth  falls 
under  the  dominion  of  evil,^  and  the  rotten  body  of  hu- 
manity dissolves,  it  is  but  to  reveal  the  reserved  health  and 
salvation  in  the  omnipotent  virtue  of  their  return  in  one 
high  host  to  judgment,  not  one  gift  or  glory  lost,  the  seed 
of  Zoroaster  at  their  head,  and  the  souls  of  all  just  men, 
the  better  souls  of  all  men,  to  evolve  and  people  a  purified 
world.  The  nature  of  this  affiliation  will  appear  from  an 
outline  of  the  myth  in  its  relation  to  ideal  progress. 

Yima,  most  blessed  of  men,  ruler  and  maker  of  the 
earthly  paradise,   began    to    love    lying   speech,   and   fell. 

1  Mythic  king  of  men,  who  chains  Ahriman,  and  rides  him  as  a  horse  over  the  earth  ;  but 
tempted  by  his  wife  to  fear,  is  devoured  by  the  great  enemy. 

-  Darmesteter:  Ormazd  ei  Ahrhnan,  p.  211. 

"  The  terrible  accounts  of  the  depravity  and  misery  of  the  world  before  the  coming  of  the 
last  redeemers  is  believed  by  Darmesteter  to  be  drawn  in  a  large  degree  by  the  Bundehesh 
writers  from  the  Mongol  and  Arabian  wars. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  93 

Three  times  did  his  "  majesty,"  or  bhss,  take  the  wings  of 
a  bird  and  fly  away.  Thrice  was  it  seized  and  brought 
back.  The  first  who  brought  back  the  bhss  of  Paradise 
was  Mithra,  the  lord  of  wide  pastures,  all-hearing,  all-be- 
holding, truth-protecting  Sun.  (For  he  dispels  the  dark.) 
The  second  was  Thraetona,^  born  in  farthest  bounds  of 
space,^  whence  come  the  rude  blasts  of  the  storm-cloud. 
He  delivered  from  these,  and  from  the  sicknesses,  pains, 
and  wants  that  proceed  from  them.  He  wars  with  the 
great  serpent  of  the  cloud  {Acki-dahdka,  the  Vritra  of  the 
Vedas),  and  is  called  the  victorious.  The  third  was  Kere- 
^agpa,  who  delivered  from  the  wild  beasts,  the  robber,  and 
the  armed  wilderness-foe ;  and  he  is  called  the  Strong  One. 
He  is  son  of  Thrita,  whom  the  Vendidad  calls  the  first 
of  physicians,  holder-back  of  sickness  and  death.^  But 
Yima's  bliss  was  physical  merely.  These  saviours  saved 
only  the  man  of  the  senses.  Yima  could  not  meditate  on 
the  law,  nor  bear  it  to  men.^  His  paradise  was  the  reign 
of  innocence  and  physical  comfort :  no  cold  nor  heat,  no 
disease  nor  death,  till  falsehood  entered ;  and  with  that 
the  poison  of  Ahriman  smote  the  natural  order,  which 
three  physical  forces  did  what  they  could  to  restore.  But 
they  were  insufficient.  So  in  fulness  of  time  came  Zoro- 
aster, the  greater  deliverer  through  the  law  that  commands 
purity  of  thought,  word,  and  deed,  —  the  law  that  forces  evil 
powers  back  into  invisible  ways,  and  annihilates  them  in 
their  spiritual  being.  The  Haoma-Yasht  ascribes  all  these 
saving  forces  to  the  devotion  of  men  through  sacrifice  of 
the  holy  plant ;  the  Crosh-Yasht,  to  Craosha,  the  incarna- 
tion of  the  law  (his  body  the  Mathra),^  who  is  associated 
with  completing  the  forms  of  religious  service,  as  well  as 
with  glorious  works  of  protection  and  punishment,  carry- 

'  Corresponds  in  main  with  Vedic  Triia  (Indra's  helper). 

^  Varena,  Vedic  Varuna.    See  careful  analysis  of  the  myth,  as  found  in  ZantyHd-Yasht,  by 
Westergaard  [Ind.  Studien,  iii.  402-440).     This  Yasht  was  unknown  to  Anquetil. 

*  Vendidad,  xx.  *  Vendidad,  ii.  10.  ^  Yapta,  Ivi. 


94  DEVELOPMENT. 

ing  on  the  victorious  strife  of  Zoroaster.  No  words  can 
express  the  absolute  trust  of  the  worshipper  in  this  all- 
mastering  upholder  and  regenerator  of  the  physical  order, 
through  the  spirit  of  Ahura,  arising  from  his  dwelling 
on  the  holy  mountain,  that  shines  inwardly  with  its  own 
light,  and  combining  in  himself  the  corporeal  and  spirit- 
ual worlds.-^ 

And  in  the  latter  day,  through  fierce  wars  and  por- 
tents, the  spiritual,  prophetic  seed  of  Zoroaster  bears 
other  saviours  {Caoshyahto,  profitable  ones)  ;  ^  and  the 
shut  doors  of  Yima's  paradise  are  reopened,  and  men 
and  beasts  come  forth  to  people  the  earth  swept  by  the 
latter  deluge  of  penal  rain,  till  Caoshyaiig,  "the  Helper," 
last  and  greatest,  brings  a  new  book  of  the  law,  and  pro- 
claims the  long  battle  won,  and  the  dead  are  raised  to 
judgment,  and  all  evil  thought  and  deed  are  at  an  end. 
And  all  through  the  conflict,  upheld  by  human  prayer 
and  praise,  and  upholding  every  good  aim  with  incon- 
ceivable reserves  of  power  and  love,  hover  the  innumer- 
able Fravashis,^  the  ideal  souls  of  all  living  beings,  from 
Ahura  to  his  humblest  servant  and  his  least  work,  —  the 
onward  pressure  of  the  multitudinous  universe  itself,  gath- 
ered up  into  one  living  aspiration  to  the  Best. 

Notice  here,  first,  the  progress  from  material  to  spiritual 
deliverance,  —  destruction  of  outward  monsters  and  phy- 
sical woes;  then  deliverance  from  all  rebellion  and  hatred 
against  the  good  spirit,  through  the  might  of  holy  prophets 
and  the  supreme  virtue  of  the  holy  law.  Each  step  leads 
upward  to  the  next,  and  the  resources  of  the  spirit  are  ever 
adequate  to  the  need.'*     Notice  next,  that  the  earlier  deliv- 

*  Yaftia,  Ivi.  9,  10 ;  Ivii.  9,  10  ;  Haug. 

^  Ya(}ta,  xxxlv.  13  ;  xliv.  11  ;  xlv.  3.     Spiegel :  Eran.  Altertk.  ii.  153. 
'  Fravardin-Yasht. 

*  The  myth  of  the  storm-cloud,  the  battle  of  light  with  the  elements,  has  risen  to  the 
spiritual  warfare  of  the  prophet's  word  with  the  powers  of  fa!sehood,  at  the  same  time  that  the 
actors  ceasing  to  be  gods  of  the  atmosphere,  are  the  sons  01" men. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  95 

erers,  including  Yima,  belong  also  to  the  mythology  of  the 
Vedas;  but  whereas  in  the  Vedas  they  are  immortal  gods, 
in  the  Avcsta  all,  except  Mithra,  are  mortal  men.  In  other 
words,  the  war  which  Vedic  mythology  placed  in  the  su- 
perhuman world  is  brought  by  the  Iranian  down  to  the 
solid  ground  of  human  life.  It  is  man,  however  endowed 
and  exalted  in  his  powers,  still  man,  that  works  out  deliv- 
erance for  himself.  Thus  the  Yama  of  the  Vedas  is  god 
of  the  future  world.  Yima  of  the  Iranians  is  man  blessed 
in  the  present  world.  The  destroyers  of  monsters  in  the 
Vedas  are  solar  powers  personified  as  deities,  and  their 
work  stops  with  releasing  the  refreshing  showers  from 
storm-clouds  that  hold  them  back  among  the  mountains. 
Thraetona  and  Keregagpa  in  the  Avesta,  and  Yima  also, 
become  saviours  as  men  through  the  piety  of  their  fathers  ;^ 
and  their  work  is  ethical,  restoring  a  world  poisoned  by 
human  falsehood,  and  preparing  the  way  for  a  spiritual 
law.  The  material  and  mythologic  names,  originally  com- 
mon to  both  races,  have  been  wrought  "up  into  two  differ- 
ing forms  of  religious  power ;  one  of  them  putting  man 
quite  out  of  sight,  the  other  exalting  him  by  works  worthy 
of  a  god.  Religion  has  here  become  personal ;  its  centre 
is  the  will ;  its  energy,  nerve-power ;  its  work,  practical 
deliverance  from  outward  evils  and  inward  sins  by  a 
strife  that  ends  but  in  their  destruction.  Notice  last,  that 
through  all  the  dualism  in  which  evil  gets  such  tremen- 
dous recognition,  there  runs  the  optimism  of  faith,  that  the 
world  belongs  to  righteousness,  and  all  things  shall  work 
to  make  good  its  claim.  Or,  to  put  it  religiously,  God  will 
surely  be  ready  with  help  at  need,  and  appear,  to  save  His 
world.  Put  these  successive  saviours  of  the  Avestan  faith 
beside  that  grand  word  of  the  Hindu  Krishna  (speaking 
for  Vishnu,  the  all-preserving),  "  Whensoever  virtue  is 
enfeebled,  or  vice  and  injustice  prevail,  then  do  I  become 

'   y'aftta,  ix. 


g6  DEVELOPMENT. 

manifest,  from  age  to  age  revealed  to  reassure  the  falter- 
ing steps  of  right ;"i  or  beside  the  Johannic  doctrine  of 
the  "  Word  made  flesh,"  to  fulfil  what  the  prophets  and 
Moses  lacked.     It  is  older  than  either  of  these. 

Zoroastrianism  illustrates  the  law,  that  religion  ever  seeks 
to  make  good  superior  to  evil,  and  in  some  form  or  other, 
logical  or  otherwise,  insists  on  its  ultimate  triumph.  Reli- 
gion is  man's  endeavor  to  assure  himself  of  this  very  thing ; 
it  is  the  promise  of  his  ideal  to  countervail  the  ills  of  life 
and  the  sense  of  sin.  But  religious  assurance  is  in  gen- 
eral more  positive  in  its  assertion  of  progress  and  ultimate 
redemption  for  society  as  a  whole,  through  its  appointed 
means,  than  in  affirming  the  best  issues  for  the  individual. 
And  just  as  Christianity  contemplates  vast  numbers  of  the 
human  race  as  destined  to  become  devils  in  eternal  pain, 
so  the  Avesta  makes  the  wicked  turn  into  Daevas,  or  spirits 
of  evil  ;^  and  one  gate  of  this  terrible  dualism  leads  to  a 
populous  hell.  Even  in  such  dismal  failures  to  reconcile 
man  with  the  condi1?ions  of  life,  we  must  acknowledge  that 
religion  aims  at  justice,  that  its  retributions  are  imperfect 
eft"orts  for  righteous  ethical  sequence.  On  the  Avestan 
bridge  of  judgment,  the  balance  hangs  poised  for  all:  the 
judges  are  Mithra,  the  truth;  Rashnu,  eternal  righteous- 
ness ;  and  Craosha,  perfect  obedience  ;  and  the  questioning 
of  the  soul  by  itself  is  the  last  appeal.  As  in  Christianity, 
the  strict  arithmetic  of  penalty  is,  clumsily  enough,  broken 
through  by  a  gleam  of  at  least  more  kindly  spiritual  econ- 
omy, which  applies  supererogatory  merits  of  saints  to  the 
cancelling  of  other  men's  sins ;  so,  if  the  theory  of  Spiegel 
is  correct,  the  virtues  of  good  Zoroastrians  are  believed  to 
be  laid  up  in  a  treasury  of  succor  (Migvdna) ,  to  turn  the 
scale,  at  the  last  judgment,  in  behalf  of  those  whose  own 
repentance  has  not  quite  outweighed  their  misdeeds.^     If, 

'  Bhagavad-gita,  iv.  6.  ^  Vendidad,  viii.  loo. 

^  But  this  view  is  not  confirmed  by  other  writers.  See,  on  one  side,  Spiegel,  Eran.  Altertlu 
ii.  17  ;  on  the  other,  Harlez,  i.  265  n  ;  Haug,  Essays,  etc.,  p.  389  ;  or  Vendidad,  xix.  122. 


AVESTAN   DUALISM.  97 

however,  this  Migvana,  or  middle  world,  is  rather  the  in- 
termediate space  between  heaven  and  hell,  where  those 
souls  are  held  whose  good  and  evil  are  equal,  it  would 
be  at  all  events  an  attempt  to  approximate  exact  justice, 
instead  of  admitting  mercy. 

No  more  than  any  other  religion  of  the  past  wliich 
bases  the  future  destiny  of  the  soul  upon  the  analogy  of 
personal  relations  in  this  world,  as  shown  in  private  emo- 
tions, or  in  the  courts  of  justice  between  man  and  man, 
does  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  reach  the  assurance  which 
reconciles  our  actual  ignorance  of  the  future  with  an  ideal 
trust  in  the  laws  of  our  being,  the  unknown  as  well  as  the 
known.  But  the  statement  of  its  limits  is  also  that  of  its 
characteristic  power  and  function  in  human  history.  First 
of  great  religions,  it  revealed  the  power  of  the  personal  cle- 
ment in  the  religious  ideal ;  evolving  out  of  man's  crude 
sense  of  the  strife  of  material  nature  a  conception  of  spirit- 
ual struggle  and  moral  prophecy  through  the  energy  of 
individual  will,  and  incarnating  this  conception  in  a  per- 
sonal Word,  around  whom  the  great  conflict  of  good  and 
evil  gathered  so  supremely  that  all  coming  faiths  were 
destined  to  draw'  from  the  fountains  it  opened  in  man- 
kind. 

And  not  only  did  this  affirmation  of  the  dignity  of  the 
will  assure  the  triumph  of  what  the  wilier  believed  to  be 
best,  but  saved  him  from  the  demoralizing  effects  of  pure 
Dualism,  which  would  have  admitted  no  solution  of  the 
strife.  A  noble  aspiration  to  unity  shaped  the  whole  sys- 
tem, proceeding  from  the  necessity  of  the  ideal  will  to 
secure  an  undivided  ground  of  action,  complete  concentra- 
tion of  aim,  free  and  simple  self-development.  Thus  we 
find  in  the  Avesta  each  class  of  objects  traced  to  one 
beginning,  —  all  waters  to  one  source;  all  trees  to  one  tree; 
all  animals  to  the  primal  Bull ;  all  men  to  one  progenitor 
{Gayomard^.     Hence,  castes  are  impossible:   the  king  is 

7 


98  DEVELOPMENT. 

parent  of  all  men;  the  marriage  rule  is  monogamy;  the 
ethical  law  is  responsibility  to  one  personal  principle  of 
right. 

ZRVAN-AKARANA. 

All  worship  of  personal  Will  involves  Dualism,  in  some 
form,  however  incomplete.  The  power  of  choosing  be- 
tween opposites  is  indispensable  to  the  freedom  of  will; 
and  so  long  as  pure  will,  as  such,  is  held  to  be  the  supreme 
essence,  the  law  which  it  is  its  only  real  freedom  to  obey 
is  subordinated  to  its  right  of  choice,  —  that  is,  to  caprice; 
and  the  worship  of  will  becomes  the  worship  of  miracle. 
This  is  the  inevitable  logic  of  all  religions  of  this  kind. 
But  all  religions  have  germs  of  growth  out  of  this  vicious 
circle.  Even  in  Mazdeism,  the  typical  religion  of  personal 
Will,  there  were  intimations  of  this  need  of  somewhat 
greater  than  such  will ;  and  these  intimations  associated 
themselves  with  its  movement  out  of  Dualism,  prompting 
it  to  solve  the  antagonism  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  in  a 
common  source.  This  is  the  significance  of  the  Zervanitic 
doctrine  in  later  Mazdeism.^  It  was  one  of  a  series  of 
cosmogonic  efforts,  deriving  the  world  ^from  elements  of 
universal  order,  such  as  Light,  Space,  Time,  Fate :  and  a 
direct  result  of  the  most  important  of  these  conceptions, — 
namely,  that  of  Fate.^ 

Every  thoughtful  person  must  recognize  universal  law 
as  master  of  all  individual  intentions  or  aims.  The  mind 
which  has  not  learned  that  the  world  is  governed  by  forces 
to  which  all  wills  of  whatever  power  must  conform,  has 
had  but  slight  experience  of  life.  The  noblest  hope  and 
desire  are  most  closely  confronted  by  insuperable  limits. 
Before  these  primal  conditions  of  existence,  these  inscrut- 
able realities  of  law, —  call  it  either  cosmical  or  spiritual, — 

1  Spiegel's  Avesta,  ii.  218,  note  iii.  xxxix. 

^  The  Parsis  of  the  present  time  are  not  dualists;  the  old  meaning  of  the  Avesia  is 
lost  for  them. 


ZRVAN-AKARANA.  99 

all  gods  must  bend.  Their  order  upholds  all  self-conscious 
being  like  a  sea.  This  is  the  impersonal  soul,  the  incon- 
ceivable essence,  which  comes  to  us  as  divine  necessity, 
and  which  we  must  learn  to  hold  benignant  and  dear  for- 
ever. All  great  personal  religions  have  hints  and  gleams 
of  this  light  beyond  their  own,  this  supremacy  over  the 
objects  of  their  worship,  even  when  they  strive  to  regard 
the  two  as  one;  because  men  cannot  help  feeling  such 
predominance  of  substance  over  will  in  their  own  lives. 
The  greatest  of  religions,  the  universal  religion,  will  be 
characterized  by  enthroning  it,  trustingly  and  deliberately, 
above  all  conceptions  of  Divine  Purpose  or  Will.  I  seek 
instinctive  germs  of  this  truth  in  every  positive  religion.  I 
think  I  can  discern  how  such  an  instinct  helped  Mazdeism 
resolve  its  Dualism  into  something  like  unity. 

The  sway  of  Destiny  over  all  motion,  spiritual  and  phy- 
sical, was  expressed  by  the  Hindus  in  the  term  Bhaga, 
meaning  the  "  allotter  or  giver."  The  word  Bakht,  from 
the  same  root,  is  used  in  the  older  Avesta  in  the  general 
sense  of  celestial  appointment,  without  reference  to  any 
personal  source.^  But  in  the  later  writings  this  idea  be- 
came more  distinctly  associated  with  the  movement  of  the 
stars  and  planets,  and  with  the  strife  in  which  they  were 
supposed  to  be  engaged.^  From  these  movements  destiny 
was  supposed  to  proceed,  and  in  a  more  strict  and  positive 
sense  than  in  the  ordinary  and  wide-spread  faith  in  astro- 
logical influences.  Thus  it  appears  that  in  the  worshipper 
of  free-will  and  choice,  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  even  conceived  as  strife,  were  capable  of  awakening 
a  reverent  sense  of  supreme  order,  irreversible  law,  and 
predetermined  result.^ 

'  Darmesteter  :  Ormazd et  Akriman,  p.  319-20.     Haug  :  Essays,  etc.,  p.  273. 

^  J^fifidkkired,  viii.  17. 

3  Both  the  Chinese  and  the  European  languages  use  the  word  "heaven"  to  express  the 
sense  of  all-controlling  destiny,  where  a  personal  term  seems  to  be  less  in  accordance  with  the 
impression  of  order  and  law. 


lOO  DEVELOPMENT. 

Now,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  this  divine  and  resistless 
march  of  the  heavenly  powers  came  to  be  identified  with 
the  flow  of  Time,  of  Boundless  Time,^  —  its  obvious  con- 
dition, and  its  most  impressive  suggestion.  The  Greek 
made  Cronos  the  oldest  of  gods;  and  it  is,  in  a  sense, 
our  necessity  to  conceive  of  time  as  the  all-determining, 
all-resolving  power  of  Fate.  Whatsoever  is  past  recall, 
whatsoever  must  be  but  is  not  yet,  the  certainties  of  past 
and  future  alike,  are  offspring  of  Time,  whereof  none  saw 
the  beginning,  none  can  foresee  the  end.  Time  is  the 
Hindu  Kali,  with  the  worlds  strung  about  her  neck  hke 
skulls  of  the  dead.  Time  is  the  all-engulfing  god  of  the 
Bhagavad-gita,  down  whose  open  mouth  rush  the  genera- 
tions. Time  is  the  one  sure  movement,  the  one  inevitable 
path.  The  heavenly  legions  on  their  ordered  march  through 
boundless  time  and  space,— those  undying  fires  man  fails 
to  reach,  yet  never  fails  to  behold ;  those  gods  of  all  ages, 
obedient  to  a  mysterious  Order  beyond  themselves, —  might 
well  seem  to  bind  past,  present,  and  future  into  one  all- 
determining  Fate.  But  if  time  was  the  ground  of  these 
celestial  movements  for  the  Mazdean,  not  less  would  it 
be  the  parent  and  sure  promise  of  all  the  spiritual  and 
material  glories  which  he  expected  from  the  triumph  of 
his  law.  Even  in  the  Vendidad  it  is  here  and  there  in- 
voked, together  with  the  Word  and  the  self-sustaining 
heavens,  equally  with  the  gods  themselves.^  And  the 
Minokhired,  at  the  end,  sums  up  the  accomplishment  of 
destined  good  through  the  toils  and  sufferings  of  the 
past.^ 

1  Minokhired,  xxvii  lo  ;  viii.  17.  "The  things  of  the  world  are  moved  by  Destiny,  and 
the  regular  course  of  that  which  is  self-created  —  Time,  the  ruler  of  the  long  ages."  As  it  is 
appointed  to  each  in  ever^'  time,  so  it  is  accomplished,  "  so  that  the  good  which  should  come 
through  those  who  have  departed,  to  the  creatures  of  Ahura,  has  been  brought  to  pass." 

2  Vendidad,  xix.  55.  For  later  development  of  Zrvan-akarana,  see  Carre:  V Ancien 
Orient.,  ii.  379. 

3  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  by  this  term  I  but  mean  that  imperfect  form  of 
dualism  which  has  been  already  allowed  as  belonging  to  Avestan  religion. 


ZRVAN-AKARANA.  I 01 

Mazdean  Dualism,  then,  contained  in  itself  the  germs  of 
this  principle  of  reconciliation.  No  resort  could  have  been 
more  natural.  Whatever  modifications  it  may  have  re- 
ceived from  Babylonian  sources,  this  sovereignty  of  Time 
without  bounds  was  the  demand  of  personal  will  for  a 
ground  of  confidence  beyond  the  strife  of  its  own  free 
choice,  or  any  idealization  of  the  same.  That  it  came 
through  the  sense  of  all-mastering  movement  in  those 
heavenly  fires  which  had  always  been  the  symbol  of 
deity,  simply  shows  that  Nature  inevitably  brings  the 
recognition  of  unity  in  the  religious  conceptions.  But  it 
was  easier  to  escape  the  bonds  of  Dualism  than  the  in- 
capacity of  worshipping  any  other  than  some  form  of 
personal  will.  And  Zrvan-akarana,  though  a  resort  to 
an  impersonal  element,  became  no  less  personal  than 
Ormuzd,  and  no  less  the  centre  of  anthropomorphic  my- 
thology. Still  the  Bundehesh,  as  late  at  least  as  the  Sas- 
sanian  times,  does  not  represent  Zrvan  as  a  person.  Its 
first  chapter  either  describes  Ahura  as  "  possessing  end- 
less time,"^  or  else  the  "Time  of  Ahura"  as  that  which 
"was,  and  is,  and  is  to  be."^  And  Ahriman  is  said  to 
exist  for  a  time  which  shall  have  its  end.  There  is  no 
cosmogonic  expression  here,  no  hint  of  the  origin  of 
either  from  a  pre-existent  God. 

About  the  same  period,  however,Theodore  of  Mopsuestia 
wrote  that  Zoroaster  made  Zarouavi,  ruler  of  the  whole 
universe,  and  called  him  Destiny ;  and  that  this  first  god 
produced  both  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  (or  Satan).  This 
was  the  general  belief  of  the  Armenian  Christian  writers 
of  that  period,  and  shows  that  it  was  largely  under  the 
influence  of  Syrian  Christianity  that  the  change  of  Zrvan 
from  an  abstract  to  a  personal  form  must  have  taken 
place.     In  the  later  Persian  sects,  formed  under  Semitic 

1  Mit  unbegranzter  Zeit  begabt.     Windischmann. 

^  Die  Zeit  des  Ahuramazda  war,  und  ist,  und  wird  sein.     Justi. 


I02  DEVELOPMENT. 

and  Christian  relations,  the  Zervanites,  or  beHevers  in  Time 
as  a  supreme  god,  were  especially  noticed  by  the  Mussul- 
man writers.^  But  the  struggle  of  good  and  evil  is  not  to 
be  ended  by  the  triumph  of  one  Will,  one  Person,  one  Lord, 
whatever  his  name,  over  other  beings  equal  or  inferior. 
For  no  service  of  a  person  can  make  free  or  holy ;  only 
the  service  of  righteous  principles,  —  of  truth  as  truth,  and 
good  as  good,  not  as  the  will  of  God  or  man.  Zoroastrian- 
ism,  —  and,  we  must  add,  Christianity,  —  for  want  of  this 
final  step  upon  impersonal  foundations,  have  been  fated, 
with  all  their  modifications,  to  revolve  in  the  same  circle 
of  ethical  weakness  and  limited  sight.  Thus  the  new  Maz- 
dean  god,  though  a  resort  to  natural  order,  was  but  an 
imperfect  and  transient  foregleam  of  what  only  ages  of 
science  following  on  ages  of  this  anthropomorphic  worship 
could  bring.  Nevertheless,  as  such  resort,  it  was  one  of 
those  landmarks  in  history  that  indicate  the  path  of  spirit- 
ual evolution.  And  it  is  such  landmarks,  discernible  to  the 
careful  student  of  comparative  religion,  that  makes  reli- 
gious history  of  most  value  to  us  to-day. 

Zrvan  gradually  becomes  indentified  with  other  deities 
of  similar  name,  but  different  meaning,  and  of  Semitic  or 
Median  origin ;  and  a  mixed  mythology  of  shreds  and 
patches  gathers  about  the  old  reconciling  Time-idea,  till 
it  becomes  as  finite  as  the  gods  it  was  said  to  have  created. 
Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  reappear  dressed  in  the  patriarchal 
robes  of  Esau  and  Jacob ;  and  the  old  Zrvan,  tricked  by 
the  younger  and  evil-minded  son,  retains  so  little  of  his 
Time-mastery  as  to  be  obliged  to  grant  him  nine  thousand 
years  of  rule  in  the  world.  Hindu  legends  of  creation  of 
the  world  through  sacrificial  suicide  of  a  god,  are  infused 
among  Mazdean  traditions  utterly  opposed  to  their  ascetic 
and  mystical  spirit.  But  through  all  changes  and  all  syn- 
cretism of  systems  abides  the  old  faith  that  good  shall  be 

1  See  Haug's  Essays,  etc.,  p.  15. 


ZRVAN  AKARANA.  IO3 

triumphant  at  last;  and  that  assurance, which  in  the  begin- 
ning helped  Avestan  Dualism  from  practical  failure  to  re- 
concile man  with  the  conditions  of  life,  maintains  the  like 
function  in  the  latest  phases  of  Mazdeism.  It  inspires  the 
worship  of  Zrvan  as  well  as  that  of  Ahura.  And  there- 
fore it  is  not,  in  either  of  these  phases,  a  mere  trust  in 
personal  will,  but  rests,  in  part  at  least,  on  confidence  in 
the  natural  tendency  of  things ;  on  the  necessities  of  the 
world  and  of  man.  Nor  can  I  hesitate  to  accept,  as  at 
least  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  evolution,  the  striking 
summary  of  religious  systems  by  a  distinguished  Oriental 
scholar,  which  represents  "all  their  first  principles,  —  Time, 
Fate,  Light,  Space,  as  forms  of  One, —  namely.  Heaven,  or 
the  Sky,  considered  in  its  movement,  or  its  brightness,  or 
its  extent.  Ormuzd  begins  by  being  the  luminous  infinite 
Heaven.  And  the  same  principle  has  given  the  Indo- 
European  family  their  Supreme  God."^ 

A  still  broader  generalization  may  be  based  upon  that 
one  of  these  principles  with  which  our  Iranian  studies 
have  thus  far  been  most  concerned.  If  we  remember  that 
through  all  the  strife  of  good  and  evil  which  man  has  felt 
within  him  and  beheld  without,  his  imagination  has  re- 
mained loyal  to  that  transcendent  symbol  the  Light,  in 
which  his  conscious  religious  life  found  its  first  inspira- 
tion, we  shall  assuredly  be  convinced  that  the  worship  of 
Nature  is  not  only  the  natural,  but  the  sane  and  sacred 
track  of  humanity. 

On  this  track  lies  the  real  solution  of  Dualism,  which 
Zoroastrianism  and  all  the  other  religions  of  the  past, 
with  all  their  compensations  and  foregleams,  have  failed 
to  accomplish.  That  "  the  fall  of  the  race  through  the 
bad  use  that  its  earliest  progenitors  made  of  their  free-will 
is  the  only  solution  of  the  formidable  problem  "  of  evil,^  is 

'  Darmesteter:  Ortnazd  et  Akriman,  -pTp.  336-37. 

^  Lenormant :  Contemporary  Review,  September,  1879. 


I04  DEVELOPMENT. 

a  mere  Biblico-historical  dogma,  which  does  not  touch  the 
root  of  the  matter,  but  simply  puts  it  back  in  time,  and 
involves  it  in  deeper  complications.  If  evil  be  what  the 
Bible  represents  it,  no  such  misuse  of  free-will  by  the  first 
men,  or  the  last  men,  can  account  for  it.  It  has  been  said, 
and  there  is  truth  in  the  statement,  that  the  Hebrew  es- 
caped the  association  of  darkness  with  evil.  His  form  of 
dualism  was  absorbed  in  the  conception  of  a  God  above 
both  light  and  darkness,  of  whom  they  were  the  products : 
"The  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  Thee."  But 
this  noble  plane  of  Hebrew  prophecy,  higher  than  any 
point  reached  by  Chaldean,  Persian,  or  Phoenician,  does 
not  solve  the  problem  of  evil,  —  the  deeper  dualism  which 
no  special  symbol  exhausts.  The  will  of  a  God  alone  is 
not  sufficient  to  answer  it.  Nor  can  any  revelation  of 
such  will  serve  better  the  demand  of  reason  in  our  age. 
Evil,  physical  and  moral,  cannot  be  instituted  by  any 
personal  will. 

Dualism  is  in  Nature,  in  man ;  good  and  evil,  both  in 
the  physical  and  ethical  si^heres,  cannot  be  ignored.  Their 
conflict  is  the  tremendous  reality,  which  no  religion  can 
possibly  put  out  of  sight.  It  is  the  glory  of  Mazdeism  to 
have  struck  root  in  this  central  fact:  its  failure,  to  have 
ended  in  solutions  which  solve  nothing.  For  no  triumph 
of  one  personal  will  over  another,  or  of  one  kind  of  will- 
ing over  another,  no  utter  extermination  of  half  the  will- 
power of  the  universe,  can  explain  or  justify  the  tragic 
hate  and  strife.  Only  when  it  is  recognized  that,  behind 
the  conflict  of  good  and  evil  wills  whether  human  or 
divine,  —  the  antagonism  of  purpose  by  which  character  is 
formed  and  virtue  enthroned  over  sorrow  and  sin, — there 
is  in  the  nature  of  things  a  law  that  evil  is  the  condition  of 
good ;  that  without  the  lower  the  higher  could  not  be ;  that 
liberty  and  progress,  and  love  and  duty,  and  heroism  and 
devotion,  imply  the  existence  of  evil,  and  ripen  through  its 


ZRVAN   AKARANA.  IO5 

tasks ;  and  that  this  necessity,  in  the  eternal  nature  of 
things,  uses  all  personality  to  serve  its  own  uncreated  law 
of  growth,  —  only  when  this  religion  of  Nature  shall  sup- 
plant the  religions  which  ultimate  in  man-made  divinities 
of  Will,  which  they  themselves  must  take  for  granted,  can 
the  dark  riddle  of  ages  be  solved. 


II. 

MORALITY  OF  THE  AVESTA. 


^'- 


MORALITY   OF   THE   AVESTA. 

TT  might  seem  that  httle  could  be  said  for  the  morality 
•*-  of  a  system  which  insists  as  earnestly  on  the  criminality 
of  killing  an  otter,  or  dropping  one's  nail-parings  about 
the  house,  as  on  the  slaying  of  a  man.  Very  strange  re- 
sults came  in  process  of  time  of  that  complete  confusion 
of  the  physical  and  moral  worlds  inherent  in  Iranian 
dualism.  We  can  readily  see  that  it  was  only  logical  that 
all  the  evil  purpose  of  Ahriman  should  appear  to  be  incar- 
nated in  each  of  his  creatures,  and  to  call  for  its  destruc- 
tion as  the  highest  duty;  and  that  all  the  goodness  of 
Ahuramazda  should  be  embodied  in  each  good  and  help- 
ful product  thereof,  and  demand  its  preservation  with  equal 
energy.  We  have  already  seen  upon  what  trivial  associa- 
tions many  creatures  were  proved  pure  or  impure ;  yet 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  choice  was  in  a  measure 
determined  by  real  gratitude  and  sympathetic  respect  on 
the  part  of  these  simple  tribes,  whose  chief  interests  were 
the  protection  of  their  settlements  and  the  security  of  the 
products  of  their  industry.  And  why  should  not  the  watch- 
dog be  made  a  centre  of  superstitious  awe  and  jealous  care 
by  a  people  at  that  stage  of  progress,  as  the  bread  and  wine 
of  atonement  by  a  more  introversive  religion? 

"  I  have  made  the  dog,  O  Zarathustra,  with  keen  scent  and  sharp 
teeth,  faithful  to  man,  as  a  protection  to  the  folds,  —  I.  who  am  Ahura- 
mazda. When  he  is  sound  and  in  good  voice,  no  thief  nor  wolf  can 
come  nigh."  "  For  the  dwellings  would  not  stand  fast  on  the  earth 
created  by  Ahuramazda,  but  for  the  dogs  which  pertain  to  the  cattle 
and  the  village."^ 

*  yendiddd,  xVn,  io6,  m,  163. 


no  DEVELOPMENT. 

By  slaying  a  certain  kind  of  dog,  the  offender  —  reckless 
of  Ahura's  good  purpose,  and  sinning  against  his  will  — 
"  slays  his  own  soul,  and  the  effects  of  the  act  last  for  nine 
generations.  "  ^  He  who  kills  a  trained  hound  excites  ab- 
horrence; and  at  his  death  no  other  soul  can  deliver  him, 
nor  will  the  dogs  help  him  at  the  bridge  of  judgment.^  The 
penalty  for  giving  hurtful  food  to  a  pup  is  fifty  blows  with 
the  horse-goad,  and  fifty  with  the  scourge  {p^aosho-charafia). 
Minute  rules  for  expelling  demons  from  different  organs 
of  the  body,  for  purifying  it  from  touch  of  the  dead,^  for 
removing  menstrual  uncleanness,  for  the  disposal  of  exuviae 
like  the  dead  hair  or  nails,  are  parts  of  the  great  struggle 
to  cleanse  the  living  world  from  the  decay  and  death  which 
are  Ahriman's  instruments.  They  are  neither  better  nor 
worse  in  themselves  than  other  forms  of  ritual  purification, 
which  are  in  the  physical  world  what  processes  for  sanctifi- 
cation  are  in  the  spiritual.  This  equal  insistence  on  things 
external  and  internal,  this  attachment  of  solemn  sanctions 
to  doings  in  themselves  thoroughly  trivial,  illustrates  a 
confusion  of  the  physical  and  moral  spheres  common  to 
all  religions,  and  unavoidable  in  the  absence  of  physical 
science,  which  finds  itself  confronted  down  to  the  latest 
moment  by  a  similar  class  of  superstitions,  such  as  pray- 
ing for  the  removal  of  drought  or  pestilence,  and  expect- 
ing Providential  interference  with  physical  laws.  With  the 
Iranian,  in  special  degree,  an  intense  propensity  to  symbol- 
ism gave  everything  in  the  physical  world  a  corresponding 
meaning  for  the  spiritual.  This  meaning  was  not  so  much 
consciously  applied,  as  immediately  actualized  or  enacted 
by  direct  will,  —  a  nerve-force  by  which  mind  and  body 
were  in  such  close  rapport  that  they  might  be  called  the 
poles  of  one  substance.  All  the  stock  phrases  of  the 
Avesta,  —  "  pure  mind  and  body;"  "purity  of  thought, 
word,  and  deed;"   "the  beautiful  body  of  Ahuramazda;" 

1  Vendidad,  xiii.  7.  '  Ibid.,  xiii.  21-25-  =  I^id.,  ix.  6. 


MORALITY  OF  THE  AVESTA.  Ill 

"  the  soul  of  the  Bull,"  —  indicate  this  closeness  of  relation 
of  the  physical  and  spiritual :  each  is  seen  in  the  other,  not 
inferred  from  it.  The  world  is  known  as  ethics  ;  the  will, 
as  acts,  forms,  things  done.  Physical  acts,  destroying  evil  or 
preserving  good  things,  actually  enlarge  the  world  of  good. 
This  intense  concreteness  of  ethical  passion  or  fire,  unre- 
strained by  prudential  wisdom  or  physical  science,  explains 
the  vast  outlays  of  energy  on  things  acceptable  to  Ahura, 
—  in  parks,  paradises,  dogs,  irrigation,  culture  of  the  land, 
destruction  of  idols  and  noxious  creatures,  rites  and  pomps. 
Mass  had  essential  spiritual  value  in  these  things ;  every 
insect  killed,  told  for  so  much  penance  or  moral  service. 
The  "  Acta  Martyrum  Persarum "  says  that  to  kill  flies 
was  a  sign  of  conversion  from  Christ  to  Zoroaster !  The 
blows  with  the  scourge  {craosho-charana) ,  which  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  given  to  the  back  of  the  offender,  were 
in  fact  given  by  him  to  the  noxious  creatures  of  Ahriman; 
and  even  penance  was  estimated  in  good  works.-^ 

This  confusion  of  physical  and  moral,  with  its  accom- 
panying ritualism,  does  not  forbid  a  marked  degree  of 
ethical  earnestness  in  the  Avesta.  The  Bible  of  free-will, 
it  insists  everywhere  on  free  choice  and  life-long  consecra- 
tion to  the  moral  war.  Its  root-idea  is,  that  falsehood 
(infidelity  to  thought  or  faith)  is  radically  destructive; 
that  truth  is  practically  creative  and  holy.  Penalties  for 
violation  of  promise  or  contract  {mithro-druj),  affect  not 
only  the  offender,  but  descend  to  his  children.^  In  later 
times,  tremendous  self-imprecations  were  drawn  up  as 
guards  against  falsehood ;  ^  and  we  know  from  the  Greeks 
what  importance  the  Persians  attached  to  truth.  Light 
itself  is  truth.  The  promise  must  be  kept,  evejt  zuith  an 
unbeliever.  The  value  of  all  outward  acts  was  in  purity  of 
thought  and  upright  will.  The  Gatha-ahunavaiti  says: 
"  They  whose  thoughts  are  not  pure,  from  them  the  good 

^  Harlez,  ii.  loi.  -  Mihr-VasM,  2.  '  Avesta,  ii.  Ivii.  ;  Spiegel. 


112  DEVELOPMENT. 

spirit  flees." ^  The  Hadokht-Nask  says:  "The  one  recital 
of  the  Word  which  is  worth  all  that  exists,  is  that  when  the 
speaker  forsakes  evil  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds." ^  "Our 
own  souls  praise  we,  our  own  Fravashis  praise  we;"  and 
"  may  you  seek  for  what  is  better  than  the  good."  ^  This 
ideal  ignores  all  differences  of  age,  or  time,  or  sex :  "  The 
Fravashis  of  all  pure  men  and  women  in  all  regions  praise 
we."  *  "  We  praise  all  the  just  men  and  women  that  are, 
have  been,  or  shall  be."  ^  Then  as  for  duties  to  others : 
Yima's  paradise  of  world-innocence  was  where  "  no  strife 
entered,  nor  vexation,  nor  enmity,  nor  deceit."  The  Vis- 
pered  says:  "Have  ready  feet,  hands,  wills,  to  do  good 
works  and  avoid  evil  ones."  "  Do  good,  give  help  to  the 
helpless."*^  The  holiest  verse  (A /iziua-^^aijy a),  distilled  sub- 
stance of  the  Word,  says:  "The  kingdom  to  Ahura,  whose 
law  protects  the  weak."'^  And  this  is  the  vow  of  the  be- 
liever :  "  With  purity  and  good-will,  O  Ahura,  I  will  pro- 
tect the  poor  who  serves  Thee."  ^  He  who  does  not  pay 
a  just  debt  "  is  a  thief  of  the  loan,  a  robber  of  what  is  lent 
to  him."^  In  the  later  Minokhired,  it  is  pronounced  meri- 
torious to  build  caravansaries.^*^  And  see  the  confidence  in 
an  "  all-beholding,  all-renewing,  unsleeping  Helper  of  the 
just  and  good :  "  "  Mithra,  grant  that  we  may  be  well-wish- 
ing, of  friendly  mind,  loved  and  honored,  and  may  slay 
every  evil  desire," — "Mithra,  whom  the  lord  of  the  region, 
the  ruler  of  the  clan,  and  the  master  of  the  household  ever 
with  uplifted  hands  call  to  aid ;  whom  the  poor  man,  de- 
voted to  the  law  but  robbed  of  his  goods,  ever  with  uplifted 
hands  calls  to  aid ;   the  voice  of  whose  weeping  ascends  to 

'   i'aftia,  xxxiv.  S. 

-  "  Righteousness  is  the  only  true  purification."  —  Vendiddd,  x.  38. 

3  Vafna,  Iviii.  5,  8.  *  Fravardin-Yasht,  144. 

^  J'rt(-«rt,  xli.  4,  5.  6  Visfiered,  xviii.  1-5. 

1  Roth  translates  the  Ahuna-vairya  differently.  "  Ahura  has  placed  in  this  world,  as  well 
as  in  the  better,  a  shepherd  for  those  who  need."  {Zeitsch.  d.  Deiitsch.  Morgetd.  Gesellsch 
XXV.  20. )   "  Craosha  has  built  a  firm  abode  for  the  poor."  —  i'a(Ka,  Ivi  4. 

^  Ya^na,  xxxiv.  5.  ^  Vendidadt'v).  1,2.  ^°  Avesia,  ii.  Iviii. 


MORALITY   OF  THE   AVESTA.  II3 

the  stars  and  goes  round  the  earth,"  —  "  Mithra,  whose 
long  arms  grasp  forward  with  strength ;  from  far  Indies 
to  farthest  West,  and  on  the  Northern  stream,  and  at  the 
ends  of  the  world.  The  unrighteous  thinks,  '  Mithra  sees 
not  these  evil  deeds ; '  but  I  think  in  my  soul  no  man  on 
earth  with  hundredfold  strength  thinks,  speaks,  or  does  so 
much  evil  as  Mithra  with  heavenly  strength  thinks,  speaks, 
and  does  good."  ^ 

Craosha  smites  the  unchaste.^  The  Gathas  admonish 
young  married  couples  to  "  clothe  each  other  with  purity, 
after  the  righteous  law,  and  bring  great  joy."  ^  The  Ven- 
didad  shows  its  respect  for  pure  relations  between  the 
sexes,  when  it  makes  the  giving  of  one's  sister  or  daughter 
as  a  pure  virgin  to  a  true  believer  an  atonement  for  injur- 
ing a  creature  pure  to  Ahura,  or  believed  to  protect  the 
husbandman's  food.'^  Marriage  with  unbelievers  is  for- 
bidden.°  The  married  are  of  course  honored  beyond  the 
unmarried ;  and  while  there  are  no  signs  of  polygamy  in 
the  Avesta, —  though  Greek  writers  of  a  later  date  assert  its 
existence,^  to  a  limited  extent,  and  also  the  Shah-Nameh, 
—  the  later  Parsi  writings  define  strictly  the  grounds  that 
allow  the  husband  to  put  aside  his  wife,  and  even  permit 
him  to  take  another  to  secure  posterity,  since  increase  of 
progeny  adds  strength  to  Ahura's  hosts.*^  The  poor,  how- 
ever, had  but  one  wife.  Marriage  with  near  relatives  was 
in  high  esteem,  probably  as  keeping  the  clan-blood  pure.^ 
The  marriage  of  even  the  nearest, —  a  result  of  the  primi- 
tive veneration  for  ties  of  blood,  — was,  according  to  the 
Bundehesh,^  one  of  the  three  inviolable  things  with  which 
Ahriman  could  not  intermingle,  the  custom  being  derived 

'  Mihr-Yasht,  34,  S4,  85.  105,  106.  ^   Vafna,  Ivi.  7. 

5   Ya^-na,  lii.  5.  *   Vendiddd,  xiv.  64-66 ;  xiii.  169. 

^   Veiididady  xv;ii.  123,  124. 

^  Herodotus  says  that  the  Persians  of  his  day  have  many  wives  and  concubines;  and 
Strabo  adds,  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  children. 

'  Avesta,  ii.  xxxi.  ;  Spiegel.  *  Vispered,  iii.  18;  Herod.,  iii.  88 

8  Bundehesh,  xxxv. 

s 


1 14  DEVELOPMENT. 

from  the  Persians  of  the  older  time.^  We  do  not  hesitate 
to  set  this  down  as  proof,  in  that  age  of  the  world,  that 
the  awe  of  religion  centred  in  the  family,  and  made  all 
that  bound  its  members,  for  present  and  future  time,  in 
closest  union  supremely  sacred.  The  Vendidad  has  laws 
against  infanticide,  holding  man,  woman,  and  child  alike 
guilty;  also  commanding  that  the  father  of  an  illegitimate 
child  shall  maintain  it.^  We  find  no  definition  either  of 
marital  powers  (except  the  general  command  to  the  wife 
to  obey  the  husband)  or  of  parental  rights.  The  Vispered 
calls  "the  mistress  of  the  house"  to  the  sacrifice,  "the 
woman  of  pure  thoughts,  words,  acts,  irreproachable,  and 
submissive  to  her  spiritual  teacher."  ^ 

All  virtues  centre  in  the  duty  of  spreading  the  good 
Mazdayagnian  law  of  purity  {As/ia),'^ — the  profit  of  the 
world.  No  sin  like  the  violation  of  that  law ;  no  terms 
of  friendship  with  the  unbeliever  in  it.^  Mazdean  moral- 
ity is  indeed  often  brought  into  contradiction  with  natural 
humanity,  like  that  of  other  religions,  by  its  dependence 
on  the  interests  of  the  faith.  Thus  physicians,  where  they 
are  uncertain  about  remedies,  are  to  experiment  first,  not 
on  Mazdeans,  but  on  unbelievers.  Nevertheless,  not  even 
with  these  shall  the  true  believer  deal  falsely.^  The  sa- 
credness  of  the  elements  made  the  acts  of  all  other  faiths 
intolerable  in  many  ways.  Yet  the  Persian  kings  for  the 
most  part  were  tolerant.  The  Iranians  believed  themselves 
a  chosen  people,  sent  to  redeem  the  world ;  and  this,  as 
with  the  Hebrews,  was  but  the  natural  climax  of  a  vehe- 
ment self-assertion  of  the  personal  will.  Ahriman's  temp- 
tation of  Zoroaster  consisted  in  the  attempt  to  induce  him 

1  Deog.  Laert.  and  Strabo.  2   Vendidad,  xv. 

*  Vispered,  iii.  20.  <   Vispered,  viii.  11. 

5  The  unbelievers,  teachers  of  evil  doctrine  (Karapans  and  Kavis),  are  said  {Ya^na,  xxxii.) 
to  destroy  the  holy  words  and  the  spirit  cf  life  ;  to  spoil  Ahura's  good  intent,  and  help  the 
wicked  who  make  desolate  the  fields,  and  destroy  the  cattle.  It  does  not  seem  easy  to  iden- 
tify these  enemies,  who  certainly  could  not  have  been  Ar^•ans.     Harlez. 

6  Mihr-  Ynshi,  i 


MORALITY  OF  THE  AVESTA.  II5 

to  curse  the  good  Mazdaya^nian  law,  and  was  defeated  by 
his  reciting  the  sacred  formula,^  the  Ahuna-vairya.  The 
Haomas,  Beregmas,  and  the  various  priestly  names  and 
services  by  which  the  ritual  was  conducted,  and  in  which 
the  virtue  of  the  law  was  carried,  were  called  the  "victo- 
rious remedies;"^  and  these  organized  forms  of  propa- 
gandism  came  more  and  more  to  absorb  into  themselves 
'the  meaning  of  "  purity."  The  priests,  who  are  hardly 
emphasized  in  the  oldest  Gathas,  gradually  became  con- 
spicuous, and  priestly  purity  is  celebrated  in  hymns  and 
prayers.  They  seem  to  have  had  no  power  except  that 
of  performing  rites,  and  of  receiving  a  portion  of  the  offer- 
ing; and  the  "  pure  man,"  as  such,  appears  competent  to 
religious  functions  in  the  Zoroastrian  system.  He  is  in 
fact  pure  by  virtue  of  rightly  fulfilling  the  religious  order. 
The  later,  more  strictly  organized  priesthood  were  prob- 
ably of  Median  origin.  No  offering  of  blood  to  Ahura  or 
his  powers ;  creatures  were  cut  in  pieces,  all  but  a  part  of 
the  caul,  to  be  carried  away  by  the  worshippers  and  eaten : 
the  gods  did  not  want  the  body,  but  the  soul  (the  dead 
being  impure).  So  says  Strabo ;  ^  and  this  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Avesta.  Nothing  here  justifies  the  holocaust 
of  Persian  kings,  which  could  only  have  been  for  food ; 
nor  the  burial  of  living  men,  which  was  in  honor  of  deities 
under  the  earth  {Chthojiioi),  —  such  as  are  recorded  of 
Queen  Amestris  and  others. 

The  service  was  a  prayer  and  hymn ;  Haoma  juice 
poured  out;  bread  and  fruits,  use  of  the  "holy  cup." 
Prayers  were  offered  for  others;  for  the  dead,  for  the 
pure,  for  the  creatures  of  Ahura.  So  the  Persians,  we 
are  told,  prayed  for  all  Persians. 

Practical  religious  earnestness,  and  the  wide  sweep  of 
Ahura's  purpose  over  all  exclusive  ambitions,  in  personal 
discipline  or  positive  labor,  made  caste  impossible.     The 

*  Vendidad,  xix.  '   Vis/>ered,  viii.  ^  Strabo,  xv- 


Il6  DEVELOPMENT. 

Gathas  divide  the  Iranians  into  four  classes,  —  priests, 
warriors,  agriculturists,  and  artisans ;  ^  and  tliese,  by  exer- 
cise of  the  duty  of  "  the  pure  man,"  equally  bring  forth 
the  Holy  Word  of  right  thought,  word,  and  deed.^  Caste 
was  never  established,  in  any  proper  sense,  in  Iran.  The 
clan  was  developed  to  contain  chiefs  of  the  house,  village, 
tribe,  province,  and  "  Zarathustra  as  the  fifth  "  in  some  re- 
gions;  as  the  fourth  in  others.^  What  is  Zoroaster  here? 
High  priest?  It  may  be.  But  there  is  no  mistaking  in 
the  Avesta  the  aristocratic  tone  which  inheres  in  the  wor- 
ship of  will,  even  in  the  organization  of  the  early  Iranians ; 
as  we  see  in  the  Vispered,  where  is  given  the  ritual  of  the 
Gahanbar  feasts,  in  honor  of  the  six  days  of  creation,  or  six 
seasons,  six  yearly  feasts  described  in  the  Bundehcsh.  It 
opens  with  an  invitation  to  lords  and  chiefs  of  all  kinds, 
typical  heads  of  creatures,  qualities,  forms,  every  one  of 
which  is  thus  represented  in  the  great  dualistic  war. 
These  typical  chiefs  are  called  the  "  givers  "  of  the  classes 
in  question ;  and  so  there  are  hierarchical  orders  of  priests, 
just  as  Ahura  has  his  subordinates,  and  these  their  own,  in 
celestial  descending  series.  In  the  (later)  Khordad-Yasht, 
Zoroaster  is  forbidden  to  teach  the  law  to  any  other  than 
the  priestly  family  (so  the  sentence  is  interpreted) ;  but  this 
could  not  have  been  done  in  the  time  of  the  Gathas.  A 
striking  illustration  of  the  formulizing  spirit,  and  its  work 
upon  the  accumulated  material  of  later  ethics  and  ritual- 
ism, is  found  in  the  Patets,  or  confessional  formulas,  which 
contain  anxiously  minute  enumerations  of  every  conceiv- 
able short-coming,  and  prayers  for  forgiveness  of  every 
sin  that  could  be  thought  of,  as  if  everything  depended 
on  specifying  every  iota  of  desire  or  conscience  in  the  lit- 
urgy, all  of  which  indicates  a  long  period  of  real  ethical 

*  VaftuiyXJx.  17;  Haug. 

2  Haug's  translation,  making  appointment  of  a  spiritual  guide  one  of  these  duties,  is  cer- 
tainly doubtful.  '   }'<tf>ia,  xix.  18. 


MORALITY  OF  THE  AVESTA.  1 17 

earnestness  before  it  could  have  come  to  this.  The  seri- 
ous business  of  self-disciphne  seems  to  have  haunted  the 
Iranians  of  the  Avesta;  and  the  very  fables  of  the  race, 
it  has  been  observed,  "  are  free  from  the  wild  excesses  of 
imagination,  and  have  a  severe  and  moral  aspect."  ^ 

It  is  impossible  to  deny  the  moral  earnestness  of  a  faith 
whose  ceremonial  invocations  enumerate  hosts  of  good 
men.  The  preservation  of  their  names  alone,  in  this  form, 
is  the  surest  evidence  of  long  ages  of  pious  gratitude  and 
honor  to  the  best.^  That  hero-worship,  which  we  have  af- 
firmed to  be  at  the  root  of  Iranian  mind,  has  here  its  per- 
fect illustration.  The  "  Fravashis  of  the  pure  "  are  the 
earliest  type  of  a  religion  of  humanity,  foreshadowing 
the  modern  cultus  of  genius  and  character.  Here  begins 
the  religious  recognition  of  human  personality.  The  Bun- 
dehesh  gives  as  the  significance  of  the  myth  which  brings 
forth  man  from  the  seed  of  Gayomard  in  the  form  of  a  tree, 
from  whose  leaves  sprang  ten  varieties  of  men  and  women, 
the  sexes  inseparable  from  each  other  and  not  to  be  told 
apart,  —  that  the  soul  being  first  made,  and  placed  in  the 
body  as  its  instrument,  lifts  this  by  its  invisible  power  to  the 
upright  form ;  and,  like  a  tree,  strives  upward,  that  it  may 
come  to  the  Yazatas,  or  heavenly  ones.^  "  To  the  pro- 
genitors of  mankind  Ahura  said,  'Speak  ye  good  words, 
do  good  acts,  vield  not  to  the  evil  ones ;  be  perfect.'  "  ^ 
The  destiny  of  men  and  spirits  hangs  on  the  majesty  of 
Truth,  and  on  the  weakness  and  self-destruction  of  False- 
hood. Ahriman's  fatality  is  that  he  chooses  a  he,  and  so 
sees  nothing  truly,  blundering  till  it  is  too  late  to  save  him- 
self; while  Ahura,  because  he  is  truth,  foresees  the  tenden- 
cies of  the  world,  and  wins  the  conflict  before  it  begins. 

*  Harlez,  ii.  46. 

2  Fravardin-Yasht.  The  Bundehesh  gathers  up  chronological  data  covering  zodiacal 
periods  with  ethical  and  moral  personages ;  xxxiv. 

"  Bundehesh,  xv. ;  Justi.  4  Ibid.,  xxxiiL 


Il8  DEVELOPMENT. 

And  when  he  foretells  the  issue  to  his  great  enemy,  so 
overwhelming  is  the  presence  of  Truth  that  Ahriman  at 
the  first  third  of  what  he  hears,  bends  in  fear ;  at  the  sec- 
ond, falls  on  his  knees ;  at  the  third,  flees  and  buries  him- 
self in  darkness  for  three  thousand  years.  So  inestimable 
and  imperishable  is  the  Law  of  Truth  embodied  in  its 
great  Prophet,  that  the  seed  of  Zoroaster  is  held  under 
the  guardianship  of  a  million  Fravashis  of  the  Pure.^ 

*  Bundefiesk,  xxxiii. 


III. 

ZARATHUSTRA. 


ZARATHUSTRA. 

IT  is  remarkable  that  a  religion  which  represents  the 
worship  of  personality  in  its  intensest  degree  should 
have  been  destined  to  lose  almost  every  personal  record 
of  its  origin.  Zoroaster  is  the  obscurest  figure  in  the  line 
of  prophets  and  messiahs.-^  It  is  even  uncertain,  notwith- 
standing Spiegel's  strong  impression  of  unity  in  the  final 
form  of  the  Avesta,  whether  the  personal  references,  either 
in  the  oldest  or  latest  parts  of  that  work  of  ages,  point  to 
any  one  historical  founder  or  systematizer  of  the  faith. 
Such  have  been  the  fortunes  of  the  Avesta,  that  not  only 
have  the  greater  portion  of  its  original  books  (nosks)  been 
lost,  but  the  heroic  traditions  of  the  Iranian  race,  which 
might  have  thrown  light  upon  its  religious  history,  can  be 
brought  into  connection  therewith  only  by  the  very  imper- 
fect hints  and  incidental  notices  contained  in  three  or  four 
chapters.  The  passages  in  which  Zarathustra  is  either 
referred  to  or  introduced  as  speaking  in  person,  which  are 
made  the  most  of  in  Haug's  translation,  are  not  of  decis- 
ive importance.  Even  the  striking  passage  in  the  (^rosh- 
Yasht,  which  ascribes  to  him  the  authorship  of  the  five 
Gathas,^  does  not  conclusively  prove  historic  personality; 
and  the  prophet  comes  before  us  mainly  as  an  ideal  per- 
sonage. Whether  calling  men  to  repentance  and  choice 
between  good  and  evil,  or  conversing  with  Ahura ;  whether 
in   prayer,  in    ritual   service,   or   in   temptation;   whether 

'  See  Spiegel  {Koniglich  bayerische  Akadeniie  der  lVisse7ischu/ten,  January,  1867),  who 
shows,  by  a  complete  analysis  of  authorities,  how  entire  this  uncertainty  is. 
2  Yagna,  Ivi. 


122  DEVELOPMENT. 

exalted  or  persecuted,  —  he  is  the  official  and  chosen  in- 
strument of  his  God.  The  human  element  is  absorbed  in 
the  divine  function  of  propagator  of  the  law  through  the 
miraculous  power  of  the  Word.  He  expresses  no  sense 
of  humility  in  view  of  his  great  mission ;  he  performs  no 
heroic  act.  No  sympathy  is  sought  in  his  behalf  And 
all  the  apparent  records  of  his  life  might  easily  be  the  con- 
structed tradition  of  a  body  of  priests.  Moses,  Buddha, 
Jesus,  of  whom  much  the  same  officialism  is  true,  though 
in  different  ways,  had  the  advantage  of  written  records. 
And  this  is  also  true  of  Confucius,  who  enters  no  other 
than  natural  claims.  But  the  founder  of  the  Iranian  reli- 
gion could  have  had  no  aid  from  writing;  and  the  Iranian 
Word,  by  whomsoever  spoken,  must  have  been  committed 
solely  to  the  energy  of  the  moral  idea,  to  the  antagonism 
of  good  with  evil,  to  the  inspiration  of  will  by  a  common 
impulse. 

The  name  Zarathustra,  at  all  events,  cannot  of  itself 
stand  for  any  special  individual,  since  the  numerous  inter- 
pretations of  it, —  as  "star  of  gold,"  "star  of  life,"  "singer 
of  praise,"  "  brave  camel  owner,"  and  "  seed  of  Venus  " 
(Ishtar),  —  are  becoming  superseded  (at  least  so  far  as 
they  are  supposed  to  designate  such  individuality)  by  that 
which  explains  it  as  the  generic  name  of  the  Iranian  high- 
priesthood,  and  as  simply  meaning  "spiritual  elder"  or 
"  chief."  ^  Following  Parsi  traditions,^  Haug  regards  Cpi- 
tama,  frequently  used  in  connection  with  Zarathustra,  as 
the  real  or  family  name  of  the  prophet.  We  have  here 
another  illustration  of  the  historic  law  that  those  names 
by  which  traditional  founders  of  religions  have  come  down 
to  us,  are  simply  designations  of  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical 
function;    such   as  the  Buddha,  the  Messiah   (Christ),  the 

^  That  the  word  has  a  superlative  [,Zarathustrbtetjio),  seems  decisive  of  the  question. 
Haug  hss  strongly  insisted  on  this  meaning  (Essays,  etc.),  p.  296  ;  somewhat  similar  was  the 
suggestion  of  the  learned  Anthony  Trover,  in  his  notes  to  the  Dabisian,  i.  212. 

*  So  Ctesias ;  Spiegel:  Avesta,  iii.  Ixxvii.     So  Franck  :  Etudes  Orieiiiales,  p   222. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  123 

Zarathustra,  —  names  perhaps  given  to  individuals  but 
little  known,  perhaps  themselves  merely  personifications, 
as  points  of  historic  attachment  for  the  religions  in 
those  earlier  traditions  or  associations  from  which  they 
sprung. 

This  generic  quality  of  the  name  explains  the  great 
variety  of  dates  given  for  the  age  of  Zarathustra,  running 
all  the  way  from  6000  to  600  B.C.  ;^  which  has  led  scholars 
to  suppose  that  there  must  have  been  two  or  more  of  the 
name,^  —  the  fact  being  that  the  name  is  simply  messianic, 
and  employed  to  supply  a  personal  centre  to  all  obscure 
and  yet  important  movements  in  Iranian  history.  Assum- 
ing (^"pitama  Zarathustra  to  have  been  the  chief  personage 
of  the  Avcstan  religion,  this  question  of  his  age  would  lead 
into  discussions  that  promise  little  satisfaction :  such  as 
where  Airyana-vaejo,  his  favorite  region,  may  have  been; 
where  Pourushagpa,  his  father,  may  have  lived ;  where  the 
Hystaspes  or  Vistagpa,  whom  he  is  said  in  the  Avesta  to 
have  converted,  may  have  reigned.^  Two  points  may  be 
held  as  settled  :  First,  the  author  of  the  oldest  parts  of  the 
Avesta  cannot  have  been  far  removed  in  date  from  the 
Vedic  period,  with  which  they  are  closely  connected ;  and, 
second,  the  Greek  writers*  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries 
before  Christ  could  not  possibly  have  referred  him  to  so 
remote  an  antiquity  as  many  thousand  years  before  their 
own  day,  if  he  had  lived  in  the  time  of  Hystaspes,  the 
father  of  Darius  I.,  only  two  hundred  years  previous. 
Only   later    writers,    many    centuries    after    Christ,  —  for 

1  Rapp  {Zetischr.  d.  Deuisch.  I\[orge>d.  Gesellsch.,  xix.22);  Spiegel:  Eran.  Altcrth. 
i.  673;  Shea's  Mirkhond,  274;  Plutarch's  I  sis  and  Osiris;  Pliny:  Natural  History,  xxx. 
Anquetil-Duperron  and  Hyde  were  the  first  modems  who  adopted  the  latter  date.  They  are 
followed  by  Franck  :  Etudes  Orientales,  p.  213. 

2  Stanley,  Lives  of  Philosophers,  counts  six  of  the  name,  and  of  all  nations. 

5  See  Movers:  Die  Phonizier,  i.  259.  '^2,v:Vmzor\.  (Joiirnal  Royal  Asuiiic  Society,  xv. 
245).     Roth  :  Gesch.  uns.  abendldttfl.  Phil.  i.  349.     Harlez  :  Preface  to  Avesta,  i.   15. 

*  Xanthus  of  Lydia,  Aristotle,  etc.  Haug  :  Lecture  on  Zoroaster,  1S6S.  Hermippiis 
(250  B  c. )  speaks  of  two  million  verses  by  Zoroaster ;  a  pure  impossibility,  even  in  the 
credulity  of  tradition,  if  he  lived  only  four  hundred  years  previously. 


124  DEVELOPMENT. 

example,  all  the  Mahometan  historians,^  —  place  him  in 
this  Achaemenidan  period.^  The  extravagantly  early  date, 
6000  B.C.,  on  the  other  hand,  is  probably  constructed  out 
of  the  Babylonian  tradition,  recorded  by  Berosus,  that 
Zoroaster  was  the  first  of  a  line  of  Median  kings  who 
ruled  in  that  city  in  the  third  millennium  before  Christ. 
The  number  "6000"  is  a  round  number  in  Babylonian 
chronology,  and  signifies,  says  Haug,  "  great  antiquity." 
The  cosmic  system  of  the  Mazdean  books  places  him  three 
thousand  years  after  the  beginning  of  the  intermixture  of 
good  and  evil  in  the  universe,  six  thousand  years  after  the 
creation  of  the  earth,  that  is,  in  the  middle  of  time ;  of 
course,  a  requirement  of  the  astronomico-religious  myth.^ 
The  Median  magi  doubtless  deified  Zoroaster,  and  identi- 
fied him  with  Zrvan-akarana  (Time  without  bounds)  in 
later  times,  if  they  did  not  originate  this  personation  of 
what  in  the  Avcsta  is  simply  a  neuter  term  of  relation.^ 
The  Avesta,  however,  gives  as  little  reason  for  making 
Zarathustra  a  priest-king,  as  for  supposing  him  the  Time- 
fountain  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman.  The  uncertainty  of  the 
whole  question  of  Cpitama's  date  is  indicated  by  the  dif- 
ferences between  the  almost  equally  valuable  estimates  of 
Haug,^  Rapp,^  Duncker,'  and  Harlez,^  which  cover  a  period 
of  four  hundred  years  between  the  eleventh  and  fifteenth 
centuries  before  Christ.^ 


*  See  Rotli  t  Geschichte  unserer  abendVdnd.  Phil.  \.  351. 

^  The  confidence  with  which  Roth  (Gesch.  uns.  abend.  Phil.  vol.  i.),  speaks  of  this  date 
shows  how  much  has  been  done  since  his  work  appeared. 

^  See  Windischmann  :  Zoroasirische  Studien,  p.  162.  Rolh  (Gesch.  uns.  abend.  Phil., 
1862,  vol.  i.,  380-390)  ingeniously  argues  that  the  Vistaspa  of  the  Avestan  Yashts  was 
Hystaspes,  father  of  Darius,  king  of  Bactria,  subdued  by  Cyrus  ;  that  on  Darius's  accession 
to  the  throne  of  Cambyses,  he  made  Zoroastrianism  the  religion  of  the  Persian  empire. 

*  Lenormant  :  Chaldean  Magic  (English  edition),  p.  229. 
^  Haug  :  Essays,  etc.,  p.  299. 

^  Zeitschr.  De7ilsch.  Morgetil.  Gesellsch.,  xix.  27. 
'  Geschichte  des  Alterthmns,  ii.  317. 
8  Avesta,  i.  14. 

8  Windischmann,  Zoroastrische  Studien,  pp.  260-313,  gives  the  fullest  account  of  the 
testimonies  of  the  ancients  concerning  the  age  of  Zoroaster.     See  also  Roth,  as  above. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  125 

The  nativity  of  the  prophet  is  another  mystery.  Was  he 
Chaldean,  Median,  Bactrian?  Here  is  fine  hunting-ground 
for  the  Bibliolaters,  Christian  and  Perso-Arabian.  Was  he 
not  a  servant  of  Jeremiah,  or  an  associate  of  Noah  or 
Abraham,!  qj.  even  of  Adam?^  Whether  Spiegel  ^  and 
Duperron*  have  better  reasons  for  placing  his  birth  in 
western  Iran,  in  contact  with  their  favorite  Semitic  race, 
than  have  Ctesias  in  ancient,  and  Haug,^  Duncker,^  Har- 
lez,"  and  Rapp,^  in  modern  times,  for  regarding  Bactria  as 
his  home,  —  certain  it  is  that  the  Avesta  itself,  both  in  lan- 
guage and  geography,  is  decidedly  an  Old  Bactrian  work, 
and  speaks  of  the  more  occidental  portions  of  the  Iranian 
plateau  as  infidel  or  accursed.  I  can  see  no  good  reason 
for  dissociating  the  person  or  the  faith  of  Zarathustra  from 
their  Vedic  connections,  either  in  place  or  time. 

On  the  whole,  all  speculation  concerning  f  pitama  is 
confused  by  the  fact  that  the  Avesta  itself  was  brought 
together  long  after  its  earliest  portions  were  composed; 
and  with  such  an  intermingling  of  history  and  tradition, 
of  legend  and  hymn,  and  prayer  and  formula  and  doc- 
trine, that  no  biographical  inference  can  be  drawn  from 
any  portion  of  its  books. 

The  development  of  the  Zarathustrian  Idea  or  Faith 
follows  a  similar  track  to  that  of  the  New  Testament 
Christ.  In  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Avesta,  Zoroaster  hears 
the  revelation  of  Ahura  as  a  man,  as  it  rises  upon  him  out 
of  the  sacrificial  flame.^  It  is  industrial  and  moral ;  com- 
mands agriculture,!^  and  the  choice  between  sin  and  right- 
eousness, for  life  and  for  death ;  denounces  the  Daevas," 
their  worshippers  and  their  spells.     The  chosen  messenger 

I  See  Harlez :  Avesta,  I  iS  n.  -  Ernest  de  Biinsen  :  f/idden  IVi'sdom,  etc 

3  Eran.  Alterth.,\.  676,  684.  *  Avesta.    Also  Roth  :  Stud.  d.  abcid.  Phil.  i.  378- 

S  Essays,  etc.,  p.  297.  "  Gesch.  d.  Alterth.  ii.  315. 

'  Avesta,  i.  17. 

8  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgen}.  Gesell.  xix. ;  also  Rawl.  Anc.  Man.  iii.  3S0. 

9  Ya(na,  xxx.:  Hang. 

10  Honors  the  Sou!  of  the  Earth, -the  Cow.     i.  GAtk&.  "  Yatna,  xxxiii. 


126  DEVELOPMENT. 

of  Ahura  vows  fidelity:  "  I  have  believed  in  thee.  I  will 
destroy  the  wicked  and  comfort  the  good.  Grant  Thou  me 
goodness.^  I  will  proclaim  the  Best.  May  perfect  Wisdom 
direct  me,  —  He  whom  my  prayers  pursue,  Life  of  the  good 
mind  and  word  and  deed."^  He  complains  of  desertion  and 
neglect:  "Whither  shall  I  turn?  None  of  the  shepherds, 
none  of  the  rulers,  respect  me.  I  am  helpless.  Look  down 
on  me  while  I  implore  thee,  Ahura,  to  grant  the  comfort 
w'hich  one  gives  his  friend.  The  wicked  holds  the  goods  of 
the  just.  Whoso  works  with  righteousness  in  my  cause,  to 
him  shall  be  given  both  the  earthly  goods  and  the  spiritual 
life  as  a  reward ;  for  thou  possessest  all,  who  art  my  assur- 
ance."^ "To  Zarathustra  Ahura  commits  the  good  of  the 
world  (settlements.)"'*  He  is  the  friend  of  Ahura,  "utter- 
ing the  sacred  hymns  {mat/wa),  the  laws  given  by  my  wis- 
dom," says  the  Earth-Soul.^  "It  is  said  that  to  Cpitama 
Ahura  granted  the  best  good,  by  reason  of  his  sincere 
worship,  forever;  and  he  gives  the  same  to  all  who  keep 
the  words  and  do  the  acts  enjoined  by  the  holy  law.  "^  In 
the  most  of  these  earliest  Gathas,  Zoroaster  is  not  even  a 
chosen  prophet,  but  simply  a  man  in  earnest  to  seek  the 
truth  and  proclaim  it,  amidst  hostile  bands,  at  the  head  of 
a  few  followers.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  separate  this  stage 
from  that  of  miracle  and  special  messianic  sense,  which 
seems  to  have  sprung  directly  from  it.  The  story  of  his 
temptation  by  Ahriman'''  is  believed  by  Haug  to  be  an 
ancient  lyric.  The  Evil  One  recognizes  that  this  new- 
comer is  destined  to  enthrone  righteousness,  and  tries  in 
vain  to  seduce  him  from  the  work  appointed ;  but  he  is  so 
baffled  and  dazed  by  the  Divine  Word,  and  Zarathustra's 
vow  to  fulfil  it,  that  with  the  whole  devil-troop  he  casts 
himself  down  into  hell ;   nor  does  he  ever  become  visible, 

*  Va(na,x\\\\.\   Haug.  '  Va^na, -xXv.x  Haug. 

*  y'ncnn,  xlvi.;   Haug.  *  Haug. 

5  Va^tui,  1.;  Haug.  ^  J  af«a,  liii.;  Haug. 

'   yendidad,  ix. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  12/ 

either  of  himself  or  through  them,  afterwards,  but  works  in 
darkness  and  unseen.  This  last  is  probably  a  later  feature, 
but  the  temptation  story  itself  represents  a  somewhat  more 
official  function  in  the  reformer  than  that  earliest  stage 
which  we  have  pointed  out.  Here  we  find  little  or  no 
ritualism,  no  official  glory,  no  pre-existence,  no  supernat- 
ural power.  His  relations  are  human,  his  interests  domestic 
as  well  as  public ;  his  father's  name  is  given  as  a  Soma- 
saint,  and  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  is  mentioned.^ 
The  Bundehesh  doubtless  goes  back  to  this  early  period  in 
reciting  the  names  of  his  progenitors  and  children,  count- 
ing three  daughters  and  three  sons,  one  of  whom  was  the 
chief  of  priests,  the  ancestor  of  all  later  Mobads.  ^ 

Later,  the  Haoma-Yasht  introduces  Zarathustra  as  con- 
versing with  the  personified  Sacrificial  Plant;  learning 
that  by  preparing  and  offering  it,  the  blessing  of  giving 
birth  to  great  deliverers  was  received  by  saints  of  old, 
and  by  his  own  father  last ;  and  praying  that  he  may 
obtain  from  it  absolute  power  to  go  through  the  world, 
destroying  the  evil  mind.^  In  the  later  parts  of  the  Yagna 
he  receives  the  supernal  formula  or  prayer,  "which  was 
before  the  worlds,"  and  whose  recitation  gives  eternal  life ;  ^ 
a  Word  so  holy  that  whoever  leaves  out  any  portion  of  it 
in  muttering  shall  be  cast  into  hell.'"^  Here  Zarathustra 
is  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  five  rulers  or  chiefs  who  are 
placed  over  each  "region"  of  Iran, — probably  as  priest, 
and  evidently  represents  the  priestly  authority  as  such. 

Later  still,  in  the  Yashts,  are  revealed  to  him  the  twenty 
mystic  names  of  Ahura,  and  the  supernatural  spells  for 
averting  evil.*"  He  is  commanded  to  keep  their  mystery  a 
secret  from  all  but  the  priests    {Zaota).''     All  the  divine 

'  Va(}ia.  1.  17;  Hi.  3;  Harlez.  But  Haug  translates  differently.  Spiegel  is  confusing  as 
to  this  matter  of  the  daughter. 

^  Bimdehcsh,  xxx.  ii.  '   Vnena,  ix. 

*   i'arna,  xix   2,  3.  ^   Vncfid,  xix.  12-15. 

"  Ormazd-Vaskl ;  Ardibahiit-Yoiht.  '  Khordad-Yasht. 


128  DEVELOPMENT. 

beings  and  powers  by  whose  aid  men  are  saved,  are  laid 
open  to  his  spirit.^  The  Fravardin-Yasht  pronounces  him 
first  of  priests,  warriors,  husbandmen ;  first  teacher  of 
purity,  and  destroyer  of  Daevas  ;  in  whom  was  revealed  the 
whole  Word,  and  whom  the  immortals  desired  as  lord  and 
master  of  the  worlds ;  by  whose  birth  and  growth  trees 
and  streams  had  increase,  and  all  creatures  were  made  to 
shout  for  joy:  "  Hail,  fire-priest  (^Athrava),  Cpitama  Zara- 
thustra,  born  for  us,  to  offer  sacrifice  for  us,  and  spread 
abroad  the  holy  rite  and  law!"  In  the  Hadokt-Nask  his 
words  are  treated  as  sovereign  spells.  Later  still  we  have 
benedictions  {Afringa?is)  on  kings  in  his  name.^  The 
Vendidad  is  mainly  made  up  of  revelations  to  him  as 
the  mediator  of  truth  to  men.  It  has  been  truly  said, 
that  "  no  heathen  religion  is  so  distinctly  stamped  with 
the  idea  of  doctrinal  revelation  as  this."^ 

In  the  Vispered,  Zarathustra  is  lord  of  earthly  creatures, 
as  Ahura  of  heavenly.*  The  rites  are  all  formulized,  the 
priestly  functions  set,  the  Mazdean  priest  is  the  disciple 
of  Zarathustra,^  and  the  services  rehearse  the  means  of 
salvation  bestowed  by  Mazda,  by  Zarathustra,  and  by  the 
chief  of  Zarathustras  {Zarat/mstrdtemo) .^ 

And  in  the  still  later  mythology,  the  future  saviours  are 
his  descendants.  The  last  and  greatest,  Sosyosh,  is  mirac- 
ulously born  of  a  virgin  by  his  inspiration.  Still  the  ven- 
eration grew.  Greek  writers  ascribed  to  him  millions  of 
verses,'  covering,  according  to  Arabic  writers,  a  thousand 
ox-skins.  An  immense  quantity  of  literature  actually  be- 
came current  as  his.  Suidas,  Pliny,  and  others  refer  to 
him  as  a  great  authority  on  natural  science;^  and  the  Parsi 
traditions  make  him  the  author  of  the  twenty-one  nosks 
of  the  Avesta,  of  which  but  a  small  part  remains.     Pliny 

'  Mihr  and  FravardiH-Vashts.  -  Haug  :  Essays,  ^tc.,Tp.  22^. 

'  Dollinger,  p.  3S1.  *   Vispered,  ii.  6;  xix.  7,  8. 

^   Vis/iered,  vi.  6.  6   Vispered,  x. 

'  See  Pliny,  v.  422.  8  Pliny,  vi.  447,  448. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  1 29 

records  the  story  that  "  his  brain  pulsated  so  strongly  on 
the  day  of  his  birth  as  to  repel  the  hand  laid  upon  it, — 
a  presage  of  his  future  wisdom."  ^  The  Perso-Arabic 
mythologists  who  have,  if  possible,  less  historic  sense  than 
those  of  Mediaeval  Christendom,  have  surrounded  him 
with  the  usual  halo  of  supernatural  phenomena,  which 
are  rehearsed  with  spiritual  Sufi  interpretations  in  the 
Dabistan.  Torn  from  the  womb  by  wild  beasts,  he  is  res- 
cued and  restored  thereto  by  a  beautiful  youth,  coming 
forth  from  a  mountain  with  the  Word  and  the  Branch, 
who  says  to  his  mother,  "  Fear  not,  thy  son  shall  be  the 
prophet  of  the  just  God."^  He  laughs  at  the  instant  of 
birth,  in  token  probably  either  of  triumph  or  good-will.^ 
The  efforts  of  wicked  kings  and  magicians  to  destroy  him 
are  thwarted  by  the  brute  creatures,  to  which  he  brings 
relief.*  He  is  transported  like  Mahomet  to  heaven,  sub- 
jected to  supernatural  bodily  changes,  instructed  of  God, 
without  mediation  of  angels,  in  all  mysteries  and  powers. 
The  Sassanian  saints  of  the  Avestan  faith  repeat  his  mir- 
acles,^ and  the  Mahometan  mystics  rehearse  his  parables 
with  transcendental  exegesis.''  This  idealization  supplied 
the  one  form  of  religious  tribute  which  Iranian  will-wor- 
ship lacked ;  namely,  the  pantheistic.  The  Bundehesh 
says  the  Persian  Mobads  all  trace  back  their  lineage 
through  Zoroaster  to  Manuscithra.''  All  the  phases  familiar 
to  our  studies  of  the  messianic  idea  in  its  development 
in  other  religions  are  found  in  the  Zarathustra  legend. 
While  the  older  Avesta,  at  least,  is  comparatively  sober 
in  its  tone,  the  moral  interest  quite  absorbing  the  theo- 
logical and  even  the  imaginative,  and  the  prophet,  though 
of  surpassing  strength  and  wisdom,  does  not  aim  to  vio- 
late natural  laws,  but  to  teach  the  dignity  of  labor  and  the 
holiness  of  truth,  later  tradition  has  carried  him  through 

'  Pliny,  ii.  155.  -  Dabistan,  i.  216.  3  Ibid.,  318.  *  Ibid.,  220-21. 

5  Dabistan,  i.  304.  "  Ibid  ,  i.  364.  '  BundeJush,  x.\.\iii. 

9 


130  DEVELOPMENT. 

the  whole  catena  of  official  signs.  He  leaves  his  native 
land,  goes  into  the  mountains  to  prepare  for  his  mission, 
lives  seven  years  in  a  grotto  amidst  mystic  emblems  de- 
voted to  Mithra  (the  type  of  the  future  cave  of  Mithraic 
rites),  fasts  in  the  desert,  is  tempted  by  a  personal  devil, 
walks  on  the  sea,  performs  wonderful  cures,  and  overrules 
the  elements.  He  withdraws  to  -a  burning  mountain  for 
thirty  years ;  comes  unharmed  out  of  the  flames,  exhort- 
ing to  faith  in  righteousness.^  Clement  of  Alexandria 
reports  from  Plato,  that  he  returned  to  life  on  a  funeral 
pile  after  having  lain  dead  for  twelve  days.^  The  mysti- 
cal oracles,  brought  together  and  inscribed  with  his  name 
in  the  Platonic  schools,  have  no  relation  to  the  Zoroaster 
of  the  Avcsta  save  as  indicating  his  ideal  reputation  as 
the  father  of  mystery  and  magic,^  and  showing  how  wide  a 
field  of  thought  and  tendency  the  name  of  a  far-off  Mas- 
ter of  religious  traditions  may  be  stretched  to  cover.  As 
for  Mahometan  and  Perso-Arabic  fictions  about  him,  — 
from  P'irdusi  to  Mirkhond  and  the  Dabistan,  —  they  have 
no  limit  nor  law.  I  select  this  from  the  Dabistan.  When 
Zoroaster  was  in  heaven,  he  entreated  of  God,  "Close  the 
door  of  death  against  me ;  let  that  be  my  miracle."  But 
God  said,  "  If  I  close  the  gates  of  death  against  thee,  thou 
wilt  not  be  satisfied ;  nay,  thou  wouldst  entreat  death  of 
me."  ^  The  mythical  history  of  Zoroaster  in  the  Avesta  is 
moulded  upon  earlier  traditions,  and  fully  illustrates  the 
continuity  of  religious  ideas  and  forces.^  As  receiver  of 
the  law  of  Ahura,  he  repeats  Yima  (first  king)  and  Gayo- 
mard  (first  man).  As  Nature  hails  his  advent,  and  Ahri- 
man  is  struck  with  terror,  so  it  was  with  his  prototypes,  the 


'  See  Rapp  (Zeitschr  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhck.,  xix.  34). 

-  Clemeiu  of  Alexandria  :  b.  v.  chap.  14  ;  Plato:  Republic,  B.  x  chap.  13. 

*  PHiiy.  B   XXX.,  chap.  2. 

*  Dabistan,  i.  263. 

^  According  tn  Darinesteter,  he  comes  from  the  old  mythology  of  the  storm-cloud.     Orm. 
et  AJtrim.,  p.  1 ,14 


ZARATHUSTRA.  131 

former  messengers  of  truth.  In  him  the  achievements  of 
the  long  Une  of  Fire-saints  and  heroes  are  re-enacted,  — 
of  Tistrya,  Verethraghna,  Apam-napat,  Atar,  Gayomard  ; 
"he  is  the  man  of  the  Light  hidden  in  the  Cloud."  This  is 
Darmesteter's  designation  of  the  Iranian  messiahs.  For  in 
all  the  features  of  the  legend  he  discerns  transformations 
of  the  primitive  Aryan  myth  of  the  storm-cloud,  the  nu- 
cleus of  Vedic  inspiration  also.  Thus  Pourusha^pa,  his 
father,  "man  of  horses,"  is  the  " atmospheric  divinity  of 
light,"  victorious  in  the  elemental  war.  The  powers  that 
assail  him  in  his  infancy  are  the  old  spirits  of  the  storm 
under  new  names.  The  "  temptation  "  of  the  prophet  by 
Ahriman,  with  its  sharp  interchange  of  words,  is  again  the 
roar  of  the  storm,  mingling  its  strange  enigmatic  noises ; 
only  they  are  now  in  form  of  questions  that  may  be  re- 
solved on  penalty  of  death,  or  of  replies  that  meet  threat 
with  threat,  proposal  with  contempt,  and  rage  with  rebuff. 
His  conversations  with  Ahura  even,  by  which  the  law  is 
revealed,  are  also  the  direct  representatives  of  the  thunder 
that  rolled  back  and  forth  through  the  old  Aryan  heavens. 
By  this  ingenious  appliance  of  evolution,  all  the  voices  of 
this  great  drama  of  Dualism,  of  whatever  sort,  are  absorbed 
into  the  primal  storm-music  of  the  "  holy  mountain  "  of 
the  atmosphere,^  as  symbolic  types  and  historic  germs  of 
the  Zoroastrian  law.^ 

Without  accepting  this  result  in  all  its  minute  details,  we 
at  least  recognize  the  law  of  historic  derivation  which  lies 
at  its  base.  Whatever  obscurity  covers  the  personality  of 
Zarathustra,  the  central  doctrine  of  his  faith  is  traceable 
with  certainty  as  far  back  as  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ,  at  which  period  Darius  wrote  the  inscription,^  — 
"  Ormnzd  is  a  great  God :  he  made  the  earth  and  the 
Jieaveiis  ;  and  he  created  man.'' 

*   Vendidcid,  xxii.  53.  *  Darmesteter  :  Orm.  ei  Ahrim.,  p.  207. 

2  Inscription  of  Mount  Elvend. 


132  DEVELOPMENT. 

It  has  been  commonly  supposed  that  the  reformation 
effected  by  Zarathustra  in  the  old  Aryan  religion,  consisted 
in  concentrating  on  the  name  of  Ahuramazda  the  venera- 
tion before  distributed  among  a  great  number  of  deities, 
especially  those  mentioned  in  the  Avesta,  whether  as  good 
or  evil  powers.  The  most  of  these  Avesta  gods  belong 
also  to  the  Veda,  and  probably,  in  one  form  or  another, 
were  inherited  from  the  older  Aryan  stock. ^  A  like  sim- 
plification also  took  place  in  India,  where  all  earlier  dei- 
ties were,  by  priestly  authority  and  intellectual  abstraction, 
absorbed  into  the  unity  of  Brahma.  In  the  latter  case, 
however,  the  tendency  was  towards  impersonality,  while  in 
Zoroastrianism  it  was  in  the  direction  of  an  intenser  per- 
sonal worship.  A  closer  resemblance  may  be  found  in 
the  change  of  the  old  Hebrew  Elohiin  into  the  distincter 
will  of  Jahveh. 

But  there  is  evidently  more  than  a  mere  transfer  of  wor- 
ship from  many  gods  to  one  God  involved  in  the  Zoroas- 
trian  reform.  The  Avesta  describes  a  practical  war  against 
Dacva-worshippers,  —  men  regarded  as  infidels,  destroyers 
of  cattle  as  well  as  souls.  Their  offence  was,  —  unless  the 
Avesta  is  greatly  misinterpreted, —  choice  of  leaders  {Kavis 
and  Karapans),  who  led  their  souls  to  ruin  through  false- 
hood and  excessive  use  of  the  Soma,  not  with  religious 
awe,  but  as  an  intoxicating  drink.  ^  A  Puritan  revival,  a 
practical  protest  in  the  name  of  conscience  against  the 
degeneracies  of  an  organized  church,  —  if  such  a  church 
can  be  conceived  of  as  existing  among  the  early  Aryans, 
—  would  thus  lie  at  the  root  of  Zoroaster's  dualistic  reli- 
gion of  battle  against  wrong.  But  his  ethical  revolution 
was  also,  in  Hang's  view,  associated  with  the  change  from 
pastoral  to  agricultural  life ;   and  it  cannot  be  denied  that 

1  Duncker :  Gesch.  d.  Altertk.,  ii.  332;  Lassen,  Roth,  etc.  But  the  elements  of  Zoro- 
aster are,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  oldest  Aryan  nivtbn!op:y :  so  that  the  special  direction  given 
to  these  elements  in  his  name  it  is  a  matter  of  no  slight  difficulty  to  determine. 

^  See  Hang:  Essays,  etc.,  p.   290. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  1 33 

this  advance  in  social  conditions  has  been  the  secret  of  the 
most  important  steps  of  progress  in  the  early  history  of 
man.  We  hav^e  already  seen  that  Turanian  nomadic  tribes 
were  among  the  enemies  of  the  Iranian  settlements ;  and 
their  connection  with  "  Drujas  "  and  the  worship  of  "  Dae- 
vas  "  is  now  and  then  evident.^  But  in  Haug's  view  these 
enemies  of  the  settlement  were  Vedic  Aryans.^  When 
once,  however,  a  protest  of  the  kind  suggested  in  this 
theory  had  taken  place,  then  a  new  name  of  deity,  a 
reversal  in  the  estimate  of  the  old  gods,  a  reconstruction 
of  the  traditional  names  and  legends  in  the  new  ethical 
interest,  a  fanatical  intensity  in  the  sense  of  personal  de- 
pendence and  divine  favor,  religious  intolerance,  and  a 
warfare  more  or  less  bitter  with  the  partisans  of  the  older 
belief,  —  in  other  words,  the  phenomena  which  the  Avesta 
describes,  —  became  natural  results.  Nevertheless,  as  we 
have  already  shown,  many  of  these  supposed  evidences 
of  such  a  schism  from  the  Vedic  Aryan  gods  and  beliefs 
are  imaginary,  and  the  theory  itself  is  without  sufficient 
grounds.^ 

The  main  difference  between  the  Vedic  and  Avestan 
religions  is,  that  in  the  latter  the  Vedic  worship  of  natural 
powers  and  phenomena  is  superseded  by  a  more  distinctly 
ethical  and  personal  interest.  Ahuramazda,  the  Living  Wis- 
dom, replaces  Indra,  the  lightning  god ;  whose  war  against 
the  cloud-serpent  to  release  the  fertilizing  rain  is  supplanted 
by  the  war  of  good-will  against  evil-will.  But  we  shall  err 
if  we  suppose  the  new  interest  to  be  moral  as  distinguished 
from  physical.  Progress  is  not  by  leaps,  but  by  continuities. 
The  difference  is  that  a  more  vigorous  personal  motive  is 
transfused  through  the  same  physical  forces,  which  are  no 
less  the  objects  of  desire  and  fear  in  the  Avestan  prayers 
than  in  the  Vedic  hymns ;   and  as  the  moral  element  is  by 

>  Fravardln-Yasht,  38;   Yagna,  xi.  21. 

'  Haug:  Essay Sy  etc.,  p.  293 

"  See  chapter  on  The  Moral  Sense  (Elements). 


134  DEVELOPMENT. 

no  means  wanting  in  the  Veda,  its  absorbing  power  in  the 
Avesta  is  but  the  natural  development  of  the  older  belief 
that  the  cosmos  represents  in  its  opposing  forces  the  in- 
ward strife  of  the  soul.  In  other  words,  the  transition  is 
from  a  child-life  in  Nature,  —  fitful,  susceptible,  uncon- 
scious, to  the  life  of  conscious  will  ;  the  first  necessity  of 
which  step  is  that  the  host  of  elemental  powers  should 
come  into  relation  to  a  Central,  Creative,  Inspiring  Force. 
The  earnestness  of  the  experience  demands  that  this  Force 
should  be  Holiness,  Justice,  and  Good-will.  These  were 
already  involved  in  Vedic  conceptions.  Varuna,  undoubt- 
edly the  original  of  Ahura,  was  the  god  of  moral  as  well  as 
of  physical  or  cosmical  limits.  Agni  must  be  invoked  with 
pure  heart;  Surya  constructs  or  measures  out  the  worlds, 
from  a  desire  to  benefit  men.^  But  all  these  and  other 
powers  arc  held  in  equal  honor  by  the  worshippers,  while 
in  Varuna  only  is  the  moral  law  strongly  emphasized.  A 
great  step  was  taken  when  this  old  Asura  was  enthroned 
as  the  one  and  perfect  ideal ;  when  the  name  of  God  meant 
righteousness,  and  "  purity  of  heart,  word,  and  deed  "  be- 
came the  "  Gayatri "  among  texts.  The  moral  impulse  is 
more  clear  and  emphatic  in  the  Avesta  than  is  the  mono- 
theistic conviction ;  the  reaction  against  polytheism  can 
hardly  be  called  absolute.  Ahura  himself  was  not  a  new 
god,  or  even  a  new  name ;  and  his  ancient  laws,  to  which 
the  Avesta  refers  its  own  claims,  are  Varuna's  eternal  paths, 
his  all-seeing  Eye,  his  inevitable  Bond. 

Ahura  is  the  Vedic  Asura  who  stands  in  the  later  Indian 
hymns  for  a  power  hostile  to  the  gods.  The  Asuras  are 
sometimes  the  robbers  who  hide  the  clouds,^  whom  In- 
dra  punishes,  taking  their  castles  and  cities  in  the  sky,^ 
whose  spoils  the  Agvins  bring  from  far ;  ^  sometimes  they 

'  Rig-Veda,\.  \iio-6^. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  I  ;  vi.  5  (Langlois),  and  throughout  Rig-Veda. 

^  Ibid.,  passim.     So  Yajitr-Veda,  Muir,  ii.  381.  — 

*  Ibid.,  V   viii.  i.  31.  (Lang'cis). 


ZARATIIUSTRA.  1 35 

are  apparently  the  same  as  Dasyus,^  low-born  aborigines, 
whom  the  Aryas  fought  as  unbelievers  and  brutes.  In  this 
sense  it  is  erroneously  supposed'-^  that  the  word  is  formed 
from  a  privative  and  silra  (god),  —  that  is,  godless  being ;3 
but  this  is  not  the  original  meaning  of  Asura,  which  stands 
for  the  very  highest  form  of  deity,  in  the  sense  of  "  life- 
possessing,"  "  life-giving.'.'  To  Savitri,  Indra,  Varuna,  the 
title  of  "great  Asura"  is  given."^  "The  children  of  the  great 
Asura"  are  "  the  heroes  who  uphold  the  heavens."  Asura 
it  is  who  "delivers  from  sins;  who  props  up  the  sky,  meas- 
ures the  earth,  and  pervades  all  worlds."^  These  descrip- 
tions of  the  Vedic  Varuna  might  be  applied  with  all  force 
to  the  Avestan  Ahura.  "  Prajapati  [lord  of  creatures]," 
says  the  Brahmana,^  "  created  Asuras  [living  powers]  with 
his  breath  [asii).  Therein  is  their  Asura-nature.  Having 
created  them,  he  regarded  himself  as  their  father;  after- 
wards he  made  the  Pitris."  Here  the  Asura  holds  a  sec- 
ondary position,  but  still  one  of  honor. 

Another  legend  hints  the  occasion  of  the  fall  of  the  Asu- 
ras from  their  high  estate.  The  Devas"  and  Asuras,  both 
descendants  of  Prajapati,  inherited  truth  and  falsehood  in 
speech.  Both  were  alike  in  speaking  truth  and  falsehood. 
Then  the  Devas  chose  truth,  rejecting  deceit;  the  Asuras 
chose  deceit,  rejecting  truth.  Then  came  war,  till  the  per- 
petually-invading Asuras  were  worsted  and  driven  away."^ 
This  is  precisely  the  Avesta  story  of  good  and  evil  powers, 
with  a  change  of  parts.  It  shows  also  that  the  original 
attribute  of  supreme  power,  at  first  belonging  to  both 
names  in  common,  was  divided  on  the  two,  according  to 
moral  distinctions,  as  already  shown. 

1  Rig-Veda,  vii.  vii.  4,  8  (Langlois).  ^  Langlois :   Rig-Veda,  p.  55. 

'  See  Weber's  Indian  Literature,  Eng.  p.  302.     Rlanu.  xi.  20. 
*  Rig-Veda,  i.  iii.  7;  i.  i.  v.  14;  iii.  ii.  ix.  4:  viii.  v.  ii.  11. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  i.  V.  14.  ^'   Taittir'iya  Br&hm.     Miiir,  i.  23. 

'  "The   Indo-Iranian  daiva,  'god,'  Sanscrit   rfiri/iz,  becomes  m  'L&'nA  dacva,  'demon.'" 
Darmepteter:  Ormazd  et  Ahritnan,  p.  265. 
8  S'  atapeiha  Br  akin.    Muir,  iv.  59,  108. 


136  DEVELOPMENT. 

Even  in  their  defeat  the  Asuras  retained  their  reputa- 
tion as  the  oldest  and  greatest  of  the  gods.  They  were 
said  to  have  possessed  the  ambrosia  (^Ainriia)  lodged  in 
the  mouth  of  Souchna  (the  magician)  ;  so  that  whereas 
the  dead  Deva  must  remain  dead,  the  dead  Asura  could 
be  restored  to  life.  Indra  changed  himself  into  an  atom 
of  honey,  which  Souchna  ate ;  and  then  into  a  bird,  who 
bore  it  away  in  his  mouth. ^  If  the  Amrita  be  the  same  as 
the  Soma,  we  may  connect  this  cycle  of  legends  as  to  the 
precedence  of  the  Asuras  to  the  Devas,  with  the  claim  of 
the  Avesta  faith  to  trace  back  its  origin  to  the  earliest  dis- 
pensers of  the  Soma  to  mankind.^  In  such  passages  as  this 
of  the  tenth  book  of  the  Rig-Veda,  "  the  sages  behold  with 
heart  and  mind  the  bird  illuminated  by  the  wisdom  of  the 
Asura,"  we  see  that  there  was  a  better  Vedic  foundation 
for  the  exalted  meaning  given  to  the  name  Ahura  by  Za- 
rasthustra  than  the  war  of  the  Devas  against  the  Asuras 
afforded.  May  it  not  lead  us  back  to  the  grand  signifi- 
cance of  the  word,  before  the  Deva-worship,  representing 
a  later  form  of  religious  consciousness,  had  become  organ- 
ized with  its  priesthood  and  rites,  so  as  to  set  aside  the 
earlier  and  simpler  conception  of  deity  as  "Living  Power" 
or  "Breath"?  Or  did  Zarathustra  recur  to  this  earlier  and 
simpler  conception  when  he  would  protest  against  forms 
which  seemed  ill  in  accord  with  its  ethical  contents?  Many 
such  intimations  in  the  Avesta  point  to  the  older  Aryan 
beliefs.  It  retains  that  which  was  probably  the  oldest 
name  for  fire-priest,  Atharvan,  —  since  the  Rig- Veda  de- 
scribes Atharvan  as  "  the  first  who  strengthened  the  gods 
by  sacrifice,"^  calls  Agni  his  child,'*  and  Manu  his  friend.^ 
He  is  even  celebrated  as  the  first  deliverer  of  Agni  from 

1  Kuhn  :  Die  Herabhiinft  des  Fetters  und  des  Goiiertranks,  p.  144.  See  Anal,  of  Roth 
in  Weber's  Ind.  Stud.  iii.  466. 

'  Haoma-Yasht,  Vafna,  ix. 

*  Ki'g--  Veda,  viii.  iv.  vii.  10.  See  also  Grihya-Sdtras,  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl. 
Gesellsch.  vii.  529. 

•♦  Rig-Veda,  vii.  vii.  iii.  5.  6  Ibid.,  i.  v.  xix.  16. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  1 37 

his  cradle  in  the  hollow  of  the  wood  (by  friction?).^  Both 
the  Atharvans  and  the  Angiras  —  probably  the  oldest  of 
the  priestly  orders  known  to  the  Vedic  Aryans  —  are  ob- 
jects of  veneration  in  the  Avesta.  The  Soma,  earliest  of 
sacrificial  plants  and  inspiring  drinks,  is  as  highly  exalted 
in  the  one  faith  as  in  the  other. 

It  may,  then,  be  that  the  Iranian  and  Vedic  religions,  as 
we  now  possess  them,  represent  the  somewhat  differing 
results  of  a  long  period  of  separation  dating  back  to  a 
much  earlier  time  than  has  been  supposed.  In  this  case, 
the  Zarathustra  of  the  Avesta  may,  as  some  have  sup- 
posed, have  been  but  one  in  a  long  line  of  priests  of 
Ahuramazda,  many  of  whom  were  his  predecessors.  His 
reformatory  work  may  have  been  to  give  radical  meaning 
and  moral  power  to  some  tribal  religious  schism  of  earlier 
date,  or  to  some  inherited  struggle  against  fetichistic  or 
otherwise  degrading  tendencies,  —  perhaps  against  the 
raiders  of  barbarian  Turan. 

That  the  reformation  embodied  in  the  Avesta  was  the 
work  of  one  man  is  obviously  impossible  ;  there  is  no  such 
claim  to  be  found  in  it,  Zarathustra  refers  his  religion  to 
older  times ^  and  a  series  of  antecedent  revelations,  though 
none  of  these  are  represented  as  of  equal  depth  and  power 
with  his  own.  A  long  course  of  traditions  and  doctrinal 
preparation  for  his  work  is  implied ;  and  it  is  assumed 
that  all  the  divine  personages  and  functions  in  which  it 
centres  are  familiar  to  his  hearers.  Nevertheless,  the 
vigorous  protest  and  summons  in  the  earliest  Gathas,  their 
tone  of  personal  assurance,  the  detail  of  private  experi- 
ences and  conversations  with  deity,  are  signs  of  an  individ- 
ual force  that  cannot  be  mistaken.  The  history  of  the 
Aryan  schism,  in  which  it  is  now  by  many  scholars  of  re 
pute    believed  that  the  religion  of  the  Avesta  was  born,  is 

1  Langlois  on  Rig-Veda,  iv.  v.  15,  73. 

'  The  references  to  Yima,  KeregSgpa,  and  Thraetona,  as  first  propagators  of  the  Soma 
sacrifice  and  servants  of  Ahura,  claim  primitive  authority  for  the  law. 


I3S  DEVELOPMENT. 

not  only  utterly  beyond  our  vision,  but  highly  improbable. 
The  very  name  Zarathustra  which  embodies  it,  is,  in  part 
at  least,  a  generic  title.  But  the  remoteness  of  the  spirit 
and  purpose  of  Ahuramazda  from  that  of  the  Vedic  hymns, 
really  indicates  that  with  him  we  enter  on  a  new  phase  of 
historic  development.  A  gulf  opens  which,  while  it  does 
not  imply  a  break  in  the  continuity  of  experience,  yet  can 
be  likened  only  to  that  which  seems  to  occur  in  a  personal 
hfe,  when  one  becomes  conscious  of  himself,  of  his  char- 
acter, of  his  needs,  of  a  purpose  in  living,  and  of  a  will 
within  him  capable  of  fulfilling  the  ideal  which  these  in- 
spire. To  explain  a  movement  like  this  in  the  life  of  a 
people,  no  individual  priest  or  prophet  can  be  held  suf- 
ficient. This  call  to  choose  between  two  masters  who  are 
already  familiar  to  the  conscience,  to  whatever  it  may 
refer,  proves  that  the  movement  rested  on  a  moral  ex- 
perience of  the  most  public  and  social  kind.  The  earliest 
Gathas  do  not  seem  to  be  a  full-formed  system  of  faith ; 
but  they  are  the  outburst  of  certain  recognized  and  well- 
understood  elements  of  ideal  purpose,  into  commanding 
power.  Whatever  the  immediate  cause  of  this  crisis,  — 
whether  a  change  of  social  conditions,  or  a  new  relation 
with  outside  tribes  or  beliefs,  —  the  most  that  Zarathustra 
could  do  was  to  energize  and  direct  it  as  a  given  tendency. 
At  the  time  when  those  passages  were  composed,  which 
describe  a  social  organization  in  which  Zarathustra  was 
one  of  four  or  five  chiefs  of  classes  in  each  region,  the 
Iranian  Church  must  have  been  fully  formed.  But  the 
oldest  Gathas  have  little  ecclcsiasticism  as  compared  with 
later  parts  of  the  Avesta.  They  have  no  genii,  nor  hie- 
rarchical series  of  powers ;  they  are  simply  a  human 
protest  against  unseen  powers,  believed  to  be  evil  and 
destructive,  in  the  name  of  others  held  to  be  righteous 
and  preservative  of  body  and  soul.^ 

'  See  Harlez  :  Avesia,  ii.  29. 


ZARATHUSTRA.  139 

One  thing  is  certain.  In  Iran  there  grew  up  what  India 
never  saw,  —  a  consciousness  of  world-purpose,  ethical  and 
spiritual ;  a  reference  of  the  ideal  to  the  future  rather  than 
to  the  past;  a  promise  of  progress.  Yama,  the  Aryan 
god  of  the  future  world,  became  Yima,  a  human  ideal 
of  earthly  bliss  in  this  world;  and  from  him  downward 
through  the  earthly  ages  flows  the  ever-growing  stream  of 
revelation,  —  saviour  after  saviour,  —  to  the  day  when  all 
evil  is  to  be  swallowed  up,  and  only  righteousness  endure. 
A  motive  force  of  ideal  will  had  entered  on  its  way,  whose 
impulse  the  world  was  never  to  lose.  And  this  is  it :  that 
the  human  will  in  its  terrible  struggle  with  Evil,  its  law  of 
death,  in  its  twofold  possibility  and  attraction  in  every  sen- 
sation and  every  thought,  is  yet  bound  for  good ;  that  the 
law  of  the  universe  means  its  deliverance  and  eternal  tri- 
umph ;  that  throughout  its  mighty  cyclic  year  every  depth 
of  moral  night  heralds  the  dawn  of  a  redeeming  day. 


IV. 

THE   AVESTA  LITERATURE. 


THE   AVESTA  LITERATURE. 

npHE  Parsi  tradition  that  the  Bible  of  their  fathers  was 
-*-  destroyed  by  the  Macedonian,  rests  on  no  historical 
evidence.  How  much  of  the  Avestan  literature  has  really 
been  lost,  we  shall  probably  never  know.  Even  when  we 
have  dismissed  Hermippus'  story  that  two  million  verses,^ 
written  on  a  thousand  parchments,  were  contributed  by 
Zarathustra  to  human  knowledge,  the  later  claim  that  there 
were  originally  twenty-one  books  or  Nosks,  treating  of  all 
possible  subjects  of  thought,  savors  too  much  of  mythical 
predetermination  to  fare  any  better  at  the  hands  of  his- 
torical criticism  ;  although  the  later  Pehlevi  writers  describe 
the  contents  of  these  Nosks,^  of  which  the  present  Avesta 
is  said  to  contain  but  one  complete,  with  fragments  of  two 
or  three  others,  the  number  twenty-one  is  probably  in- 
vented to  correspond  with  the  number  of  words  in  the 
holiest  text  of  the  Avesta.  Much  of  what  is  lost  is  un- 
doubtedly commentary  on  older  texts.  What  remains  is 
made  up  of  text,  the  Avesta  proper,  and  Zend  commentary. 
It  is  in  an  extremely  confused  and  fragmentary  condition, 
owing  in  part  to  the  fact  that  it  was  gathered  up  and  ar- 
ranged during  the  storms  of  the  Macedonian  period,  or 
else  after  the  Parthian  conquerors  had  added  their  hostile 
interference  to  that  of  the  Greeks,  amidst  the  revolutionary 
reconstruction  of  Persian  nationality  by  the  first  Sassanian 
king.^ 

1  According  to  an  Arab  writer.  2  See  Hang :  Essays,  etc.,  pp.  1241-44. 

*  Third  century,  a.d.  The  Avesta  was  not  only  gathered  up  at  this  time,  in  all  probability, 
but  translated  also,  in  a  free  way,  into  Pehlevi  (Huzvaresh),  —  a  language  largely  Semitic,  used 
in  the  coins  and  inscriptions  of   that   period,  whose  script  appears  much  earlier,  probably 


144  DEVELOPMENT. 

Nevertheless,  it  seems  improbable  that  the  hands  which 
reverently  sought  out  and  brought  together  the  precious 
members  of  this  long-lost  literary  Isis,  would  have  made 
much  important  change  in  the  ancient  form  and  features. 
Subsequent  political  rulers  of  Iran,  especially  the  Mahom- 
etan, have  probably  spared  these  old  records,  written  in 
a  language  which  they  could  not  comprehend.  What 
influence  the  Semitic  races  of  western  Iran  may  have 
exerted  on  the  formation  of  these  Scriptures,  before  even 
the  few  fragments  which  have  come  down  to  us  reached 
their  present  state,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  language 
of  the  original,  which  some  scholars  have  called  Old  Bac- 
trian,  is  of  great  antiquity,  —  differing  from  the  Vedic  Sans- 
krit only  as  one  Greek  dialect  differs  from  another,^  and 
mainly  in  consequence  of  phonetic  changes.  But  the 
alphabet  in  which  it  is  now  written  is  Semitic,  its  signs 
mainly  coincident  with  the  Pehlevi,  of  which  it  seems  to 
be  an  expansion,^  and  belongs  to  the  Sassanian  period ; 
wliether  also  to  an  earlier  period  is  now  hardly  matter  of 
question.^  But  w^ierever  or  however  first  committed  to 
writing,  the  old  Avesta  had  its  origin  in  eastern  Iran.  It 
regards  the  western  regions  as  infidel ;  it  knows  nothing 
of  the  great  cities  of  Persia  in  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ ;  and  the  affinities  of  the  language  alone  are  decisive 
of  the  question.  Moreover,  the  Zend,  the  translation  and 
commentary  in  Pehlevi,  made  either  by  the  Sassanians,  or 
found  by  them  as  a  survival  from  Achaemenidan  and 
even  probably  from  old  Assyrian  times* — could  not  have 

even  in  the  time  of  Seleucidse  (Levy  :  Zeitschr.  d.  Dezitsch.  Morgetil.  GeseUsch.  xxi.  445). 
Perhaps  signs  of  it  appear  in  the  Achzmenidan  times.  The  later  Pehlevi  writings  speak  of  a 
copy  of  the  translation  of  Avesta,  with  the  Zend,  as  destroyed  by  Alexander  in  (the  fourth  cen- 
turj'  B.C.)-  In  the  Pehlevi  the  Semitic  words  were  read  as  Iranian  equivalents.  See  Haug; 
Essays,  t\z.     K'dnig.  buyer.  Akad.  d.  Wissen.     February,  iS(j9. 

1  See  Haug:  Essays,  etc.,  pp.  69,  70.     Duncker :  Gesch.  d.  Alterth.  ii. 
'  See  BoUman  :  Alphabeta. 

2  Compare  Duncker:     Gesch.   d.  Alterth.  ii.    3S1  ;   and   Spiegel  {Zeitschr.  d.   Deutsck. 
Morgenl.  GeseUsch.  ix.    17S). 

*  Haug:  Essays,  etc.  p.  140. 


THE  AVESTA   LITERATURE.  I45 

been  considered  as  of  equal  authority  with  the  original 
Avesta;  since  we  know^  that  for  liturgical  purposes  the 
latter  was  used  without  translation,  gloss,  or  comment,  and 
even  without  separation  into  books.^  This  is  evident  from 
the  old  Parsi  manuscripts,  from  which  the  studies  of  Bur- 
nouf,  Westergaard,  Spiegel,  and  Haug  (to  whom  we  owe 
our  real  knowledge  of  the  Avestan  language)  have  been 
made. 

These  studies  have  also  shown  that  the  oldest  part  of  the 
Avesta,  the  five  Gathas  (of  which  we  shall  speak  hereafter), 
is  composed  in  a  language  evidently  older  than  even  the 
Old  Bactrian.  But  the  difference  is  not  so  great  as  to 
prevent  the  whole  book,  when  separated  from  its  Zend- 
commentary  portions,  from  standing  by  itself  as  a  piece 
of  unquestionable  antiquity.  To  find  the  joints  between 
these  parts  in  each  chapter  is  one  of  the  great  problems 
of  modern  Avestan  research,  and  has  already  been  pur- 
sued by  Haug,  whose  exceedingly  valuable  translations 
have  unhappily  been  brought  to  an  end  by  his  early 
death. ^ 

The  antiquity  of  the  Avesta  is  shown  by  other  evidences 
than  its  language.  Greek  authors,  from  the  third  century 
before  Christ,  down  to  the  second  century  after  Christ, 
speak  of  the  writings  of  Zoroaster,  the  hymns  and  sacrifices 
of  the  Avesta,  and  even  cite  passages  from  the  work.  And 
their  references  to  religious  rites  and  customs  coincide 
with  its  precepts,  while  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  testify 
to   the  worship   of  Ahuramazda;*   and  in   all   the   manu- 

1  Frnm  the  Parsi  MSS.  Origen,  from  Celsus,  says  the  Avestan  writings  of  Zoroaster  were 
extant  in  his  time;  also  Philo  of  Byblos.  Rapp  {Xeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhch,), 
xix.  35. 

^  Harlez:  Avesta,  i.  25. 

5  The  translations  consulted  by  the  author  are  those  of  Spiegel  (German),  complete; 
Haug[G&xm-An  and  English),  covering  only  a  portion,  but  the  most  important,  —  more  com- 
prehensible and  lyrical  than  Spiegel,  as  well  as  more  biographical  and  practical,  giving  a  hold 
on  actual  life;  of  Harlez,  an  admirable  French  translation  of  nearly  all, — a  man,  before 
the  others,  of  great  clearnesss,  candor,  and  learning. 

*  For  these  authorities  see  Harlez,  i.  28-30. 

10 


146  DEVELOPMENT. 

scripts,  some  of  which  are  four  hundred  years  old,  and  all 
from  eastern  Persia,  the  text  is  substantially  the  same.^ 

Probably,  as  we  hav^e  said,  no  Bible  in  the  world  is  in  a 
condition  so  unsatisfactory  to  the  student  of  comparative 
religion  or  historical  progress  as  the  Avesta.  The  very 
name  is  of  uncertain  meaning,  though  the  idea  of  revealed 
law,  or  the  sum  of  knowledge,  is  evidently  the  main  ele- 
ment in  it.  That  Zend  is  the  name  of  a  language  is  an 
exploded  error,  and  Zend-Avesta  is  a  misleading  word. 
The  Avesta  is  the  Law;  the  Zend  is  a  version  and  in- 
terpretation thereof.^  According  to  Masudi,  a  heretic  in 
Persia  was  called  a  Zcndik,  as  adhering  to  a  gloss  instead 
of  the  original  Scripture.^  So  the  Parsi  scholars  say 
Avesta  and  Zend ;  and  doubtless  the  best  title  for  the  Old 
Bactrian  compilation  of  these  writings  is  Avestan,  —  that  of 
their  commentary,  Zend}  Haug's  definition  of  Zend,  as  a 
"  gnosis,"  would  be  better  if  the  old  Persian  religion,  even 
in  paraphrase,  dealt  at  all  in  mystery  or  metaphysics. 
But  after  all,  the  Zend  passages,  so  far  as  they  are  yet 
separated  in  Haug's  translations,  stand  to  the  Avestan 
chiefly  in  the  nature  of  added  emphasis,  or  cumulative 
detail  arising  from  the  progress  of  the  religion  as  an 
institution. 

But  to  the  difficulty  of  separating  the  elements  of  the 
text,  and  referring  them  to  their  historical  order,  is  added 
the  still  greater  difficulty  of  determining  their  original 
meaning.*^     The  translator  may  lay  his  emphasis  either  on 

1  There  are  portions  of  the  text  that  exist  oiilj  in  the  Pehlevi ;  and  mixed  with  these 
"Zend''  portions  are  others  in  a  still  later  tongue  (.the  "  Pazend,"  properly  modern  Persian 
or  Parsi),  which  serves  as  their  only  medium. 

■''  See  Haug  :  Essays,  etc.,  p.  68.  Harlez  :  Avesta,  i.  27.  Whitney  :  Oriental  Sticdies,  p  171. 

^  Haug.  p.  15. 

■*  Zend  Studies  (Zciischr.  d.  Deuisck.  Morgenl.  GeseUsch.  ix.  6q8). 

5  Few  copies  are  still  extant.  "Here  is  no  elaborate  verbal  commentary,  with  gram- 
matical and  lexicographical  resources,  as  in  the  study  of  the  Vedas;  only  a  translation  which 
scholars  describe  as  equally  obscure  with  the  text  it  professes  to  explain."  Spiegel  {Zeitschr. 
d.  Deiistck.  IMorgeid.  GeseUsch.  i.  244).  There  is  also  a  Sanskrit  translation  from  this  by  Nen- 
osengh.     See  Haug :  Essays,  etc.,  33. 


THE  AVESTA   LITERATURE.  1 47 

the  traditional  sense  of  the  words,  as  determined  by  the 
successive  phases  of  Iranian  experience,  or  on  their  philo- 
logical sense,  as  determined  by  their  relations  with  the 
Sanskrit,  the  nearest  sister  tongue.  Roth  and  Haug  pursue 
the  latter  track,  Spiegel,  while  inclining  to  the  former, 
maintains  that  he  has  not  neglected  the  other  source  of 
information.  The  appeal  of  both  sides  to  Burnouf,  the 
first  great  explorer  of  the  original  Avestan  language,  is 
proof  of  the  very  high  merit  of  the  scholar  to  whom 
Oriental  studies,  in  every  department,  are  immensely  in- 
debted for  their  actual  scientific  method.^  The  translations 
of  Haug  and  Spiegel  diff"er  widely,  as  may  be  expected. 
The  assumption  that  the  whole  of  a  literature  accumulat- 
ing through  a  long  series  of  ages  can  be  taken  in  sum  as 
the  best  interpreter  of  its  earliest  products,  gives  Spiegel's 
work  a  somewhat  suspicious  aspect;  yet  the  native  com- 
mentators should  doubtless  receive  great  attention  in  cases 
of  very  doubtful  philological  decision.  The  story  of 
Anquetil-Duperron's  heroic  pioneer  work  (1768-71)  in 
opening  the  Avestan  literature  to  Europe,  of  its  inhospi- 
table reception  by  Sanskrit  scholars,  and  the  very  great 
imperfections  of  his  French  translation  of  these  books, 
arising  from  his  own  total  ignorance  of  the  original,  and 
even  of  the  grammar  of  the  Pehlevi  version,  which  alone 
was  used,  —  and  from  an  almost  equal  ignorance  on  the 
part  of  his  Hindu-Parsi  teachers,  —  are  too  well  known  to 
be  referred  to  except  by  way  of  contrast  with  the  far  more 
trustworthy  researches  of  the  last  half-century.  The  real 
help  aff"orded  at  every  stage  of  this  progress  by  the  merits, 
and  even  by  the  errors,  of  preceding  scholars,  is  admirably 

1  The  controversy  on  the  subject  of  the  two  methods  may  be  consulted  In  the  Joiir.  of 
tlie  German  Arch.  Soc.  {  and  a  full  illustration  of  the  extended  confidence  reposed  by  Spiegel 
in  the  whole  testimony  of  Iranian  literature,  to  the  meaning  of  the  oldest  monuments  of  it, 
will  be  found  in  his  three  large  volumes  entitled  Er&niscke  A Iterthuinskunde ,  —  a  work  which 
aspires  to  the  thoroughness  of  Lassen's  corresponding  work  on  India,  but  cannot  be  said  to 
equal  it.  The  want  of  historical  analysis  and  discrimination  between  the  different  epochs  of 
literary  testimony  seems  to  me  to  weaken  its  value. 


148  DEVELOPMENT. 

recognized  in  Hang's  review  of  the  whole  history,^  —  a 
wonderful  record  of  obstacles  conquered,  if  not  yet  wholly 
removed.  This  achievement  had  hardly  reached  the  end 
of  its  first  great  stage,  when  Roth's  elaborate  history  of 
the  relation  of  Western  Philosophy  to  that  of  Egypt  and 
Persia  appeared  in  1862,  and  the  very  imperfect  and  un- 
certain data  of  this  highly  interesting  work,  built  largely 
on  Anquetil-Duperron,  are  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
immense  value  of  those  original  studies  of  the  Avestan 
language  which  began  with  Eugene  Burnouf.  Behind  the 
whole  lies  the  main  difficulty,  —  that  the  books  themselves 
represent  different  periods  in  the  progress  of  the  language 
and  the  faith,  and  are,  in  all  probability,  the  work  of  a  long 
series  of  Mazdean  priests  and  prophets. 

The  Bibles  of  the  world  arc  all  of  one  description.  They 
are  the  gradual  deposits  of  the  religious  history  of  races, 
reaching  from  the  deeply  covered  and  now  scarcely  acces- 
sible strata  of  primitive  or  pre-historic  times  to  their  days 
of  superficial  decay  or  dissolution  under  the  influences  of 
science  and  ethnic  communion ;  formations  broken  up, 
intermingled,  and  dislocated  by  the  convulsions  of  ages ; 
resultants  of  many  successive  reconstructions  under  the 
changing  moods  and  phases  of  popular  belief  and  the 
conscious  interests  of  priestly  schools;  products  of  in- 
stincts which  are  not  so  intent  on  giving  account  of  them- 
selves to  posterity  or  to  art,  as  on  heaping  together,  and 
adapting  to  present  spiritual  interests,  all  the  words  and 
deeds  available  for  this  end  that  have  outlived  generations, 
and  borne  down  the  precious  legacy  of  beloved  names 
and  hopes.  Nothing  could  possibly  be  conceived  more 
unlike  the  infallibility  and  unchangeableness  insisted  on 
by  their  worshippers  after  the  canons  are  closed,  and 
a  Bible  becomes  the  authoritative  standard  of  an  insti- 
tuted religion.     These  literary  amalgams  are  for  ages  in- 

^  Literature  of  Parsis. 


THE   AVESTA   LITERATURE.  149 

soluble;  serving  only  to  deepen  the  equal  blindness  of  the 
bibliolater  and  the  iconoclast,  till  scientific  explorers  have 
shown  the  landmarks  of  historic  construction,  and  referred 
each  fragment  to  the  special  tendencies  of  its  age  and  au- 
thor, known  or  unknown.  Interpreted  by  these,  a  Bible 
becomes  at  last  a  datum  of  universal  history,  because  a 
true  picture  of  the  entire  religious  and  social  consciousness 
of  the  people  whence  it  sprung,  and  whose  ideal  it  repre- 
sents. What  Ewald  and  Baur  and  Hilgenfeld  and  Kuenen 
have  done  for  the  Bible  literature  of  the  Hebrews  and 
Christians,  Haug  and  Roth  and  Windischmann  have  begun 
to  accomplish  for  that  of  the  Iranians.  When  thus  recon- 
structed, the  sequence  of  parts  is  as  natural  as  the  growth 
of  a  flower ;  and  how  complete  this  metamorphosis  at  the 
touch  of  historical  science  !  What  man  cannot  do  with 
scattered  stems  and  leaves  and  flowers  of  a  plant, —  restore 
the  order  of  growth  and  the  living  connection  of  the  parts, 
—  he  can  accomplish  for  the  Bibles  which  have  been  the 
flowers  of  his  past  ideals  after  they  have  ceased  to  live, 
and  so  make  them  capable  of  enduring  functions,  philo- 
sophical, ethical,  spiritual.  The  Avesta  is  like  the  rest: 
it  is  a  confused  heap  of  inspirations,  traditions,  legends, 
hymns,  laws,  minute  ritual  precepts,  abstract  categories 
and  distinctions  implying  some  intellectual  refinement, 
mingled  with  outpourings  of  genuine  religious  feeling,  but 
covered  up  with  elaborate  formulas  anxiously  repeated, 
and  set  with  sentences  that  served  for  spells,  —  every  form 
of  language  by  which  the  Iranian  mind  could  express 
its  travail  to  get  into  right  accord  with  Nature  and  the 
conditions  of  human  life. 

The  reader  familiar  with  the  imaginative  riches  of  Hindu 
literature,  with  the  mystic  ardor  of  the  Vedic  poets,  will 
find  the  Avesta,  for  the  most  part,  greatly  wanting  in  these 
poetic  elements  of  style.  It  moves  in  a  limited  order  of 
thought  and  topic,  abounds  in    formulas    and   ritualistic 


150  DEVELOPMENT. 

repetitions,  and  has  so  much  the  appearance  of  a  manual 
prepared  for  religious  instruction  and  service  from  ex- 
isting materials,  that  one  cannot  help  wondering  if  the 
early  inspirations  of  the  Mazdean  reformation,  the  Rig- 
Veda  of  this  noble  faith,  have  been  lost.  Yet  hymns  are 
not  wanting  of  a  high  order  of  poetic  zeal  and  religious 
feeling,  and  a  world  of  myth  and  legend  is  crowded  into 
these  liturgical  fragments,  as  rich  as  the  Vedic,  and  as 
thoroughly  human  as  the  Greek. 

1.  The  Ya^na  (Sanskrit,  ynjTia,  offering)  is  made  up  of 
seventy  sections  of  hymn,  praise,  and  prayer;  the  "second 
part"  of  which, consisting  of  "  the  five  Gathas,"  is  the  oldest 
portion  of  the  Avesta,  and  is  spoken  of  in  the  Avesta  itself 
as  composed  by  Zarathustra.  These  arc  books  of  metrical 
lyrics,  and  biographical  and  doctrinal  relations.  Here,  as 
we  have  already  said,  is  the  clear  and  simple  substance 
of  the  faith,  its  natural  and  human  side,  the  upspringing 
of  its  prophetic  power.  They  resemble  in  their  relative 
characteristics  the  Gathas  of  Buddhism,  which,  scattered 
metrical  sentences  through  the  Statras,  represent  primitive 
Buddhism,  as  it  existed  previous  to  its  hierarchical  day.^ 
The  rest  of  the  Yagna  is  later  and  more  liturgical. 

2.  The  Vendidad  {vt-dacva-ddta,  law  for  repelling  the 
Daevas)  contains  twenty-two  chapters  (fargard)  of  con- 
versations between  Ahuramazda  and  Zarathustra,  which 
are  made  up  of  fragmentary  legends  of  early  ages  (like 
the  Hebrew  "  Book  of  Origins"  compiled  in  the  captivity), 
the  myths  of  Yima,  Thraetona.  Zarathustra,  etc. ;  prescrip- 
tions about  agriculture,  and  the  treatment  of  animals,  re- 
garded as  pure  or  impure,  and  the  recognition  of  things 
dear  to  the  earth,  as  distinct  from  things  hateful  to  her; 
rituals  of  purification ;  efficacious  prayers  to  all  powers 
and  saints;  runes  for  conjuring  away  evil  powers.  The 
moral  precepts  are  few  and  far  between ;   all  exhortations 

*  See  author's  India,  p.  646. 


THE   AVESTA   LITERATURE.  151 

arc  to  definite  concrete  acts,  and  little  stress  is  laid  upon 
the  motive;  ethics  are  here  absorbed  in  legal  prescrip- 
tions. It  is  the  Leviticus  of  the  dualist,  for  whom  Nature 
is  portioned  off  between  good  and  evil  powers,  and  duty 
consists  in  serving  each  special  object  according  to  its 
kind.  It  assumes  a  state  of  society  and  faith  in  which  the 
period  of  moral  spontaneity  has  passed  into  the  period  of 
conformity  and  routine ;  in  which  the  prophet  is  known 
only  as  a  tradition,  and  the  priest  has  gathered  up  his 
garments  to  mingle  with  rite   and  form. 

3.  The  Vispered  is  a  short  work,  once  belonging  to 
the  Yagna,  made  up  of  highly  ritualized  invocations  and 
prayers,  and  sums  up  by  enumeration  the  whole  array 
of  visible  and  invisible  objects  for  prayer  and  praise. 

4.  The  Yashts  (much  the  same  in  meaning  as  Yagna)  are 
twenty-four  pieces,  each  in  celebration  of  some  special 
genie,  on  whom  is  poured  (as  in  the  Rig-Veda  of  the  Hin- 
dus) equal  honor  with  every  other  in  his  special  Yasht, 
showing  in  the  fulness  and  utterncss  of  the  worship  the 
tendency  to  bring  all  together  into  a  kind  of  pantheistic 
unity;  at  the  same  time,  the  legendary  history  of  each  is 
rehearsed,  making  these  Yashts  the  great  source  of  our 
knowledge  of  Iranian  mythology  and  its  connection  with 
the  heroic  ages  of  Iran.  Here,  then,  we  have  a  collection 
something  like  the  Homeric  hymns  of  Greece,  where  each 
deity  receives  highest  veneration,  in  his  own  way  and 
sphere,  from  all  creatures  that  live.  We  have  Ardvt-ciira, 
strongest  of  helpers,  whose  aid  all  powers  at  one  or  an- 
other time  have  sought  in  their  need  or  in  their  passion; 
the  star  Tistrya,  rain-bringer,  and  his  battle  with  the 
Drought, — white  horse  with  black;  Mithra,  inspirer  of  a 
Pindaric  eloquence  in  the  poet,  who  can  find  no  limit  to 
the  strength,  the  splendor,  the  all-seeing,  all  judging  prov- 
idence, and  all-creating,  all-delivering,  and  rejoicing  en- 
ergy of  this  Soul  of  the  Sun;   Orniusd,  who  chants  to 


152  DEVELOPMENT. 

Zoroaster  his  multitudinous  names,  ''  coming  for  his  help 
and  joy ;  "  the  Feroners,  exhausting  every  conception  of 
existence  in  detailed  invocation  of  the  ideal  within  and 
above  the  natural  world. 

5.  The  Khordah-Avesta,  little  Avesta,  containing  for- 
mulas for  occasions  and  times,  —  a  medley  of  later  origin 
than  the  rest,  and  showing  an  advanced  institutional  stage, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  more  elaborate  enumeration  of 
moral  defects  and  special  aspirations  than  any  other  por- 
tion. Note  especially  the  Patets  or  confessions,  which 
contain  all  the  moralities  of  Christianity  or  of  Judaism, 
mingled  with  the  most  puerile  ceremonial  observances, 
as  equally  binding  with  the  inward  virtues. 

6.  But  older  than  these  ritualistic  portions  of  the  Avesta, 
is  the  literature  of  the  Sassanian  revival  of  the  fciith.  After 
the  extinction  of  the  Achsmenidan  empire,  native  Maz- 
deism  gave  way,  in  some  degree,  to  Hellenism  and  the 
traditions  of  Chaldean  civilization.  Under  the  Parthian 
dynasty  it  was  still  further  depressed,  though  not  extin- 
guished :  the  coins  bore  Greek  legends ;  the  language 
became  more  Semitized  than  before ;  the  Old  Bactrian,  in 
which  the  Avesta  was  composed,  was  practically  a  dead 
language,  and  the  only  familiar  alphabet  into  which  it 
could  be  translated  was  Semitic.  The  Sassanian  revolu- 
tion, however,  restored  the  native  religion.  A  proclama- 
tion of  Khosru  Parviz,  a  Sassanian  king  of  the  sixth 
century,  reports  that  efforts  had  been  made  to  collect  the 
old  Zoroastrian  literature  by  princes  of  the  Archaemenian 
and  Parthian  dynasties ;  ^  in  which  case  the  Sassanian  re- 
vival must  have  had  considerable  resources  at  hand,  and 
the  acquaintance  of  the  Persians  with  the  traditions  of 
their  faith  been  more  or  less  continuous  from  very  early 
times.  The  fire-altar  reappeared  on  the  coinage ;  and 
with  the   renaissance   of   the   old  literature   of   Mazdeism 

1  Haug;  Essay  on  Pehlevi,i>.  145. 


THE  AVESTA  LITERATURE.  153 

came  also  numerous  sects,  born  of  the  complex  civiliza- 
tion of  the  empire,  —  the  confluence  of  Semitic,  Greek, 
Syrian,  Christian,  and  Persian  traditions,  though  it  is  cer- 
tain that  neither  Greek  nor  Christian  influences  are  trace- 
able in  any  important  respect  in  the  native  literature.^ 
Partly  as  a  result  of  the  renewed  energy  of  Mazdeism,  and 
partly  as  an  effort  to  protect  it  against  foreign  religions, 
arose  the  remarkable  literature  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
only  less  interesting  than  that  recovery  and  reproduction 
of  the  older  Avesta  which  we  owe  in  part  to  the  same 
great  epoch.  It  was  composed  in  Pehlevi,^  the  Semitically 
written  language  of  the  period,  largely  constituted  indeed 
of  Iranian  words  and  construction,  but  containing  also  a 
large  Semitic  element  which  was  employed  ideogram- 
matically,  and  read  in  the  corresponding  Iranian.^  And 
this  linguistic  vehicle  lasted  till  the  substitution  of  the 
modern  Persian  alphabet,  when  the  "Huzvaresh"  reading, 
as  it  was  called,  disappeared  with  the  words  to  which  it 
had  been  applied.  The  oldest  specimens  of  Pehlevi  script 
are  found  on  the  earliest  monuments  of  the  Sassanian 
kings.*  This  rejuvenescence  of  the  faith  blossomed  into 
translations  of  the  Avesta,  and  into  doctrinal,  mythical, 
and  ritualistic  writings  the  amount  of  which  cannot  be 
estimated.  Haug  has  already  given  an  enumeration  and 
brief  analysis  of  fifty  works,  aggregating  no  less  than  five 
hundred  and  seventeen  thousand  words,^  all  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  Zoroastrian  revival,  and  indicating  a  very  com- 
plete sense  of  sufficiency  to  the  demands  of  national  life 
and  faith.  The  energy  with  which  this  abundant  supply 
of  creed,  tradition,   and   institution   came  to   the   surface, 

1  Haug:  Essays  on  Pehlevi,  p.  130. 

2  The  word  formerly  designated  ancient  Persian  in  all  its  forms,  being  originally  an  ethnic 
or  geographical  rather  than  linguistic  designation,  and  transferred  from  the  people  and  coun- 
try (probably  of  the  Parthians)  to  their  national  tongue,  whatever  that  might  be. 

2  It  is  Haug's  belief  that  the  Avesta  itself  had  long  existed  in  this  language.  Essay  on 
Pehlevi,  p.  143. 

*  Third  century,  A.  D-  5  Haug:  Essays,  etc.,  p.  113. 


154  DEVELOPMENT. 

after  so  long  a  period  of  political  suppression,  is  evidence 
of  great  vitality,  as  well  as  grasp  on  the  existing  ele- 
ments of  future  civilization.  In  fact,  the  substance  of 
this  religion,  as  already  shown,  —  the  worship  of  the 
personal  will,  as  incarnated  in  the  struggle  of  good  with 
evil  for  the  mastery  of  the  universe,  —  was  inevitably  the 
nucleus  of  future  religious  development.  It  could  not 
be  escaped ;  it  was  indispensable  to  all  existing  forms  of 
religious  and  social  aspirations ;  and  although  a  flood  of 
physical  force  swept  its  special  name  and  organization 
almost  out  of  being,  its  soul  passed  into  Mahometanism, 
Judaism,  and  Christianity,  to  mould  these  new  accessions 
to  the  same  essential  purpose. 

Whatever  signs  of  borrowing  from  these  systems  may 
appear  in  the  Pehlcvi  literature  of  Mazdcism  are  delu- 
sive, so  far  as  this  modern  religion  is  concerned.  In  the 
vitality  of  personal  and  ethical  will-worship,  Mazdeism 
was  the  precursor,  the  herald,  of  their  glory,  and  its  influ- 
ence on  their  development  was  of  the  most  decisive  and 
enduring  character. 

The  Pehlcvi  literature  of  the  Mazdeans  was  not  born  in 
a  day.  It  represented  a  smouldering  life  under  the  ashes 
of  their  desolation,  from  the  days  of  Alexander  to  the  days 
of  Ardeshir  Babegan.  The  origin  of  most  of  these  writ- 
ings is  obscure,  falling  either  in  the  Parthian  period,  while 
the  faith  was  still  under  a  cloud,  or  during  the  Sassanian 
revival,  when  the  whole  glorious  past  reappeared  with  a 
new  inspiration,  which  was  to  glow  yet  again  through  the 
heroic  epos  of  the  Mahometan  Firdusi.  Their  character 
is,  to  judge  from  the  typical  works  now  accessible  to  the 
Western  scholar,  what  might  be  expected  from  the  com- 
mingling of  Greek,  Syrian,  Christian,  Persian,  and  we  must 
not  forget  to  add  Chaldean,  civilizations  in  the  current  of 
that  age ;  but  all  are  intensely  Mazdean  in  their  spirit. 
A  portion   is   analogous   to   the   historical   and   prophetic 


THE   AVESTA   LITERATURE.  I  55 

Judaism  of  the  restoration  under  Cyrus,  detailing  the 
progress  and  sufferings  of  the  national  faith,  quarrying 
its  old  traditions,  and  predicting  its  triumph.  Some  are 
controversial,  indicating  the  large  toleration  enforced  on 
it  by  the  time,  by  careful  confutation  of  other  religious 
systems.  Some  are  manuals  in  the  form  of  conversation 
or  instruction  by  its  sages ;  some  regulative  of  its  ritual ; 
others  explore  its  visionary  world  of  future  reward  and 
punishment, —  like  the  "Aidai-Virif-Nameh,"  which  seems 
to  stand  in  close  connectionwith  the  early  Christian  "Ascen- 
sion of  Isaiah."  The  Minokhired,  "Spirit  of  Wisdom, "sums 
up  its  whole  philosophy,  ethics,  and  mythology,  in  the 
light  of  a  metaphysical  speculation  foreign  to  the  orig- 
inal religion,  and  contrasts  it  with  other  systems  as  the 
inventions  of  Ahriman. 

Of  the  highest  repute  is  the  Bundehesh,  a  cosmogonical 
account  of  the  original  creation,  providential  history,  and 
final  purification  of  the  world ;  combining  the  mythology 
of  the  great  war  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  with  the 
geography,  astronomy,  and  natural  history  of  the  Parsis ; 
marked  by  signs  of  compilation  from  fragments  of  very 
different  ages  as  well  as  religions,  —  some  of  them  of  con- 
siderable antiquity,^  and  some  representing  or  completing 
the  old  Avestan  faith  by  data,  especially  astronomical, 
derived  from  the  Arabs,  and  in  some  respects  correcting 
it,  —  evidently  interpolations,  later  than  the  Mahometan 
conquest.^  Especially  important  has  been,  according  to 
some,  the  influence  of  Judaism.^  But  the  points  of  mytho- 
logical difference  from  the  old  Avesta,  such  as  the  story 
of  the  first  human  couple,  with  their  temptation  and  fall, 


*  Haug  :  Essays,  etc.,  p.  4S. 

^  Justi,  the  latest  translator,  puts  it  in  or  after  the  time  of  Firdusi,  tenth  century,  even 
as  late  as  the  thirteenth  century.  Justi  relies  upon  these  interpolations  to  prove  very 
late  origin. 

^  Cane:  L''Ancien  Orietit.,  ii.  390.  Nicolas:  Doct.  Rel.  des  yui/s,  p.  300;  Revue 
Germanigue,  Sept.  1S5S,  pp.  467,  468,  quoted  in  the  same. 


156  DEVELOPMENT. 

and  that  of  the  successive  periods  of  creation ;  the  com- 
phcated  eschatology  of  a  destruction  and  regeneration  of 
the  world  through  fire;  the  doctrine  of  several  messianic 
persons  to  appear  at  the  latter  day,  and  that  of  the  unity 
of  the  first  principle  as  Zrvan-akarana,  which  is  still  far 
from  emphatic,  since  the  dual  powers  of  Ormuzd  and 
Ahriman  still  create  the  world  between  them,  —  these 
differences  are  in  fact  natural  developments  of  the  older 
religion  of  the  Gathas  and  the  Yashts,  when  brought  into 
close  relations  with  the  still  older  civilization  of  Chaldea, 
to  which  the  analogous  Jewish  doctrines  and  legends  are 
themselves,  as  we  have  seen,  largely  traceable.  The  re- 
semblances to  later  Judaism  point  back  to  a  common  stock 
of  Babylonian  traditions;  while  those  which  connect  Maz- 
deism  with  earlier  Hebrew  religion,  —  such  as  the  division 
of  creatures  into  clean  and  unclean,  rules  of  purification 
and  laws  relating  to  the  civil  treatment  of  diseases,  much 
more  striking  than  the  later  analogies  just  referred  to, — 
are  still  further  removed  from  the  probability  of  a  He- 
brew origin.  The  Pehlevi  literature  shows  little  of  the 
spiritualizing  tendency  of  that  school  of  Judaism  which  had 
most  influence  in  the  East,  —  the  Alexandrian  allegorical 
school  of  Philo.  Although  Neoplatonic  elements  from  the 
Greek  school  of  Edessa  are  believed  to  be  discernible  in 
the  Minokhired,  the  strongly  pronounced  religious  dual- 
ism of  good  and  evil  principles,  unknown  to  Judaism, 
is  maintained  in  Mazdeism  to  the  last.  The  saviours  of 
the  Bundehesh  have  slight  analogy  with  the  exclusive  mes- 
sianic ideas  of  the  Jews.  The  Mazdean  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  body  is  much  older  than  the  Jewish, 
which  first  appears  in  the  Maccabean  persecutions  as  a 
result  of  the  national  sufferings  and  the  messianic  hope 
expressed  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.^  Plutarch  has  a  quota- 
tion which  proves  its  existence  in  Persia  in  the  time  of 

'  See  M.  Nicolas:  Doci.  Rel.  des  Juifs,  pp.  343-377. 


THE   AVESTA   LITERATURE.  157 

Alexander,  two  centuries  previous.^  The  Jewish  bodily 
resurrection,  moreover,  differed  from  the  Persian  in  being 
confined  to  the  righteous  ;  and  had  probably  no  other  con- 
nection with  it  than  that  of  being  suggested,  in  a  general 
form,  by  its  superiority,  as  a  consolation  and  promise,  to 
the  traditional  Semitic  belief  in  an  unsubstantial  SJicol  as 
the  destiny  of  the  soul.  Nor  had  the  Jewish  doctrine  of 
resurrection  of  that  period  any  resemblance  to  the  Persian 
faith  in  final  salvation  or  conversion  of  the  wicked,  and  the 
entire  abolition  of  evil  desire.  The  Mazdean  angelology, 
so  far  from  being  borrowed  from  the  Jews,  furnished  the 
basis  of  their  seven  princes  of  the  angels,  and  of  their  celes- 
tial legions  of  guardian  spirits  ;  while  its  demonology  gave 
them  their  later  or  malignant  Satan  and  his  diabolic  legions 
possessing  human  bodies  and  souls. 

'  De  /sis  ei  Osiris,  §  47,  from  Theopoinptts.     See  chapter  on  "  Dualism  of  the  Avesta." 


V. 

CUNEIFORM    MONUMENTS  OF  THE   ACCADIAN 
AND   THE   ASSYRIAN. 


CUNEIFORM  MONUMENTS   OF  THE   ACCADIAN 
AND   THE   ASSYRIAN. 

TT  is  the  excellence  of  the  physical  sciences  in  this  age 
■*-  of  their  dominion,  that  every  step  of  their  progress  re- 
quires the  continued  acceptance  of  whatever  it  involves  as 
its  historical  antecedents.  The  conditioning  laws  are  there 
and  here  and  everywhere,  and  not  one  can  be  ignored, 
since  their  constant  process  alone  supplies  the  materials 
for  further  investigation  and  discovery.  The  materialist 
cannot  get  far  enough,  fumbling  in  his  plasms  and  solu- 
tions by  primeval  details.  But  in  the  treatment  of  mental 
evolution  there  is  still  a  tendency  to  repudiate,  or  at  least 
to  pass  by,  many  earlier  stages  and  conditions  which  more 
palpable  and  current  interests  are  supposed  to  have  made 
obsolete.  Thus  the  convenience  of  uniformity  in  spelling 
affords  excuses  for  a  phonetic  reconstruction  which  sweeps 
away  the  anatomy  of  language  as  useless,  and  utterly 
discards  linguistic  evolution.  So  in  national  history,  the 
revolutionary  passion  of  the  Celt  (a  periodic  access  of 
Nihilism),  which  in  a  republic  is  very  infectious,  overrides 
all  historical  obligations  and  their  resultant  conditions, 
perpetually  reconstructing  society  out  of  the  excitements 
of  the  hour.  So  also  we  have  found  a  Celtic  contempt  of 
historic  forces  and  necessities  in  much  of  what  is  called 
"  free  religious  thought,"  as  well  as  in  Christianity.  In 
fact,  it  has  been  in  one  way  or  another  traditionally  fashion- 
able to  think  of  the  beginnings  of  ideas  and  institutions  as 
having  only  quantitative  or  statistical  relations  to  their 
actual  living  results ;  and  to  count  it  labor  well-nigh  v/asted 

II 


1 62  DEVELOPMENT. 

even  to  recover  the  buried  witnesses,  that  "  through  the 
ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs."  This  is  simply  to 
construct  history  without  philosophy. 

But  Nature  has  always  her  penalty  for  such  loose  utili- 
tarian method.  She  tolerates  no  dropping  of  threads,  no 
contempt  for  the  careful  steps  which  have  cost  her  so 
much  time  and  pains.  When  the  phonetic  reformer  sweeps 
away  the  apparent  grotesqueness  of  our  traditional  spell- 
ing, he  is  sacrificing  also  the  graces  of  patient  develop- 
ment; he  barters  away  the  morale  of  linguistic  art;  he 
forsakes  the  embodied  laws  of  structure  to  gratify  the 
caprices  of  a  perverted  pronunciation  which  has  already 
set  aside  these,  one  and  all.  Social  reconstructions  de 
novo  simply  disorganize  the  elements  they  seek  to  destroy. 
Contempt  for  the  "  dead  past,"  conceit  of  the  creed  that 
now  is  master,  deprives  living  thought  of  universality,  of 
sentiment,  of  ideal  elevation,  and  makes  a  science  of  his- 
torical evolution  impossible,  starving  that  sense  of  invi- 
sible forces  and  uncalculated  values  which  is  the  noblest 
educator  of  man. 

We  are  products  of  the  past  as  well  as  of  the  present; 
we  are  inherited  fuel  as  well  as  instant  fire ;  creatures  of 
tradition  as  well  as  of  inspiration.  For  all  inspiration 
springs  from  resultant  conditions,  —  as  the  plant  is  rooted 
in  soil  and  climate,  in  geologic  layer,  and  continental  form. 
This  must  have  the  largest  interpretation  in  matters  of  the 
spirit. 

For  it  is  not  a  fragment  of  the  past  to  which  we  are 
indebted ;  not  a  person,  a  tribe,  an  epoch,  or  a  religion. 
We  mutilate  our  faculties  when  we  base  science,  philoso- 
phy, or  faith  upon  anything  less  than  the  whole  process 
of  human  growth.  In  mind,  as  in  matter,  no  forces  are 
lost,  though  names  pass  and  forms  are  changed.  And  so 
we  may  trust  Nature  to  keep  us  in  mind  of  this,  ever  to 
stir  the  flagging  interest  in  the  long  forgotten,  and  prove 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  163 

her  dynamic  atoms  inexhaustible  and  undying.  Her  silent 
mounds  cover  whole  arsenals  of  invigoration  and  noble 
surprise.  In  her  dead  bones  she  hides  a  prophetic  quick- 
ening for  all  coming  time.  "  Let  the  dead  bury  their 
dead  "  covers  but  half  the  truth.  It  is  when  a  forgotten 
thought  or  deed  rises  in  new  and  unexpected  power  that 
the  soul  of  the  living  is  stirred.  Then  the  Universal  proves 
its  immortality  even  by  what  seemed  to  have  had  its  day ; 
the  narrow  present  becomes  transcendental,  and  expands 
beyond  experience  itself.  Surprise  and  awe  make  us  po- 
etic and  creative ;  we  reconstruct  old  beliefs,  and  repair 
old  defects.  When  Birs-Nimrud  breaks  the  silence  of 
his  centuries,  and  Egypt  speaks  from  her  tombs,  then  for 
science,  for  history,  for  poetry,  for  theology,  for  all  that 
Nature  means,  from  the  East  even  to  the  West  the  light 
shines  that  rounds  the  thought  of  man  and  completes  the 
chain  of  his  faith.  Let  the  scholar  magnify  his  function 
amidst  the  arrogant  competitions  and  foolishly  exclusive 
categories  of  the  moment,  as  he  rolls  the  stones  from 
sepulchres  that  seemed  to  have  buried  forever  the  earlier 
witnesses  of  the  spirit  of  man.  He  also  is  reformer, 
builder  of  the  hearts  and  homes  of  ages. 

Our  real  knowledge,  according  to  Plato,  is  "  reminis- 
cence." And  surely  our  discovery  itself  is  but  recogni- 
tion. Our  enthusiasm  and  wonder  at  every  new  thought 
is  in  finding  it  already  familiar,  of  our  own  race  and  ex- 
perience ;  in  feeling  at  home  in  it,  as  in  glad  recovery  of 
what  had  been  lost.  What  is  the  charm  of  history  but  that 
the  whispers  of  one's  own  genius  have  come  back  to  him, 
as  with  oceanic  roll,  from  the  deeps  of  humanity?  A 
mystery  of  multiplied  personality!  By  these  delicious 
surprises  of  recognition,  our  own  dead  past  becomes  a 
living  light  to  our  feet.  Is  it  then  strange  that  the  revival 
of  a  whole  buried  civilization  should  recast  the  whole 
thought  of  the  time?     It  is  the  stern  reticence  of  Nature 


1 64  DEVELOPMENT. 

that  stimulates  scientific  ardor  to  victory.  So  the  un- 
comprehended  monuments  of  remote  ages  are  closed  lips 
quivering  with  secrets  whence  all  living  thought  awaits  the 
solution  of  its  problems.  The  law  that  "  nothing  is  lost  " 
becomes  an  inspiration.  A  nation,  a  religion,  a  civiliza- 
tion which  has  run  its  course  and  died  in  its  due  time, 
because  it  had  no  more  to  do  or  say  but  to  be  the  soil 
of  new,  higher  growth,  has  a  nobler  second-life  of  uses 
before  unsuspected ;  because  the  time  has  come  for  that 
help  to  universal  man  which  it  held  in  reserve  that  latest 
generations  may  learn,  to  their  admonition,  what  they  had 
failed  to  allow  it.  The  Arab  in  his  tent  under  the  Babel- 
mound  muses  in  awe  on  the  genii  and  the  giants  that  dwelt 
on  earth  and  raised  the  heaven-scaling  pile.  But  what 
is  his  dream  to  the  magnificent  piles  which  science  has 
evoked  from  this  rubbish  of  ages,  covered  with  records 
that  correct  our  religious  traditions,  —  their  very  decipher- 
ment a  miracle  of  toil,  and  an  epic  triumph  of  thought ! 

Say  what  our  self-complacent  Sum  of  all  ages  may,  the 
education  of  the  human  race  does  not  detach  it  from  its 
infancy.  The  larger  its  culture,  the  surer  its  track  leads 
to  the  hidden  springs  of  origin,  —  to  those  first  lessons 
which  contain  guarantees  of  its  best.  After  dark  ages  of 
despotism,  superstition,  suppression  are  past,  comes  wider 
diffusion  than  ever  of  the  thirst  to  read  the  buried  history 
of  man.  What  universal  interest  in  the  runes  and  hiero- 
glyphs, in  the  languages  of  forgotten  tribes,  in  survivals  of 
earliest  life,  in  the  real  age  and  structure  of  the  Bibles 
of  races  and  the  origins  of  beliefs,  —  in  the  disentombment 
of  Troy,  of  Cyprus,  of  Mycenae  !  It  is  not  simply  parallel 
to  the  passionate  press  of  physical  science  towards  primi- 
tive forms  of  life ;  that  first  impression  of  universal  law 
is  intensified  by  this  morning  in  the  history  of  mind ;  this 
first  mountain-top  in  the  wilderness  of  man's  exodus  from 
the  dark, —  inextinguishable  torch-bearer  even  there;   this 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 65 

flash  of  magnesium  light  on  the  secrets  of  human  history; 
Aladdin's  castle,  realm  of  dwarfs  and  volcanic  laboratory 
illumined  at  the  touch  of  a  culture  to  whose  perfection  the 
whole  past  has  wrought  as  one  man.  The  dust-garments 
unrolled,  the  figured  fragments  rise  as  ideograph  and  cu- 
neiform ;  they  break  their  long  silence  with  far-off  poetic 
report  of  man's  dealing  with  fate  and  freedom,  that  shall 
live  when  the  lenses  and  reagents  that  now  construct  our 
physical  science  shall  have  given  place  to  new;  just  as 
the  pen,  itself  more  potent  than  the  sword  of  past  ages, 
has  here  given  way  as  revealer  of  knowledge  to  the 
mightier  spade. 

In  these  resurrections  that  attest  the  conservation  of 
historical  forces,  that  human  energy  which  has  broken 
the  spells  of  Nature  is  not  so  wonderful  or  startling  as 
the  apparently  human  sympathy  of  Nature's  responses  to 
its  call.  The  hint  is  always  forthcoming  to  further  them ; 
the  witchhazel  bends  in  the  explorer's  hand  above  the 
element  he  needs.  Key  leads  on  to  key,  till  the  subtlest 
combination-lock  yields,  and  the  magic  of  science  proves 
far  more  at  home  in  the  field  of  interpretation  than  did  the 
old  claim  of  miracle  to  eminent  domain  over  all  secrets 
and  all  obstacles.  The  true  Sphinx's  lips  are  ever  half 
open ;  her  eyes  expect  discovery ;  for  her  secret  is  nothing 
else  than  the  seeker  himself. 

The  story  of  a  vast  civilization,  which  has  since  been 
not  extravagantly  called  the  key  of  human  history,  re- 
corded with  a  careful  divination,  it  might  almost  seem,  of 
its  future  uses,  on  the  palaces  and  rocks  of  Mesopotamia, 
and  even  on  the  gigantic-winged  creatures  that  guarded 
them,  in  a  mosaic  setting  of  terra-cotta  and  alabaster,  lay 
buried  under  the  dust  of  two  thousand  years.  The  com- 
phcated  letters  of  the  record,  though  cortibined  out  of  a 
single  elementary  form,  the  wedge,  as  Babylon  out  of  her 
tiers  of  brick,  had  so  perished  from  memory  that  this  mere 


l66  DEVELOPMENT. 

wedge-mark  of  the  chisel  in  the  damp  clay  was  imagined  to 
be  an  arrow-head,  holding  some  subtile  meaning,  —  a  na- 
tional emblem,  or  even  a  symbol  of  the  Christian  Trinity ! 
At  the  opening  of  the  present  century,  Babylon  and  Nine- 
veh were  still  "  heaps ;  "  here  and  there  a  fragment  gave 
hints  to  thoughtful  travellers,  —  Niebuhr,  De  Sacy,  and 
others,  —  that  these  lines  must  read  from  left  to  right ; 
that  the  single  wedge  meant  division  of  words ;  that  the 
series  most  frequently  occurring  was  probably  of  the  same 
meaning  with  a  haughty  formula  of  self-assertion  already 
familiar  in  the  records  of  Sassanian  kings.  "  King  of 
Kings "  as  a  heading  was  the  earliest  of  conjectures  by 
Grotefend.  Note,  it  was  the  phraseology  of  pa'sonal 
will  and  worship  that  first  leaped  into  significance  be- 
fore the  explorers  of  these  monuments  raised  by  the 
same  all-mastering  element  of  religion  in  the  beginning 
of  its  career. 

The  royal  inscriptions  of  Persepolis  were  in  fact  the 
starting  point  of  discovery;  letter  by  letter  the  holy  name 
of  Ahuramazda  was  spelled  out,  and  the  path  of  discovery 
opened  with  the  alphabet  of  Persian  cuneiform.  When 
Grotefend  read,  at  Gottingen,  in  1802,  the  earliest  aca- 
demic essay  on  this  form  of  writing,  on  the  same  occasion 
with  Heyne's  description  of  the  first  discovery  in  hiero- 
glyphics,^ the  Zend  scholarship  of  Lassen  was  opportunely 
at  hand  to  correct  those  first  results.  First  came  the  dim 
suspicion  of  Rich,  1820,  that  the  huge  mounds  which  he 
saw  from  the  shores  of  Bagdad  were  the  ruins  of  Nineveh. 
Then  Botta  struck  the  spade  into  Khorsabad  hills,  and, 
behold  !  a  palace  burst  into  view,  with  its  royal  legend  in 
arrow-head  type,  "  Sargon,  the  mighty  King  of  Assyria's 
land."  Then,  at  the  touch  of  Layard,  afterwards  of  Loftus, 
the  ancient  Calah  rose  from  the  oldest  of  Assyrian  tombs, 
from  the  giant  heaps  of  Nimrud ;   and  then  Nineveh  her- 

'  Mahaffy:  Proiegornena  to  Attcteui  History,  p.  175  et  seg. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 6/ 

self,  palace  after  palace,  with  the  record  of  her  kings  Shal- 
maneser,  Sennacherib,  Asshur-bani-pal,  —  the  art  and  sci- 
ence and  religion  of  races,  doubling  the  realm  of  history 
and  reconstructing  it  by  their  resurrection.  Then  came 
the  French  to  fix  the  site  of  Babylon,  to  open  up  the  great 
Bel-Temple  of  Birs-Nimrud  and  the  matchless  glories 
of  Nebuchadnezzar's  art,  and  restore  in  full  figure  the 
old  palaces  of  the  ancient  kings.  Rawlinson,  Lenormant, 
Smith,  and  the  interpreters  followed;  and  the  mightiest 
achievement  of  modern  discovery,  the  decipherment  of 
the  cuneiform,  was  made  possible  by  these  inexhaustible 
materials  which  have  been  busying  the  ardent  brains  of 
thousands  of  scholars  throughout  the  civilized  world  for 
the  last  thirty  years.  It  is  no  part  of  my  present  task  to 
follow  the  track  of  these  preliminary  explorations.  It  is 
the  significance  of  the  cuneiform,  past  and  to  come,  as  a 
factor  in  universal  religion,  as  we  have  explained  that 
term,  which  confines  our  present  attention. 

In  half  a  century  the  trilingual  Behistun  inscription, 
transcribed  and  translated  by  Rawlinson,  aided  by  the 
rocks  of  Susa  and  Van,  was  serving  a  purpose  as  im- 
portant as  that  rendered  in  Egyptian  studies  by  the 
Rosetta  stone.  Grotefend  had  divined  that  the  second 
and  third  columns  were  translations  of  the  first,  or  Per- 
sian: the  second,  that  of  the  non- Aryan  Medes,  had 
been  referred  by  Westergaard  and  Norris,  and  more  fully 
by  Oppert,  to  the  Turanian  family  of  languages ;  ^  and 
Layard  and  Botta  had  given  data  for  showing  the  third 
to  be  Assyrian.  The  phonetics  of  these  two  had  been 
found,  not  to  be  alphabetic  like  the  Persian,  but  sylla- 
bic, and  to  be  mixed  in  a  confusing  way  with  ideographs 
or  pure  picture-signs;  and  the  complication  was  further 
increased  by  Rawlinson's    discovery  that   the   same  signs 

*  Altaic,  according  to  Oppert,  or  Casdo-Scythic,  belonging  to  the  non-Aryan  portion  of  the 
population  of  Media.     Oppert:  Le  Feuple  et  Latigue  des  Medes  (1879),  pp.  7,  8. 


I 68  DEVELOPMENT. 

were  not  only  used,  now  in  the  one  way,  and  now  in  the 
other,  but  that  they  had  ever  varying  phonetic  values.^ 
Then  this  difficulty  was  in  part  removed  by  the  appear- 
ance of  numerous  versions  of  the  same  proper  names  and 
ideas  on  different  tablets ;  ^  and  still  further  by  the  dis- 
covery of  hsts  of  syllabaries  from  the  wonderful  library 
of  King  Asshur-bani-pal,  seventh  century  before  Christ, 
opened  up  by  Layard  in  the  Nineveh  palace  in  1850. 
George  Smith's  account  of  his  prodigious  labors  in  gather- 
ing into  connected  form  the  Chaldean  literature  on  these 
tablets  of  Nineveh,  is  wonderfully  suggestive  of  the  sym- 
pathy of  Nature  with  the  aspirations  of  the  human  mind. 
Asshur-bani-pal,  the  old  world-conqueror,  is  moved  to 
gather  carefully,  to  arrange  and  entitle  the  records  of  a 
past  civilization  on  library  shelves.  What  cares  Nature 
for  his  pains?  Dust  gathers  over  him  and  his  palaces. 
Nineveh  is  a  buried  dream.  No  miracle  preserves  these 
old  bits  of  clay,  or  their  forgotten  characters  marked  with 
chisels  three  thousand  years  ago.  Geological  and  chemi- 
cal laws  cared  no  more  for  them  than  for  the  sweepings  of 
his  stables.  They  had  gone  their  way  well  on  towards  the 
dissolution  that  awaits  all  forms,  when,  lo !  the  mind  of 
man  remembers  them,  and  comes  back  to  claim  its  own. 
The  restorers  are  not  daunted,  for  the  light  and  liberty 
that  prove  humanity  the  sovereign  of  Nature,  the  crown 
of  her  laws  and  ends,  inspire  them ;  and  out  of  the  very 
shreds  and  patches  of  ruin,  the  old  race,  its  genius,  its 
functions,  its  bearing  on  most  religions  as  their  cradle 
and  teacher  are  all  revealed,  passing  into  school  books 
and  common  speech.  Here  were  at  least  ten  thousand 
clay  tablets,  —  the  collated  law,  grammar,  history,  science, 
lexicography,  mythology  of  fifteen  hundred  years,  pre- 
served   for   twenty   centuries    more,  to   solve   these   hard 

1  Hincks:   The  Polyphony  of  the  Assyrio-Babylonian  Cuneiform. 
'  Schrader:  Keilinschriften  u>id  Gesch.,  p.  41. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 69 

problems  of  interpretation :  fragments  broken  by  fire  and 
by  falling  ruins,  and  by  searchers  for  treasure,  into  bits 
innumerable,  mutilated,  scattered,  infiltrated  with  water, 
choked  with  crystals;  yet  waiting  their  hour,  in  the 
course  of  historic  evolution,  to  reconstruct  piecemeal  a 
buried  world  of  literature  and  religion,  and  to  serve  mod- 
ern liberty  of  thought  by  bringing  the  supernaturalist's 
Bible  of  Christianity  into  the  natural  chain  of  historic 
cause  and  eff'ect.  How  those  Assyrian  world-masters 
worked  in  their  proud  self-assertion  to  ends  they  did  not 
know,  when  they  strove  so  patiently  to  preserve  their  work 
by  fixing  the  tablets  into  walls  with  the  written  side  turned 
inward;  by  repeating  the  inscription  on  an  outer  coating 
of  the  tablet;^  by  accumulating  copies;  by  grammatical 
and  verbal  lists  to  assist  the  reading  of  forms  of  speech 
even  then  becoming  extinct;  by  versions  of  important 
documents  in  all  the  principal  languages  of  the  empire ; 
by  penalties  invoked  at  the  close  of  every  record  on  any 
future  destroyer  or  alterer  of  their  purport,  first  makers 
of  an  infallible  Bible  text;  by  the  permanent  nature  of 
the  wedge  marks,  still  legible,  after  the  wear  of  ages,  by 
the  shadows  they  cast,^ — ''  Non  oinnino  moriavnir"  !  That 
vast  library  was  no  word  of  Jahvistic  Bible  revelation  in 
the  Hebrew  tongue.  "  Palace  of  Asshur-bani-pal,  king  of 
the  world,  to  whom  Nebo  and  Tasmit  [god  and  goddess 
of  science]  have  given  ears  to  hear  and  eyes  to  see  the 
virtues."  No  miracle  has  protected  these  frail  tablets  of 
clay,  symbols  of  mortality;  every  natural  law  of  decay 
has  done  with  them  after  its  kind;  yet  enough  remains 
when  at  last  the  patient  restorers  of  Babel  have  come  to 
her  "  heaps,"  to  refute  the  tale  of  Jahveh's  curse,  and 
to  make  the  dead  dust  a  living  soul.  The  palpable  en- 
croachment of  desert  and   flood   upon  a  narrow  strip   of 

'  Rawlinson  :  A  ncient  Monarchies,  L  p.  68. 
*  Loftus:  Chaldceci  and  SusiaiM,  p.  150. 


7  70  DEVELO  PMENT. 

cultured  plain  could  easily  suggest  to  Isaiah  the  way  in 
which  Babylon  might  become  "heaps;  "  but  what  pro- 
phet had  predicted  this  her  resurrection? 

Then  came  the  fruitful  competitions  of  interpreters,  — 
Lassen,  Burnouf,  Rawlinson,  Hincks,^  —  and  the  splendid 
track  of  verification  which  has  established  the  substantial 
correctness  of  their  method.^  The  Semitic  character  of 
the  Assyrian  records,  and  the  true  pronunciation  of  divine 
names,  was  apparent  from  the  syllabaries ;  the  names  of 
kings  were  more  or  less  verified  by  Hebrew  and  other 
writings.  A  far  greater  amount  of  resource  than  had 
sufficed  for  Egyptological  studies  came  rapidly  to  hand. 
In  1857  Rawlinson,  Hincks,  Talbot,  and  Oppert  made 
four  independent  versions  of  seven  hundred  lines ;  ^  and 
they  were  so  similar  to  each  other  that  the  validity  of  the 
general  method  was  beyond  dispute.*     However  dubious 

*  Grotefend's  discovery  of  the  names  of  three  kings  and  a  Persepolis  alpliabet  in  1802  was 
so  far  in  advance  of  a  time  when  Tychsen  and  Miinter  and  others  failed  to  deciplier  these 
monuments,  that  it  was  thirty-two  years  before  these  discoveries  "  could  be  resolved  or 
tested."     Mohl's  Vingi-sef>t  a>is  d' histoire  des  itudes  orietiiales,  i.  547. 

The  first  researches  which  threw  real  light  on  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  were  not  those 
of  t,ayard  and  Rawlinson,  but  those  of  Schultz,  copies  of  the  Van  inscriptions,  whose  papers 
were  saved  by  Mohl,  and  urged  upon  the  French  government  in  a  valuable  report,  1S40. 
Grotefend  had  proved  that  the  Persepolis  tablets  contained  a  language  of  voivels  and  con- 
sonants, making  names  and  titles  of  Darius  and  Xerxes  ;  and  then,  1S36,  came  Burnouf's  and 
Lassen's  memoirs  on  Niebuhr's  and  Schultz's  copies.  Rawlinson  had  but  one  letter  to  dis- 
cover. (Miiller's  Preface  to  Mohl's  Vingtsept  ans  d''  histoire  des  efiides  orientales,  p.  xx.). 
Mohl  stirred  up  students  and  explorers,  —  Botta  and  others, —  to  study  the  three  cuneiform 
alphabets,  and  also  Colonel  Rawlinson,  who  possessed  the  one  copy  of  the  Behistun  trilingual 
(xxiv.).  But  Rawlinson  held  back.  Then  Flandin  and  Coste  published  their  inscriptions, 
1844.  Botta's  immense  spoils  of  Khorsabad  were  .sent  to  Paris,  1845.  Then  Layard's 
work,  stimulated  by  Botta's.  began,  1S46.  RawUnson's  translation  of  the  Behistun  appeared 
in  1S47.  When  Rawlinson  sent  the  copie;  to  London,  Norris,  the  Secretary'  of  the  London 
Society,  "  could  detect  the  faults  of  writing  in  the  copies  with  the  same  certainty  that  a 
Latinist  could  correct  the  faults  of  a  Latin  inscription"  (xxviii.).  Layard  prosecuted  his 
magnificent  researches  at  Koyunjik,  published  1851 ;  then  at  Babylon. 

"Cuneiform  writing  had  probably  been  invented  at  Babylon,  transported  thence  to  Nine- 
veh, and  applied  to  the  Assyrian  tongue ;  then  later  carried  to  Ecbatana,  and  applied  to  the 
Median  tongue  ;  and  finally  adapted  to  the  Persian  at  Persepolis."  Mohl's  Vingt-sept  ans 
d'  histoire  des  etudes  orientales,  i.  p.  178.  It  gradually  became  simplified,  till  at  Persepolis 
it  was  alphabetical. 

*  Menant:   Elements  d'epigraphie  assyrienne. 

'  Report  of  Oriental  International  Congress,  1S73,  Tom.  ii.  p.  126. 

*  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  June,  1874. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  17I 

many  passages  are  still  confessed  to  remain,  every  day 
reveals  some  new  and  positive  feature  of  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  history;  the  original  texts  are  translated  for 
the  common  reader  in  Europe  and  America,  and  their 
testimony  is  transforming  the  Bible  into  secular  teaching 
even  for  Sunday-schools.^ 

The  early  death  of  George  Smith  left  his  translation 
of  the  Babylonian  Genesis-legend  and  mythical  epopee  a 
mere  collection  of  fragments,  pieced  together  with  unveri- 
fied conjectures;  but  fresh  copies  and  surer  readings  are 
fast  supplying  what  was  wanting  in  this  and  other  records ; 
the  indefatigable  industry  of  Menant,  and  the  productive 
genius  of  Frangois  Lenormant,  are  seconded  by  the  nu- 
merous collaborateurs  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archae- 
ology. Oppert,  Schrader,  Menant,  and  Sayce  are  bring- 
ing Assyrian  grammar  into  the  line  of  exact  science; 
and  as  the  many  tracks  of  a  great  inquiry  are  sure  to 
converge  in  some  adequate  mind,  so  in  the  interpretation 
of  cuneiform  literature,  the  first  creative  day  has  come 
to  its  fulness  in  Eberhard  Schrader.^  The  confession  by 
this  eminent  Assyriologist  of  the  many  sources  of  error 
to  which  cuneiform  decipherment  is  still  subject,  gives 
great  value  to  his  positive  claims  in  behalf  of  its  results.^ 
Two  extremely  important  conclusions  may  be  considered 
assured  by  his  careful  studies.  The  first  is  the  presence 
in  the  Assyrian  column  of  the  inscriptions,  of  a  third 
form  of  Semitic  speech  besides  those  already  known  as 
the  Western  and  Southern  forms.  The  second  is  the  fact 
that  the  number  of  passages  in  these  inscriptions  in  any 
material  manner  confirmatory  of  the  Biblical  records  is 
very  small  indeed,  in  view  of  the  vast  amount  of  material 

'  The  Enfrlish  version,  as  given  in  the  Records  of  the  Past,  is  recognized  as  on  the 
whole  being  the  most  literal  and  having  least  openings  for  inevitable  diversities  and  readings. 
Delattre  :   Inscriptions  Hisioriques  de  Niiiive  et  de  Ba-bylone,  p.  56. 

^  Zeitschr.  d.  Dentsch.  Morgenl.  Gcsellsch.  xxiii.,  xxvi. 

2  Schrader:  Keilinsch.  jind  Gesch.,  1878. 


1/2  DEVELOPMENT. 

now  opened ;  while  the  unreHableness  of  the  Books  of 
Kings  and  Chronicles,  especially  in  matters  of  chronology, 
is  indicated  by  contradictions  almost  equal  in  number  to 
the  confirmations.  This  scholar  admirably  says :  "  A 
thousand  times  better  that  a  manifest  incongruity  be- 
tween the  Bible  and  the  inscriptions  should  be  admitted, 
than  that  it  should  be  forcibly  concealed  cither  by 
twisting  the  Bible  or  breaking  down  the  monumental 
records."  ^ 

That  what  was  previously  known  from  the  Bible  and 
other  sources  of  the  geography  of  Palestine,  as  well  as  that 
of  the  neighboring  countries,  even  to  Arabia  and  Egypt, 
should  receive  ample  confirmation  from  the  inscriptions, 
is  no  more  than  was  to  have  been  expected.^  Other 
matters  of  conspicuous  interest,  such  as  the  subjection 
of  Israel  to  Assyria,  hardly  needed  such  confirmation. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  few  references  in  these  inscrip- 
tions to  the  relations  between  Hebrew  and  Assyrian  kings 
contain  many  probably  irreconcilable  differences  from  the 
Bible  story.  The  Assyrian  chronology,  as  contained  in 
the  "eponymous  lists," — of  which  there  are  many  inde- 
pendent and  parallel  forms,  and  which  are  not  only  in 
agreement  with  each  other,  but  absolutely  confirmed  by  a 
very  credible  witness,  the  so-called  Canon  of  Ptolemy,  — 
for  the  space  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-eight  years,  is  in 
so  strong  opposition  to  the  Bible  that  harmonists  have 
been  driven  to  the  desperate  expedients  of  doubling  names 
in  the  lists,  and  imagining  breaks  extending  over  nearly 
fifty  years,  at  the  very  epoch  when  such  a  violent  proceed- 
ing was  least  permissible.^  For,  unfortunately,  the  chief 
differences  between  the  Biblical  and  the  cuneiform  annals 
come  precisely  where  the  latter  are  most  thoroughly  for- 
tified by  the  above-mentioned  Canon-;  namely,  in  the  times 

•  Schrader:  Keilimch.  und  Gesch  ,  p.  93.  -  Ibid.,  pp.  87,  90. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  300-304. 


CUNEIFORM  MONUMENTS.  1 73 

of  Sargon  and  Sennacherib,  where  the  variance  amounts 
to  thirteen  years.^  Hebrew  kings^  whom  the  inscriptions 
show  to  have  belonged  to  the  time  of  Tiglath-pileser  (745- 
727  B.C.),  are  placed  by  the  Bible  previous  to  his  reign, 
and  made  contemporary  with  an  Assyrian  king  Phul,  whose 
name  is  not  to  be  found  on  the  monuments,  and  is  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  "  eponymous  lists,"  leading  to  the  most 
arbitrary  constructions  of  the  history  of  Nineveh  by  dis- 
tinguished Assyriologists.3  To  complicate  the  difficulties, 
the  Book  of  Chronicles  ascribes  to  Phul  what  belongs  to 
Tiglath-pileser.4  There  are  obstacles  in  the  way  of  iden- 
tifying the  cuneiform  Ahabbu  with  the  Hebrew  Ahab.^ 
Equally  illustrative  is  the  attempt  to  identify  the  Belshazzar 
of  Daniel  with  the  Nabonidus  of  the  cuneiform  and  of 
history,  recorded  as  the  king  of  Babylon  at  the  time  of 
its  capture  by  Cyrus.  This  has  been  done  by  supposing 
that  Nabonidus  had  a  son  named  Belshazzar,  who,  "  as  he 
seems  to  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  army[?],  probably 
had  greater  influence  than  his  father,  and  so  was  repre- 
sented as  king."  Though  no  such  name  as  Belshazzar  is 
to  be  found  in  the  tablet,  "  it  is  evidently  he  who  is  meant 
by  the  king's  son  with  the  army  in  Accad."  '^  Yet  the 
allusion  to  the  king's  son,  and  to  other  officers  and  soldiers, 
is  of  the  most  incidental  character. 

'  Schrader;  Keilinsch.  und  Gesch.,  p.  344. 

'^  Menahem  and  Pekah.     So  Azariah  and  Ahaz. 

s  Schrader:  Keilinsch.  und  Gesch.,  p.  347-  Also  Delattre :  Inscriptions  Historiqnes, 
pp.  64,  69. 

*  Schrader:  Keilitisch.  taid  Gesch.,  p.  437,  441. 

B  Ibid.,  pp.  356-371- 

o  The  differences  in  translations  are  most  obvious  in  the  readings  of  ideogrammes  which 
represent  proper  names,  and  may  have  one  or  another  force.  Thus  the  same  God  is  rendered 
by  RawUnson  Vjd ;  by  M(^nant,  Bin  ;  and  by  Sayce  and  Schrader,  Rimmon.  Izdubar  is  a 
name  given  by  Smith,  provisionally,  for  a  Sun-hero  whose  real  name  has  not  yet  been  learned. 
But  there  is  equal  difference  about  the  meaning  of  the  names  of  metals  found  in  the  inscrip- 
tions, which  is  natural  enough,  since  the  same  is  true  of  the  metals  and  precious  stones  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible  and  on  the  Egyptian  monuments.  So  with  wild  beasts  in  the  records  of 
royal  hunts,  in  which  different  translators  render  the  same  word  by  buffaloes,  elephants,  and 
emir,  rhinoceros,  and  wild  boars.  See  various  translations  of  Tigiath-pileser  I.  Also  De- 
lattre :  Inscriptions  Historiqnes,  pp.  3S,  60. 


1/4  DEVELOPMENT. 

What  would  be  of  most  importance  for  the  Bible  apolo- 
gists is  some  confirmation,  direct  or  indirect,  of  the  mirac- 
ulous dealings  with  which  the  thread  of  Old  Testament 
history  is  so  thickly  hung;  but  of  this  there  is  not  a 
shadow.  The  frantic  endeavors  of  the  harmonists  to 
make  out  of  the  few  natural  points  of  connection  be- 
tween the  Old  Testament  and  the  Babylonian  and  Assy- 
rian records  what  they  call  "  confirmations  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,"  consist  in  forcing  the  parallelism  by  wild 
conjectures  in  order  to  deduce  a  wholly  unwarranted  con- 
clusion ;  namely,  that  the  record  of  the  Bible,  especially 
the  Genesis  story,  is  historically  true.  It  is  further  ne- 
cessary to  assume,  with  Rawlinson  and  Geikie,  that  the 
Hebrew  only  has  the  original  revelation,  which  the  Chal- 
dec  has  perverted.  The  confusion  here  is  palpable ;  the 
agreement,  were  it  one  and  much  greater,  would  only 
prove  the  antiquity  of  the  myth  among  Semitic  and 
probably  other  nations,  but  by  no  means  afford  addi- 
tional argument  in  favor  of  a  historic  basis,  especially 
against  the  researches  of  science.  Yet  this  is  the  current 
logic  of  the  harmonizing  apologists. 

A  still  more  perilous  crack  in  the  system  is  the  per- 
sistent forgetfulness  or  repudiation  of  the  fact  that  the 
superiority  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  over  every  other  Scripture 
of  the  world,  which  is  the  objective  point  of  their  studies, 
cannot  be  proved  by  the  imperfections  of  the  world  Scrip- 
tures as  known  to  us  at  present.  Thus  Geikie,  in  his  ex- 
altation of  the  Bible  above  the  inscriptions  of  Egypt  and 
Babylon,  because  it  was  concerned  "  with  the  cry  of  the 
oppressed  peoples  "  and  the  divine  moral  law  while  they 
were  busy  with  the  self-glorification  of  cruel  kings,  though 
true  to  a  considerable  extent,  omits  to  recognize  that  the 
literature,  religious  and  secular,  of  the  ancient  world  has 
been  mainly  destroyed  by  Christian  fanaticism  and  neg- 
lect, except  such  references  and  quotations  in  writers  like 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS. 


175 


Eusebius  and  Porphyry  and  others  for  polemic  purposes, 
as  serve  but  to  assure  ys  of  their  vast  dimensions  and  to 
us  unsearchable  contents. 

The  ethnic  genealogy  of  Genesis  gets  no  new  indorse- 
ment, and  the  names  which  have  puzzled  ethnologists  in 
its  Noachic  lines  are  as  dark  as  ever.  The  monuments 
have  nothing  to  say  of  Cushites  or  Hamites,  whose  very 
names  were,  it  would  now  seem,  unknown  in  the  lands  of 
Nimrod  and  of  Mizraim,  and  were  obviously  chosen  for 
geographical  convenience,  or  to  convey  those  temporary 
tribal  antipathies  upon  which  Hebrew  ethnology  was  so 
largely  erected.  Nimrod  is  unknown  to  the  monuments, 
spite  of  the  theory  that  he  is  to  be  found  in  the  mythic 
Merodach,  and  of  George  Rawlinson's  insistence,  upon 
Biblical  authority,  on  his  historical  character,  and  Smith's 
pointless  conjecture  that  he  is  the  same  with  the  Izdubar 
of  the  Chaldean  epic,  because  he  was  a  "  mighty  hunter  " 
(as  were  all  the  Assyrian  kings)  and  is  located  in  Erech, 
one  of  "  Nimrod's  cities."  ^  The  best  authorities  have 
drawn  from  the  tablets  a  mythical  solution  of  the  name, 
as  that  of  the  Babylonian  god  Merodach,  conceived  as  an 
epic  hero,^  of  whose  title  Nimrod  is  the  Hebraized  form. 

Again,  the  Chaldeans,  —  that  intangible  people,  whose 
haziness  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  they  are  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible  sometimes  as  colonists,^  sometimes 
as  priests  and  official  soothsayers,'*  and  sometimes  as  a 
conquering  tribe  from  the  North,'^ — are  equally  unknown 
to  the  monuments  till  the  ninth  century  before  Christ. 
Within  a  century  they  became  masters  of  Babylon, — 
great    conquerors,    laying    the   foundation    for    the    over- 

1  Rawlinson  :  Ancient  Monarchies,  i.  118.     Smith's  Assyrian  Discoz'eries,  p.  i56. 
-  Leiiorniant  :    Le  Deluge,  p.   10.      Grivel    (Trans.    Sac.   Bib.   Arch.      Vol.   iii.,  part  L 
p.  140).     Sayce  {Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.    Vol.  ii.,  part  i.  p.  i). 
3  Genesis  xi.  31  :  xv.  7. 

*  Elaniel  li.  iv.  7  ;  v.  7-1 1. 

*  Jeremiah  x.  22.     Habakkvik  1-6. 


l']6  DEVELOPMENT. 

throw  of  Assyria  by  aid  of  the  Medes.^  One  thinks 
them  Egyptians,  who  brought  arts  and  letters  to  the 
Babylonian  Semites ;  another  makes  them  Cushites,  who 
retained  in  their  language  the  science  and  literature  of 
Semitic  races,  with  the  specialty  of  a  learned  class ;  ^ 
another  believes  them  Aryans.^  But  the  cuneiform  tab- 
lets seem  to  settle  the  question  by  describing  the  Chal- 
deans as  a  tribe  of  Accadians,  with  which  race  they  were 
probably  synonymous  from  the  beginning;  in  classical 
and  Biblical  antiquity  figuring  as  a  learned  and  priestly 
class.^  But  who  were  the  Accadians?  This  leads  us  to  the 
most  interesting  historical  results  of  cuneiform  studies. 

It  seems  to  be  from  the  lack  of  other  definite  sources 
of  information  that  most  modern  scholars  accept  the  very 
uncertain  authority  of  Berosus,  the  Babylonian  historian  of 
Alexander's  time,  as  to  the  succession  of  dynasties  which 
succeeded  his  monstrous  epoch  of  prehistoric  kings,  four 
hundred  thousand  years  in  duration,  —  his  Elamite  or 
Median  dynasty,  beginning  twenty-two  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  being  one  of  the  most  recent.  The  Greek 
legends  of  Nin  and  Semiramis  have  still  less  interest. 

The  primitive  civilization  of  the  Mesopotamian  basin 
was  not  Semitic,  but  Turanian  or  Ugro-Finnic.  This  is 
now  recognized  by  the  best  scholars,  —  by  Oppcrt,  Sayce, 
Lenormant,  and  Schrader.^  A  race,  whose  language  is 
agglutinative,  allied  to  the  Finnic,  Tartar,  Etruscan,  it  may 
be,  —  at  all  events  to  the  Mongolian  family,  —  brought  the 
earliest  cuneiform  writing  to  this  region,*"  composed  its 
earliest  annals,  developed  a  system  of  magic  out  of  which 

1  Lenormant  :  Chaldeaji  Jlfa^/c  CEng.  ed.),  pp.  339,  340. 

2  Rawlinson  :  Atuie7it  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  chap.  iii.  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary,  —  Article 
"  Chaldeans." 

s  Renan :  Semitique  Lan^age,  i.  67. 

*  Lenormant:  Essai .  .  .  des  Fragments  Cosjnogoniques  de  Bcrose,  pp.  52-53. 
5  Rawlinson:   Ancient  Monarchies,  i.   55!    Lenormant:    Chaldean    Magic   (Eiig     ed.), 
p.  352  ;  Schrader  (Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhjh.  xxix.  49). 
^  Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic,  p.  355. 


CUWEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 77 

came  the  ascendency  of  the  Chaldees,  and  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  its  mythology.-^  The  Accadians  seem  to  have 
descended  from  Elam,  bringing  with  them  the  picture- 
writing  from  which  the  cuneiform  was  developed.  Not 
Semitic,  as  the  Genesis  table  represents  them,  the  Elam- 
ite  tribes  spoke  Turanian  dialects,  and  derived  the  name 
Elam  from  the  Accadian  Nunnna  (Highlands),  translated 
into  Semitic.  They  were  from  earliest  times  continually 
invading  Babylonia,  where  they  established  dynasties,  — 
2280-1270  B.C.  Even  down  to  the  sixth  century  there 
were  wars  between  the  two  nations.  From  these  tribes 
came  the  astronomy  of  the  Semites,  who  located  the  zenith 
over  Elam.     Assyrian  art  also  came  from  them. 

On  this  race,  who  call  themselves  mountaineers  (Acca- 
dai),  arose  that  largely  Semitic-Assyrian  civilization,  local- 
ized more  especially  in  Nineveh,  and  known  to  us  already 
through  its  connection  with  the  Hebrews  and  the  more 
or  less  mythical  traditions  of  the  Greeks.  Whether  the 
Turanian-Accadians  were  preceded  by  a  "Cephenian"  race 
of  Hamitic  affinities,  from  Egypt  or  elsewhere,  spread  all 
over  Eastern  Asia,  and  designated  in  the  Bible  as  Cushites  ; 
and  whether,  as  Lenormant  supposes,  these  Cushites  of 
Ethiopia,  in  its  widest  extent,  placed  in  Genesis  among 
the  children  of  Ham,  were  really  the  oldest  branch  of  the 
Semitic  family,  and  thus  serve  to  explain  the  origin  of 
that  Semitic  influence  in  Babylonia  which  speedily  sup- 
planted the  Turanian  exotics ;  or  whether  a  still  earlier 
black  race  was  found  in  the  country  by  these  Hamitic 
Semites,  by  coalescence  with  which  they  lost  many  Sem- 
itic traits,  but  preserved  and  transmitted  Semitic  speech,^ 
—  are  questions  of  conjecture  on  which  the  monuments 
as  yet  throw  no  adequate  light.  The  admixture  of 
Semite  and  Mongol  is,  however,  distinctly  marked  in  the 

1  Sayce  in  the  Encyclopedia  Briiannica,  — "  Babylonia." 
*  Lenormant:  Chaldean  Magic,  pp.  343,  345. 
12 


1 7^  DEVELOPMENT. 

monumental  records,  even  in  the  Babylonian  sculptures, 
which  are  believed  by  Hamy  to  show  these  two  ethnic 
types.  Recent  Etruscan  researches  have  revealed  a  type 
similar  to  that  which  is  here  believed  to  be  Mongolian, 
lending  plausibility  to  Taylor's  theory  of  the  Mongolian 
origin  of  the  Etruscans, 

Cuneiform  script  proved  as  susceptible  of  modification 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  Western  Asiatic  civilization 
as  the  Semitic  alphabet  has  to  serve  the  same  purpose 
for  European.  Its  ingeniously  varied  combinations  repre- 
sented the  sounds  of  the  most  differing  tongues,  —  of 
Turanian  languages  like  the  Susian,  Median,  and  Chal- 
dean; of  Semitic,  like  the  Assyrian;  of  Indo-European, 
like  the  Armenian  and  the  Persian.  Like  the  Chinese, 
which  has  been  of  equal  competency  for  the  East  of 
Asia,  it  was  originally  composed  of  ideographic  or  pic- 
ture signs,  as  is  proved  by  an  inscription  of  this  kind  at 
Susa,  and  by  the  possibility  of  tracing  tlip  process  of  de- 
velopment, through  phases  similar  to  those  of  Egyptian 
and  Chinese  systems,  from  the  pure  picture-sign  to  the 
largely  phonetic.^ 

Not  less  remarkable  has  been  the  expansive  force  of  this 
Mongoloid  family,  as  represented  in  the  East  of  Asia  by 
the  wide  extension  of  the  Chinese  and  of  their  civiliza- 
tion, and  in  the  West  by  the  immense  deposit  of  tribes 
speaking  dialects  of  the  Altaic  or  Turanian  type,  covering 
ancient  Elam,^  Chaldea,^  Parthia,^  and  Media;  ^  and  if  the 
"Scythians"  of  Justin  were  of  the  same  family,  as  he  be- 
lieved and  as  is  probable  enough,  holding  possession  of  the 
most  of  Asia  for  fifteen  hundred  years. 

These  analogies  are  of  very  great  interest  in  the  study 

*  Lenormant:  Manual  of  A  jtcieiit  History  cf  the  East,  i.  434. 

*  This  is  shown  by  the  Susian  inscriptions. 

*  Accad  or  Sumir. 

*  Ctesias  says  the  Parthians  were  Scythians. 
5  This  has  been  fiilly  shown  by  Oppert. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  179 

of  a  family  of  nations  which  has  played  a  much  larger  part 
in  the  history  of  human  progress  than  was  even  suspected 
till  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  fact  that  the  two  great  systems  of  writing  in  which 
the  chief  civilizations  of  Eastern  and  Western  Asia  have 
found  their  record,  —  the  Chinese  ideographic  and  the 
Babylonian  cuneiform,  —  were  Turanian  achievements,  is 
of  even  more  striking  significance.  From  that  ethnic 
family,  which  has  been  regarded  as  the  most  materialistic 
and  most  devoted  to  transient  and  trivial  matters,  has  pro- 
ceeded a  twofold  immortality.  The  ideograph  has  been 
developed  into  the  enduring  literary  medium  of  a  vast 
living  civilization ;  the  cuneiform  has  been  the  equally  en- 
during monumental  record  of  a  departed  one.  The  ideo- 
graph has  been  the  ever-changing  ideal  of  a  thoroughly 
concrete  and  seemingly  unprogressive  family ;  the  cunei- 
form speedily  crystallized  into  a  changeless  expression 
of  the  most  ardent  and  passionate  of  races,  the  herald 
of  progress  in  the  Oriental  world.  One  only  almost 
reached  the  alphabetic  stage  of  writing;  but  both  show 
that  ethics,  science,  literature,  mythology,  and  religion 
could  seize  a  comparatively  rudimentary  form  of  the  art, 
and  fill  its  child-like  picture-moulds  with  their  universal 
meanings ;  that  intuition  and  faith  found  expression  in 
these,  long  before  the  slow  processes  of  analytic  study  out 
of  which  creeds  and  alphabets  alike  proceed.  Both  are 
wonders  of  the  constructive  power  of  mind  in  early  civ- 
ilization ;  striking  instances  of  its  evolutionary  movement, 
which  can  be  traced  back  in  each  to  the  primitive  picture- 
sign,  the  language  of  creative  imagination  in  its  germ. 
They  thus  bear  witness  to  the  continuity  of  ideal  purpose 
down  the  course  of  history.  All  alphabetic  signs,  the 
perfected  organ  of  human  speech,  were  gradually  shaped 
from  materials  analogous  to  the  picture-sign  of  these 
Mongoloid  races,  who,  without  aid  from  Aryan  or  Semitic, 


1 80  DEVELOPMENT. 

have  brought  the  picture-sign  up  to  a  high  point  of  de- 
velopment, giving  it  great  capability  of  expression,  as 
well  as  adaptability  to  the  needs  of  different  races.  The 
Chinese  found  it  competent  to  express  more  and  more  of 
their  concrete  detail-experience  by  an  endless  intricacy 
of  strokes  and  figures.  The  Assyrians  and  Persians  found 
it  equally  capable  of  ideal  uses,  conveyed  successfully 
through  endless  combinations  of  a  single  constructive  ele- 
ment, the  graphic  wedge.  Through  the  strictness  of  its 
laws  of  structure,  as  positive  in  their  use  of  the  Chinese 
pencil  stroke  and  the  Babylonian  wedge  as  the  laws  of  ar- 
chitecture in  their  use  of  arch  and  buttress  and  scroll,  came 
the  possibility  of  a  change  of  material  from  mere  images 
into  phonetic  and  syllabic  signs,  at  the  demand  of  sound 
for  free  representation  as  script;  and  the  more  perfect 
analysis  of  sound  evolves  from  these  the  alphabet  as  the 
prime  organ  of  human  culture.  From  the  Chinese  signs 
have  come  several  transitory  alphabets  of  Asia,  as  well  as 
the  more  permanent  alphabet  of  Japan.  And  it  seems 
probable,  from  recent  researches  as  well  as  from  the 
myth  which  traces  letters  to  Babylon,  that  the  Phoenician 
letters,  whence  the  archaic  Greek,  and  through  them  the 
present  European,  were  derived  from  cuneiform  originals.-^ 
Deecke,  aided  by  Schrader  and  others,  has  traced  them  to 
modified  forms  of  Assyrian  cursive,  in  the  ninth  century 
before  Christ,  and  undertakes  to  show  the  original  names 
of  many  of  the  Hebrew  letters  in  the  Assyrian  language.^ 

Cuneiform  writing,  then,  carried  the  monumental  litera- 
ture of  three  great  linguistic  families,  —  the  Turanian,  the 
Semitic,  the  Aryan;  the  first  represented  by  the  Accadians, 

'  Zeiischr.  d.  Deuisck.  Morgenl.  GeselUch.  xxxi.  102-116.  In  the  same,  xi.  7S-97 
Wiittke,  who  derives  them  from  simple  strokes  instead  of  pre-existing  signs,  allows  that  they 
must  have  come  originally  from  Babylon.  Renan  also  traces  them  to  Babylon,  though  not 
to  the  cuneiform  (Langues  Seiitiiignes,  i.  p.  113).  Lenormant's  theory  of  Egyptian  origin 
from  hieratic  signs  does  not  seem  to  be  well  sustained. 

"  The  researches  of  scholars  into  the  Cypriote  inscriptions  in  Greek  have  suggested  the 
derivation  of  the  Greek  characters  from  the  cuneiforrrL 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  l8l 

the  second  by  the  Assyrians,  the  third  by  the  Persians. 
It  concentrated,  on  the  western  rim  of  the  Iranian  plateau, 
those  diversities  of  culture  by  which  Iran  was  distinguished 
from  the  simpler  uniformities  of  the  far  East,  and  which 
form  the  transition  to  still  richer  unities  of  civilization. 
As  these  three  races,  in  succession,  adopted  this  form  of 
writing,  an  increasing  force  of  combination  was  manifested 
in  it;  the  ideographic  outlines  became  more  artistic;  the 
rectilinear  strokes  were  changed  to  something  like  curves. 
From  the  oldest  Chaldean  type,  through  Assyrian  and 
Median  to  latest  Persian,  it  reached  successively  the  three 
great  stages  of  writing,  —  ideographic,  syllabic,  alphabetic. 
It  was  the  inseparable  companion  of  the  Iranian  mind,  and 
the  symbol  of  its  comprehensiveness. 

The  immense  fecundity  of  the  Chinese  in  secular,  and 
of  the  Mongols  of  Central  Asia  in  religious  literature, 
which  has  been  pointed  out  in  a  previous  volume  of  this 
work,^  prepares  us  to  expect  from  the  kindred  race  of 
Accadians,  who  invented  letters  and  recorded  thought  in 
primitive  Mesopotamia,  evidences  of  similar  mental  activ- 
ity. And  as  the  basis  of  those  civilizations  was  a  devel- 
oped fetichism,  expressed  in  systems  of  divination,  so  we 
shall  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  the  earliest  cuneiform 
reports  this  kind  of  product  on  an  extended  scale.  The 
library  of  Asshur-bani-pal  furnishes  fragments  of  a  vast 
Accadian  work  on  Magic,  of  no  less  than  two  hundred 
tablets,  which  "  was  for  Chaldea  what  the  Atharva-Veda 
was  for  India."  And  here,  at  the  beginning  of  Iranian 
life,  is  foreshadowed  the  grand  feature  of  its  maturer 
consciousness,  in  the  inevitable  Dualism  of  the  fetichistic 
stage  of  human  progress.  The  moral  problem  thus  early 
stands  as  a  division  of  heaven  and  earth  between  element- 
ary powers  of  good  and  evil,  surrounded  by  which  man 
maintains  his  liberty  and   asserts  his  personality  by  runic 

*  The  Author's  China,  part  ii.  chap.  iv. 


1 82  DEVELOPMENT. 

spells,  talismans,  amulets,  imprecations,  phylacteries,  in- 
cantations, and  sacred  names  and  formulas  repeated  ad 
naiiseani,  "boundary  which  the  gods  cannot  pass,"'  —  at 
whose  bidding  diseases  and  bewitchments  come  and  go, 
while  spirits  follow  the  will  of  each  possessor  of  their 
secret  law.  As  in  later  Persian  belief  the  struggle  of  good 
with  evil  is  symbolized  by  the  relations  of  Light  and  Dark- 
ness, so  here,  though  in  a  less  consciously  symbolic  and 
ethical  form,  light  and  darkness  are  antagonists ;  here  also 
the  Dualism  takes  the  form  of  a  positive  battle.  The  war 
of  the  seven  rebellious  Maskim,  cosmic  elementary  spirits 
from  the  abyss,  against  the  life  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  against  gods  and  men,  whose  ravages  the  spirit  of 
Fire  by  aid  of  a  divine  messenger  restrains,  seems  almost 
a  prelude  to  the  later  wars  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman.^ 
Accadian  hymns  to  the  protecting  deity  in  Fire  are,  as 
translated  in  Lenormant  and  Smith,  scarcely  inferior  to 
those  of  the  Avesta :  — 

''  Fire,  supreme  chief  rising  higli  in  the  land  !     Hero,  son  of  ocean, 

rising  high  ! 
Fire,  with  thy  pure  and  brilliant  flame,  Thou  bringest  light  into  the 

dwellings  of  darkness  ! 
Thou  decidest  the  fate  of  everything  which  has  a  name.     May  the 

works  of  the  man,  his  son,  shine  in  purity  ! 
May  he  be  liigh  as  heaven,  holy  and  pure  as  the  earth  ! 
Thou  who  chasest  the  wicked  Maskim,  who  strikest  terror  into  the 

wicked  heart, 
Destroyer  of  enemies,  terrible  weapon  which  chasest  the  plague,  fer- 
tile, brilliant. 
May  the  rivers  and  the  countries  rest  with  thee  !     Expel  evil  from  my 

body." 
"  God  of  the  house,  protector  of  the  family !  "^ 
"  May  the  sunrise  dissipate  darkness,  and  the  evil  spirit  depart  into 

the  desert !  " 

'  Inscription  quoted  by  Lenormant  in  Clialdean  Mag-ic,  p.  44. 

'  Lenormant:  Chaldean  Magic,  ■(>■  '8.     Smith:  Assyrian  Discoveries, ip.  ^(ji. 

S  Ibid.,  pp.  184-186. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 83 

"  Thou  who  curest  my  face,  direct  my  hand,  Light  of  the  Universe, 
Thou  who  causest  hes  to  disappear,  and  dissipatest  evil  powers,  at  the 

raising  of  my  hand,  come  at  the  calls  !  "  ^ 
"  Illuminator  of  darkness,  opener  of  the  countenance  (of  sorrow), 
Setter  up  of  the  fallen,  supporter  of  the  sick  ! 
Unto  thy  light  look  the  great  gods,  and  the   spirits  of  earth  all  bow 

before  thy  face." ^ 

I  The  moral  bearings  of  Accadian  Dualism  are  not  less 
striking  in  so  superstitious  a  fetichism  as  this.  Smith 
thus  translates  a  penitential  psalm :  — 

"  O  my  Lord,  my  transgression  is  great  :  many  my  sins. 

0  my  goddess,  my  transgression  is  great :   many  my  sins.     The  trans- 

gression that  I  committed  I  knew  not. 
The  forbidden  thing  did  I  eat.     My  Lord  in  his  wrath  has  punished 
me. 

1  lay  on  the  ground,  and  no  man  took  me  by  the  hand. 

I  cried  aloud,  none  would  hear  me.     To  my  God  I  referred  my  dis- 
tress, my  prayers  addressed. 
O  my  God,  seven  times  seven  are  my  transgressions."  '' 

Like  the  later  Zoroastrians,  the  Accadians  derived  good 
and  evil  from  one  source,  Miil-ge,  though  not  by  con- 
scious abstraction,  but  rather  by  inability  to  analyze  the 
moral  sense  and  the  cosmic  elements.  Curiously  enough, 
Zrvan,  the  name  given  to  the  later  constructed  Unity, 
has  been  found  in  Berosus  as  mythic  personification  of 
the  old  Turanian  race,  whose  Mul-ge  certainly  prefig- 
ures his  function  in  the  later  faith.*  The  Fravashi,  ideal 
guardian  or  higher  soul  assi'gned  to  every  one  in  the 
Avesta,  has  his  prototype  for  the  Accadian  faith  in  a 
similar  guardian,  who,  however,  shares  in  the  infirmities 
of  his  follower.^ 

The  evil  spirits  of  the  Accadians,  like  the  Hebrew,  dwelt 
in  the  air  and  desert,  and  took  possession  of  the  body  and 

*  Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic,  pp.  179,  183. 

^  Sayce's  edition  of  Smith's  Early  Babylonia,  p.  24.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  26. 

*  Lenormant  :  Chaldeatt  Magic,  pp.  53,  123,  205.  6  Ibid.,  p.  182. 


1 84  DEVELOPMENT. 

mind  of  man  in  the  form  of  disease.  The  future  world,  as 
described  in  Accadian  hymns,  was  similar  to  the  Hebrew 
Shcol ;  its  imprisoned  shades  dwelt  in  darkness  and  dust, 
with  scarce  a  sign  of  feeling,  yet  somehow  survived  death 
with  a  kind  of  consciousness,  and  were  even  sometimes 
taken  up  into  the  company  of  the  gods. 

The  instinctive  anticipation  on  this  lower  stage,  of  prin- 
ciples in  which  more  advanced  culture  has  found  high 
religious  meaning,  is  not  illustrated  by  the  dualism  of  ele- 
mentary powers  alone.  The  Accadians  had  a  mystical  scale 
of  numbers,  and  saw  a  secret  virtue  in  holy  names.  Thus 
Seven  is  the  number  of  spirits  of  evil  (^Maskiui).  But  the 
fear  and  the  hope  rise,  even  through  the  superstitions,  to 
trust  in  the  personal  will  of  all-pervading  protective  being. 
The  Supreme  Name,  "the  secret  of  Hea,"  which  he  teaches 
to  his  son,  the  mediating  god,  is  called  "  The  Number;  " 
and  by  this  hidden  law  of  the  world  all  forces  are  ordained 
and  ruled.  Jewish  reverence  for  an  ineffable  Name  in 
Cabala  and  Talmud  goes  back,  says  Lenormant,  to  the 
magic  of  the  Chaldean  Accadians. ^  In  the  popular  songs 
and  agricultural  maxims  everything  has  its  own  fortunate 
number.  Here  are  the  earliest  "  teraphim,"  or  little  fig- 
ures of  gods  and  animals,  believed  to  carry  the  mystic 
potency  involved  in  their  creation,  and  set  up  in  the 
thresholds  and  near  the  bed  ^  as  protection,  foreshad- 
owing the  idolized  types  and  images  of  more  cultured 
religions.  The  divining-rod  of  the  Accadian  magician 
anticipates  the  miraculous  staff  of  Moses,  which  subju- 
gates those  of  the  Egyptian  conjurers;  ^  and  his  arrows, 
those  which  the  Hebrew  prophet  casts  for  similar  pur- 
poses.* We  do  not  here  enter  into  the  consideration  of 
the  amazing  fact  that  the  main  portion  of  that  remark- 

1  Lenormant:  Chaldean  Magic,  p.  44.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  28. 

5  2  Kings,  xiii.  14-19. 

*  Sayce's  Lecture  on  Babylonian  Literature  he/ore  the  Royal  Institute,  in  London,  1878. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  X    -//PSS^ 

able  Assyrian  literature,  gathered  into  the  royal  library"^  ■' 
of  Nineveh,  —  with  its  great  Bibles  of  hymns  and  prayers, 
of  magic,  of  astronomy,  agriculture,  mythology;  above  all, 
with  its  wonderful  epos  containing  those  primeval  stories  of 
Solar  Labors,  of  Titan  Wars,  of  a  Flood,  and  of  the  Descent 
of  a  God  to  the  Dead,  on  which  so  much  of  Hebrew  and 
Greek  mythology  was  probably  built,  —  was  translated  by 
the  Semites  out  of  this  old  Accadian  tongue.  I  wish  to 
note  a  more  important  historical  relation  in  this  earliest 
Turanian  phase  of  the  development  of  Iran. 

Even  here  we  find  that  intense  direction  of  the  religious 
nature  towards  persons,  as  distinguished  from  principles 
and  laws,  which  is  characteristic  of  that  whole  develop- 
ment. Its  primitive  magic  is  absorbed  in  personal  wills, 
good  and  evil,  to  be  loved,  feared,  or  propitiated :  it  is  one 
endless  conversation  with  a  superhuman  world  of  positive 
aims,  purposes,  motives.  And  it  has  been  noticed  by 
Lenormant  ^  that  Accadian  magic  differs  from  Egyptian  in 
the  absence  of  that  identification  of  the  dead  with  deity, 
which  gave  the  risen  spirit  the  name  of  Osiris  in  Egypt, 
and  even  raised  the  animal  world  into  more  than  a  symbol 
of  eternal  things.  Of  this  pantheistic  loss  of  the  person 
in  the  idea,  not  a  trace  exists  in  Accadian  thought.  Nor 
do  sacred  names,  formulas,  truths,  possess  the  power,  as  in 
Hindu  and  Egyptian  piety,  to  constrain  the  superhuman 
world.  The  Accadian  priest  bowed  before  a  superior  per- 
sonality, appealing  to  this  in  prayer,  and  conquering  evil  by 
the  intercession  of  other  persons,  such  as  Merodach  of  the 
older  hymns.  The  sovereign  Name  itself  is  not  so  much 
a  more  or  less  abstract  form  of  power,  like  the  Egyptian 
names  of  deity,  as  a  positive  living  Will.  Personal  media- 
torship  begins  in  the  old  Chaldean  tablets.  Silik-mulu-khi,^ 
who  cures  diseases,  drives  out  demons,  and  raises  the  dead, 

*  Chaldean  Magic,  chap.  vi. 

*  Hymns  in  Lenormant :  Chaldeatt  Magic,  pp.  64,  190,  192,  207. 


1 86  DEVELOPMENT. 

by  knowledge  given  him  as  the  commissioned  son  of  Hea, 
—  "  giving  and  saving  Hfe,"  "  merciful  king  of  heaven  and 
earth,"  —  strikingly  resembles  the  mediatorial  saviours  of 
Zoroastrianism  and  Christianity.  Silik-mulu-khi  never 
reached  the  abstract  form  of  the  Christ  of  the  Church, 
was  not  an  idea,  a  mystic  presence,  an  all-conquering 
Name,  a  process  of  history,  —  but  remained  a  person 
only,  endowed  with  beneficent  functions,  but  absorbing 
an  analogous  veneration : 

"  Lord,  thou  art  sublime.     What  transitory  being  is  equal  to  thee  ? 
Among  gods,  the  rewarder  :  among  gods,  the  hero. 
To  thee  are  heaven  and  earth  :  to  thee  are  death  and  h'fe." 

He  is  so  evidently  regarded  as  a  personage  in  real  life, 
that  the  bibliolater  identifies  him  with  Nimrod,  and  the 
scholar  with  Merodach.  The  idea  of  a  mediator,  the  nat- 
ural result  of  a  worship  of  deity  as  personal  will,  is  trace- 
able, like  other  Semitic  behefs,  to  a  Turanian  antiquity.  In 
its  substance,  it  is  precisely  what  we  find  it  in  the  relation 
of  the  Accadian  through  Silik-mulu-khi  to  Hea;  namely, 
that  of  one  individual  to  a  higher  individual,  facilitated  by 
a  third.  Transformed,  as  in  Christianity,  into  a  mystic  eso- 
teric idea  of  unity,  drawing  the  mind  away  from  concrete 
wills  to  supreme  ideas  and  principles,  it  loses  its  essential 
meaning;  and  were  the  change  but  consistently  and  com- 
pletely made,  would  lose  its  historic  and  personal  basis 
altogether,  and  cease  to  claim  any,  or  even  to  admit 
its  possibility.  Of  this  there  is  no  hint  in  Accadian 
conceptions ;  nor  even  of  that  interchangeableness  of 
divine  names  which  we  find  in  the  Veda  dimly  foreshad- 
owing the  unity  of  all  gods  in  the  impersonal  Brahm. 
Here,  on  the  contrary,  every  god  stands  in  his  own  dis- 
tinct individuality,  —  spirits  without  number,  inhabiting 
natural  forms,  or  using  natural  powers,  but  not  traced 
back  to  one  principle  or  grand  generalization  of  the  di- 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 87 

vine.  A  personal  guardian  invisibly  attends  every  one,  and 
personal  demons  possess  body  and  mind.  A  supreme 
triad  —  Anu,  Hea,  Mul-ge  —  respectively  rule  Heaven, 
Earth,  and  the  Underworld ;  from  the  last  of  whom  both 
good  and  evil  spirits  proceed.  Even  in  the  dark  deeps 
of  Sheol  there  dwells  a  living  helper,  Nin-dar,  slayer  of 
monsters  and  pests.  Finnic  magic,  as  described  in  the 
Kalevala,  shows  a  similar  triad  of  personal  rulers,  a  simi- 
lar dualistic  struggle  of  good  and  evil  powers,  with  similar 
exorcisms  and  spells  for  expulsion  of  demons,  mainly 
through  gods  of  light.  The  religions  of  these  kindred 
races  agree  also  in  placing  that  kind  of  metal  in  which 
each  was  specially  wont  to  work  under  a  special  god. 
Similar  affinities  have  been  sought  in  another  race  be- 
lieved to  have  been  of  Turanian  type,  the  Etruscans;  and 
the  evidence,  both  as  regards  personal  names  and  religious 
beliefs,  is  very  striking.^  The  solar  origin  of  the  Accadian 
deities  and  legends  becomes  more  obvious  the  more  they 
are  traced  to  their  elements,  revolving  around  the  move- 
ment of  the  sun  through  his  visible  and  invisible  paths,  of 
the  upper  and  under  worlds,  of  day  and  night,  and  through 
the  zodiacal  signs,  of  which  these  Turanian  astronomers 
seem  to  have  been  the  framers.^ 

The  records  of  this  primeval  civilization,  which  was 
flourishing  in  Chaldea  at  least  forty  centuries  ago,  and  per- 
haps a  thousand  years  earlier  than  that,  have  been  care- 
fully preserved.  If  the  Semitic  Assyrians  who  supplanted 
the  "  Accad  and  Sumir"  had  done  nothing  else  but  trans- 
late their  contents  from  the  older  language  and  cuneiform 
type  to  which  they  were  committed  into  their  own  cur- 
rent writing  and  tongue,  not  only  preserving  the  originals, 
but  providing   for  their  study  the   appliances   of  lexicon 

1  Isaac  Taylor  in  Report  of  Oriental  I iiteruaiicnial  Congress,  187^  (Triibiier). 
'  Hymns  as  translated  in  Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic  ;  and  tlie  legends  as  described  by 
Sayce:  Lecture  on  Babylonian  Literature  before  the  Royal  Institute  in  London,  1878. 


1 88  DEVELOPMENT. 

and  grammar,  and  all  with  a  scrupulous  historic  affection 
amounting  to  a  filial  piety  like  that  of  the  Chinese  in  these 
matters, — they  would  have  entitled  themselves  to  the  lasting 
gratitude  of  mankind,  and  can  never  be  charged  with  hav- 
ing lived  to  little  purpose.  And  this  they  have  thoroughly 
done. 

The  records  of  the  old  Accadian  kings,  from  Lig-Bagas 
of  Ur  down,  are  jejune,  —  mere  items  of  temple  and  tower- 
building,  their  names  now  given  in  Semitic,  now  in  Tura- 
nian.^ But  their  literature  was  preserved  in  libraries, 
located  in  the  numerous  cities  of  Babylonia;^  and  from 
these  the  Semitic  Assyrians  not  only  brought  the  great 
works  of  poetry,  mythology,  science,  and  magic  which 
they  translated  and  studied  so  carefully,  but  also  probably 
derived  their  own  system  of  free  public  libraries,  like  those 
of  Sargon  and  Asshur-bani-pal,  into  the  inner  working  of 
which  we  can  look  to-day  with  astonishment  that  there 
is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  The  literary  capacity  of 
these  old  Turanians  is  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  fact 
in  history.  The  oldest  of  epics,  to  which  the  name  of 
Izdubar  has  been  provisionally  given,  is  an  elaborated 
product  of  Accadian  genius,  forty  centuries  old,  and  shows 
how  early  the  poetic  faculty  of  man  found  inspiration  in 
the  great  lights  of  heaven.^  This  marvellous  epic,  with 
its  twelve  great  legends  based  on  the  twelve  zodiacal 
signs,  turning  their  Accadian  names  into  dramatic  per- 
sonifications, and  the  process  of  the  Sun  through  their 
successive  mansions  into  labors  of  a  mythic  hero,  which 
are  curiously  paralleled  or  repeated  in  the  Semitic  and 
Aryan  forms  of  the  Hercules  myth,  interweaving  also  the 
lunar  phases  in  a  form  which  is  the  prototype  of  that 
wide-spread    cycle    of    myths   wherein    a    dying    god    is 

1  Smith:  Early  History  of  Babylon.     Records  of  tJu  Past,  vo\.  iii. 

*  Smith  :  Ancient  History  of  Babylon  (Sayce's  ed. ),  p.  ig. 

*  See  account  of  this  epic  in  Sayce's  Babylonian  Literature ;  and  the  poem  in  Smith's 
Assyrian  Discoveries  (Sayce's  ed.). 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 89 

mourned  by  the  spirit  of  love  in  Nature,  and  sought  by 
her  in  the  Underworld,  —  this  marvellous  epic  is  worthy 
to  be  called  the  cradle  of  mythologies,  even  from  what 
we  already  know  of  its  contents.  Another  cycle  of  Ac- 
cadian  legends  shows  the  perception  of  cosmical  order 
and  law  as  wrung  from  chaos  by  personal  Will.  The  wars 
of  gods  against  Titans  in  Greek  cosmogony  are  prefigured 
in  those  of  Bel  and  Aku  and  Merodach  against  the  de- 
structive forces  of  Nature,  and  the  crude  abortions  —  half 
beasts,  half  men  —  of  chaos.  How  monsters  of  blind  aim- 
less types  and  demons  of  the  dark  were  conquered  by  the 
sabre  of  Merodach  (lightning) ;  how  Tiamat,  the  abyss- 
mother  of  this  abnormal  progeny,  was  cloven  and  cast 
with  her  brood  into  the  Underworld  ;  how  the  storm-Titans 
fought  in  vain  against  the  heavenly  constructive  lights, — 
was  a  favorite  theme  of  Accadian  imagination  a  thousand 
years  before  Hesiod  wrote  or  Homer  sung.  This  prog- 
ress by  the  strife  of  orderly  will  against  blind  force  is  the 
key-note  of  Western  thought,  struck  so  long  ago  on  the 
shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  to  attune  the  soul  of  man  with 
the  signs  of  heaven.  This  is  what  the  Sun  meant  to  those 
first  watchers  of  his  triumphant  march  through  cloud  and 
storm  and  night.  So  the  attempt  of  the  seven  storm-spirits 
to  destroy  the  Moon-god  was  probably  the  poetic  version 
of  an  eclipse.^  The  waning  and  waxing  Moon  is  a  queen 
of  heaven  descending  through  the  chambers  of  the  death- 
realm,  putting  off  her  garments  of  glory  one  by  one,  and 
then,  divinely  delivered,  resuming  them  as  she  rises  again 
upon  a  sorrowing  and  pining  world.^  But  long  before  the 
epic  of  Izdubar  concentrated  the  faith  of  the  Accadians, 
they  had  uttered  their  penitence,  praise,  and  prayer  to  the 
gods  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  elemental  powers 

1  Records  of  the.  Past,  vol.  v.  (Fox  Talbot's  translation). 

2  Descent  of  Ishtar;    Schrader's  translation.    Also  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  i.  (Fox 
Talbot's  translation). 


1 90  DEVELOPMENT. 

in  hymns  and  liturgies,  the  fragments  of  which  surprise 
us  by  their  resemblance,  in  many  respects,  to  the  Hindu 
Veda  and  the  Hebrew  Psalms.  The  objects  of  worship 
are  different;  but  the  ascription  of  personal  feeling  and 
will  is  quite  as  vivid  and  real  as  anything  even  in  the 
latter,  and  the  mastery  of  Nature  by  these  indwelling 
powers  impregnates  elements  and  forms  with  a  sympathy 
as  intense  as  that  which  they  yield  to  Indra  or  Jehovah. 
"The  will  of  Silik-mulu-khi  rules  the  heavens  and  earth 
like  a  sword."  "  He  commands  the  flower,  and  it  ripens; 
the  sea,  and  it  is  calm."  The  "  hero  Fire  clothes  space 
like  a  garment,  presses  up  the  hills  and  kindles  the  dark- 
ness." "  The  overwhelming  fear  of  Anu  girds  his  path 
in  the  sky."  "  Day  is  thy  servant,  O  Istar,  and  heaven 
thy  canopy."  The  transgressor,  confessing  his  sins  in  the 
dust,  and  crying  without  help  from  man,  "  addresses  his 
prayer  to  his  god."  "  The  sin  thy  servant  has  sinned, 
bring  back  to  blessedness:  let  the  wind  carry  away  his 
transgression.  May  thy  heart,  like  the  heart  of  the  mother 
of  the  setting  day,  to  its  place  return !  "  These  hymns 
must  have  been  accumulating  for  centuries. 

The  most  characteristic  thing  about  Accadian  civilization 
is  the  passion  for  literature.  In  its  old  deluge  myth,  as 
reported  by  the  Greeks  from  Berosus,^  the  Chaldean  Noah 
(Xisuthrus)  is  bidden  to  bury  the  sacred  writings  at  Sip- 
para,  his  native  city,  before  the  flood  comes;  and  there, 
after  he  has  been  taken  up  to  heaven,  his  followers  return 
to  recover  them.  Oannes,  the  fish-god  from  the  sea-coast, 
to  whom  these  primitive  Chaldeans  ascribe  their  culture, 
is  expressly  said  to  have  brought  them  letters.  Like  the 
Chinese,  they  invent  a  historic  system  of  writing,  —  to  the 
West  of  Asia  what  that  of  China  was  to  the  East.  Peace- 
able  and  industrious,  they  meditated   on    the  world,  and 

*  Abydenus  and  Alexander  Polyhistor;  Lenormant:  Le  dehtge  et  V epopee  Baiyloni- 
enne,  p.  8. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  Ipl 

turned  the  results  of  patient  observation  to  legend,  sci- 
ence, and  song  of  praise.  Their  science,  as  yet  in  the 
elementary  stage  in  many  respects,  was  at  least  inspired 
by  the  search  for  causes,  by  the  sense  of  continuity  and 
development  in  Nature ;  and  this  far  more  than  with  the 
Semitic  races,  who  inherited  their  culture,  and  used  it 
mainly  in  the  interest  of  supernaturalism  and  national 
exclusiveness.  They  not  only  worshipped  the  great  ele- 
mental wholes, —  the  heaven,  the  earth,  the  sea,  —  but 
wrought  with  marvellous  energy  at  the  foundations  of  all 
future  astronomy,  agriculture,  and  commerce.  It  was  cer- 
tainly Accadian  observation  which  began  and  continued  the 
great  astronomical  work  of  Sargon's  library  in  seventy-two 
books,  inscribed  in  the  name  of  Bel-Merodach  as  god  of 
the  starry  heavens,  intermediate  between  the  upper  sphere 
and  the  earth.  Largely  magical  and  astrological,  it  con- 
tained notices  of  comets,  conjunctions,  eclipses,  lunar  and 
planetary  phases,  cyclic  returns,  and  even,  as  some  suppose, 
of  spots  on  the  sun.  The  Accadians  were  the  inventors  of 
our  twelve  zodiacal  signs,  with  their  very  names,  and  of  our 
great  divisions  of  time  into  the  year  of  twelve  months  and 
three  hundred  and  sixty  days,  and  our  week  of  seven  days, 
which  they  named  after  sun,  moon,  and  planets,  and  sepa- 
rated by  sabbaths  or  rest-days,  religiously  set  apart  by 
statute.  They  named  the  Milky  Way  the  "  long  path," 
and  it  has  been  affirmed  by  decipherers  that  they  made 
celestial  charts,  and  drew  lines  corresponding  to  equator 
and  ecliptic,  dividing  them  into  degrees;  and  Layard  found 
a  magnifying  lens  at  Nineveh,  on  whose  historical  rela- 
tions conjecture  may  well  be  rife.^  Fragments  of  agri- 
cultural works  point  us  to  them  as  the  industrious  founders 
of  the  vast  system  of  irrigation  and  production  of  which 
the  wealth  of  Babylonia  was  the  result.  We  have  their 
Fasti;    their   lists   of  classified   animals   and  plants,  their 

1  This  is  carefully  summarized  from  Sayce's  Babylonia7Z  Literature- 


192  DEVELOPMENT. 

geographical  statistics  and  lists ;  their  labor  songs  and 
maxims,  their  farmer's  calendar,  their  system  of  ownership 
in  lands  and  harvests,  and  records  of  their  sales  and  wills  and 
loans.  The  far-reaching  commercial  life  of  Babylon  and 
Nineveh,  by  land  and  sea,  must  have  sprung  from  this  older 
civilization  of  industry  and  culture.  They  had  an  archi- 
tecture of  their  own,  and  wrought  in  textile  fabrics  and  in 
stone.  Their  laws  guarded  the  right  of  inheritance,  of 
private  "  sanctuary,"  secured  married  women's  property, 
gave  the  mother  the  highest  place  in  the  family,^  pun- 
ishing rejection  of  her  more  severely  than  the  same  sin 
against  the  father,  though  distinguishing  against  the  fe- 
male in  cases  of  infidelity.  They  fine  cruelty  towards 
slaves,  though  very  inadequately.^  They  strictly  unite 
Church  and  State ;  the  statutes  of  the  land  are  the  com- 
mandments of  Hea,  to  which  the  king  must  conform  in 
their  traditional  rights,  or  the  nation  perishes;  judges  are 
placed  under  oaths  and  penalties;  brothers  exhorted  to 
mutual  love  and  generous  dealing  in  the  name  of  the  law, 
and  in  the  temples  of  the  gods ;  ^  and  documents  of  loans, 
contracts,  transfers,  and  debts  are  preserved  on  papyrus 
leaves  as  well  as  on  stone.  Here  is  a  long  advance  on 
patriarchal  institutions.  The  free  world  of  the  West  be- 
gins to  appear,  singularly  enough,  in  a  Turanian  race. 
Well  might  this  historic  race  dwell  on  the  mastery  of 
chaos  in  their  songs  to  creative  gods  of  cosmic  order  and 
enlightened  will.  On  their  firm  foundation  the  religions 
and  cultures  of  the  world  were  built,  and  every  hour  re- 
veals some  new  root  of  civilization  pushing  through  this 
till  recently  unimagined  soil.  The  far-famed  learning,  the 
parent-religion  of  Babylon,  the  mysterious  gift  of  the 
Chaldean  in  all  that  the  ancient  world  held  worthy  of  awe 


I  E.  Thomas  (Jmirnalofthe  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  xi.  p.  i,  new  series). 

*  Records  of  the  Past,  vol.  iii. 

'  Ibid.,  vols.  V.  vii.  (Sayce  and  Smith}* 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  I93 

and  wonder,  has  found  at  last  its  historic  conditions;  and, 
hke  all  that  man  most  venerates,  testifies,  with  all  the  Se- 
mite's prestige  of  miracle  in  its  train,  to  the  natural  law  of 
evolution,  to  the  truth  that  all  seeming  beginnings  point 
beyond  themselves. 

The  Assyrians  who  transmitted  this  Turanian  wisdom 
illustrate  the  same  laws.  Their  respectful  heed  to  it,  and 
their  patient  care  for  its  preservation  by  grammatical  re- 
searches, syllabaries,  lists  of  corresponding  words,  was  a 
recognition  of  universal  relations,  an  escape  from  race- 
prejudice,  surprising  at  so  early  a  period.  It  seems  to 
lay  the  corner-stone  of  a  cosmopolitanism  which  has  since 
conditioned  the  progress  of  civilization.  In  various  forms 
we  shall  continue  to  find  this  force  of  combination  the 
special  gift  of  Iran  to  history.  We  note  it  here  on  the 
outermost  edge  of  that  region  geographically,  and  at  its 
remotest  epoch  historically,  as  transition  of  the  human 
mind  to  conscious  progress.  It  is  here  that  races  suc- 
cessively open  their  sympathy, — first  the  Turanian,  then 
the  Semitic,  and  then  the  Aryan,  ■ —  a  movement,  it  will  be 
recognized,  of  immense  interest  in  the  social  history  of 
mankind.  Only  the  wealth  of  modern  archaeological  sci- 
ence has  revealed  what  unimagined  continuity  of  social 
evolution  through  the  sympathy  of  races,  inspired  this 
remote  antiquity,  —  a  chaos,  it  had  been  believed,  of  su- 
perstition and  war.  As  the  heart  of  Asshur  opened  to 
receive  the  gift  of  Turan,  so  the  Mede  and  the  Persian 
afterwards  welcomed  that  of  conquered  Nineveh  and 
Babylon;  until  the  aristocratic  exclusiveness  of  the  Greek 
in  culture  and  of  the  Hebrew  in  religion  was  confronted 
by  that  oceanic  tide  of  nations,  that  ill-compacted  but 
swarming  empire  of  a  thousand  tribes,  that  movable  Baby- 
lon, gathered  around  a  Cyrus  or  a  Xerxes,  to  teach  the 
one  race  a  larger  synthesis  of  humanity,  and  to  prepare 
for   the   other   a   historic    indebtedness    which    should    in 

13 


194  DEVELOPMENT. 

after  times  sap  that  claim  of  special  inspiration  which 
its  intense  self-confidence  had  imposed  on  the  civilized 
world. ^ 

Even  so  conservative  a  scholar  as  George  Smith  was 
at  length  led,  by  his  Assyrian  studies,  to  accept  the 
conclusion  that  "  antiquity  borrowed  far  more  from  the 
valley  of  the  Euphrates  than  from  that  of  the  Nile,"  and 
that  "  Chaldea,  rather  than  Egypt,  is  the  home  of  Euro- 
pean civilization."  ^  It  is  not  less  true,  as  we  shall  see, 
that  the  Hebrew  religion  and  records  were  inherited  pro- 
ducts, in  very  large  degree,  of  the  same  soil ;  and  that 
Euphrates,  not  Jordan,  is  the  deepest  source  of  Jewish  and 
Christian  tradition.  Renan,  who  has  comprehended  very 
imperfectly  the  value  of  cuneiform  studies,  while  allowing 
that  "  before  the  entrance  of  Indo-European  and  Semitic 
nations  on  the  field  of  history,  there  were  very  ancient 
civilizations,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  elements  of 
industry  and  a  long  experience  of  material  life,"  adds 
that  "  all  this  fades  before  such  facts  as  the  mission  of 
Moses,"  etc.  ( !)  What  part  has  been  played  by  these 
older  races  in  directing  the  religious  life  of  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  world  will  be  a  question  for  our  present 
inquiry. 

It  is  difificult  as  yet  to  determine  how  large  a  portion  of 
Assyrian  culture  was  derived  from  Accadian  sources.  The 
development  was  certainly  continuous,  and,  even  without 
the  light  thrown  on  it  by  cuneiform  studies,  is  clearly  trace- 
able to  the  sea-coast  at  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates.  It  is 
here  that  all  ancient  tradition  places  the  earliest  social, 
industrial,   intellectual   life  of  Western   Asia.     Hither,  as 


*  The  Assyrian  kings  have  left  the  record  of  their  collecting,  copj'ing:,  and  preserving  of 
the  old  tablets  from  Babylon  and  its  numerous  sister  seats  of  learning,  of  their  careful 
arrangement  o£  them  in  libraries  in  great  Assyrian  cities  under  minute  care,  and  of  the 
steady  growth  of  these  libraries  from  the  end  of  the  ninth  to  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century  before  Christ.     (Sayce's  Smith:  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  p.  27.) 

^  Assyrian  Discoveries,  p.  451. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  195 

Berosus  reports  from  Babylonian  records,  came  the  mythic 
civilizers,  —  Cannes  and  his  Annedoti,  half  fish,  half  man, 
—  at  repeated  intervals,  to  teach  rude  men  the  arts  of  life. 
Whether   these   mystic    seven   represent  so    many  sacred 
books  of  an  early  priesthood,  or  whether  their  amphibious 
type  points  to  "  Cushite   navigators  "   bringing  Egyptian 
culture,  or  whether  they  are  but  mythic  expressions  for 
the  principal  Accadian  gods,  Anu  and  Hea,  out  of  whose 
names  most  of  their  individual  titles  appear  to  be  formed, 
as  well  as  their  general  appellation  (Annedoti)}  or  possibly 
for  the  Accadian  Hea-khan,  "  Hea,  the  fish,"^— they  are 
at  least  natural  types  of  social  origin  for  a  race  dwelling 
in  the  constant   presence  of   oceanic  life.     The  myth  be- 
longs to   the   great   cycle,  of  which  Dagon  and  Derketo, 
Jonah,   etc.,   are  forms.     The    same    causes    peopled   the 
Chaldean    chaos   with    sea-monsters,    under    the    sway  of 
Tiamat,  "the  watery  abyss,"   whence  the  gods  also  rise 
and  create.    In  the  mythologies  of  Asia  generally,  "ocean" 
means  the  atmospheric  deep,  — space  mingling  with  sea, 
for  the  mind  as  it  does  for  the  eye.^     In  the  Chaldean  we 
first  hear  the  roar  of  the  actual  ocean,  not  as  mere  infinite 
space,  but  as  productive  living  power.     There  was  a  fine 
presentiment   of   scientific   truth   in   the   old   cosmogonies 
that  made  the  sea  the  parent  of  all  things.      It  is  here, 
on  the  shore  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  that  Bel-Merodach,  the 
Semitic  god  of  civilization,  had  his  strife  with  the  sea,  as 
primal    chaotic    element,   cleaving    her   in   two,    and   then 
making  the   cosmic    order    from    his   own    divided   brain. 
Similar    forms    of    pantheistic    evolution,    in    India    and 
Greece,  produce  Brahma  from  a  dismembered  Prajapati, 
and  Athene  from  the  split  brain  of  Zeus ;   and  from  the 
disseverment   of  a   primal  giant   Ymir  comes  the  Norse 

1  Lenormant:  Chaldean  Magic,  pp.  201-203. 

2  Smith:  Chaldean  Accmint  of  Getiesis  (Sayce's  edition),  p.  325- 

8  Eckstein  on  Cosmogony  of  Sanchoniathon  {Journal  0/  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  xjv. 
XV.,  fifth  series). 


196  DEVELOPMENT. 

universe.  So  strong  was  their  sense  of  contrast  between 
orderly  law  and  blind  caprice,  that  the  bridge  from  one 
to  the  other  seemed  to  the  worshippers  of  Nature  to  re- 
quire a  tragedy  of  self-evolution.  Its  connection  in  Chal- 
dean cosmogony  with  the  sea  marks,  as  we  shall  see  here- 
after, a  very  primitive  form  of  this  recognition  of  necessary 
law.  Here  too  were  the  earliest  sanctuaries  and  sacerdotal 
colleges,  schools  of  astrology  and  mathematics.^  Here 
was  Ur,  reputed  home  of  the  Hebrews,  most  Turanian  of 
Chaldean  cities ;  here  Surippak,  place  of  books ;  here 
Erech,  seat  of  priestly  culture ;  here  the  ancestral  land  of 
the  Phoenicians,  sea-lovers  and  merchants  of  the  ancient 
world,  whose  primitive  world-plasm  was  the  water,  and 
whose  gods,  like  the  Chaldean,  were  fish- men.  Here  the 
oldest  Semites  mingled  with  earlier  settlers  of  that  great 
Scythic  race  (Turanian),  of  which  Justin  says  that  in 
early  times  they  covered  all  known  regions  of  Asia.^ 
Here  Bab-ilu  (gate  of  the  god)  became  the  Semitic  name 
of  an  old  Accadian  city,  Ka-Dingira  (same  meaning), 
while  the  kings  of  Chaldea  proper  had  still  Turanian 
names.^  At  last  "Asshur  went  forth  and  builded  Nine- 
veh,"*—  the  god  of  the  nation  being  put  for  the  nation, 
and  the  name  of  the  nation  then  used,  Hebrevvwise,  as  a 
personal  name.  And  so  the  two  cities,  Semite  and  Semito- 
Turanian,  grow  side  by  side  for  centuries  of  rivalry,  till 
the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  before  Christ  saw  the 
power  of  Babylon  broken  by  the  great  Sargonide  dynasty 
of  Nineveh,  which  ruled  as  one  the  two  greatest  empires 
of  the  East.  The  closing  period  of  the  Assyrian  empire, 
from  Tiglath-pileser  to  Asshur-bani-pal,  concentrated  the 
fruits  of  a  civilization  of  fifteen  centuries ;  till,  enfeebled 
by  luxury,  and  harassed  by  Scythian  hordes,  it  yielded 
to  the  hardy  mountaineers  of  Cyaxares  the  Mede  and  his' 

1  Lenormant :  Fragm.  Cosmog. ,  p.  220.  -  Justin  :  Historia,  ii.  3. 

*  Lenormant :  ClKudtan  Magic,  p.  326.  *  Genesis,  x.  ii. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  I97 

Babylonian  allies.  Then  Babylon  rose  again  to  the 
zenith,  and  Nebuchadnezzar  made  her  the  heir  in  full  of 
all  past  ages. 

In  the  light  of  recent  researches,  the  statement  of  Op- 
pert  that  the  two  elements  of  Chaldeo- Assyrian  civilization 
were  too  closely  interwoven  to  be  distinguished,  either  in 
respect  of  language,  manners,  or  worship,  appears  extreme. 
But  in  the  most  important  features  of  what  we  may  call  the 
Iranian  type  of  historic  influence,  there  were  certainly 
striking  resemblances  between  these  two  races.  To  the 
nerve  of  Turanian  industry  corresponded  that  of  Assyrian 
passion  for  military  success.  Alike  in  Babylon  and  Nineveh 
the  records  of  monarchs  are  one  continued  boast  of  de- 
votion to  their  ideals,  whether  of  overthrowing  kingdoms 
or  of  erecting  shrines.  In  both  the  ziggiirat  shoots  up- 
ward its  seven  stages,  bearing  witness  to  the  superstitions 
of  an  audacity  that  must  surely  have  called  down  the  wrath 
of  a  jealous  God.  That  Turanian  thirst  for  universal  do- 
minion under  a  single  head,  which  appears  alike  in  the 
spread  of  these  tribes  over  Western  Asia  to  build  up  a  vast 
industrial  empire  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  in  the  ever-advanc- 
ing expansion  of  the  Chinese  emperor-worshippers  to  the 
opposite  shore  of  the  continent,  and  in  the  shorter-lived 
conquests  of  a  Tamerlane  or  a  Genghis-Khan,  has  its  ana- 
logue in  the  boundless  ambition  of  Semito-Assyrian  kings. 
In  Asshur-bani-pal  or  Tiglath-pileser,  scourger  of  nations, 
king  of  kings,  lord  of  the  universe,  one  with  heaven's  host, 
earthly  image  of  a  Semitic  Asshur  or  Jahveh,  the  personal 
will  stands  in  its  pure  exclusiveness  as  absolute  human 
godhood,  burning  with  a  nervous. fire  that  consumes  all 
flesh.  It  is  the  worship  of  such  exclusive  authority  that 
impresses  us  in  the  politico-religious  life  of  Assyria,  Ju- 
dea,  Arabia,  and  the  world-coveting  and  world-mastering 
faiths  that  sprang  from  these  Semitic  centres ;  and  it  was 
inherited,  in  less  extreme  form,  by  the  Persian  and  his 


198  DEVELOPMENT. 

Shahan-shah.  In  all  these  the  nations  follow,  as  the 
million  ripples  their  tidal-wave,  some  omnipotent  king  or 
messiah,  over  whom  visibly  or  invisibly  hovers  his  arche- 
typal self,  the  winged  man,  whether  as  Ormuzd,  Asshur, 
or  Jahveh,  or  the  Christian  Creator  and  Judge.  Thus  ap- 
pears, in  its  instinctive  might,  the  all-productive  worship 
of  will-power,  of  which  modern  religions  have  been  the 
successive  waves.  The  same  tribal  exigencies  in  these  Se- 
mitic empires  created  II  and  Bel,  and  Asshur  and  Jahveh, 
and  Arabian  Allah. 

The  gods  of  Assyria  are  the  older  gods  of  Chaldea,  with 
the  conspicuous  exception  of  Asshur,^  who,  as  special  su- 
preme tribal  deity,  takes  the  place  before  occupied  by  Bel.^ 
The  kings  recognize  his  constant,  present  will,  and  rule  by 
his  dictating  word,  intensely  sympathizing  with  his  passion- 
ate and  jealous  nature,  dedicating  to  him  their  conquests 
and  monuments,  palaces  and  temples  and  public  works, 
in  gratitude  and  joy,  and  calling  themselves,  in  pride  or  in 
loving  dependence,  by  his  name.^  No  sense  of  personal 
relation  with  deity  can  be  more  intensely  real,  and  none  has 
ever  inspired  greater  enthusiasm  in  conquest  and  in  work. 
So  real  and  human  is  Asshur,  that  Rawlinson  thinks  he  must 
have  been  a  deified  man,  a  positive  "  son  of  Shem  "(  !  )  *  ^ 
degree  of  similar  communion  is  made  possible  in  the  case 
of  inferior  gods  by  the  energy  of  volition  of  which  they  are 
all  types  of  one  kind  or  another.  The  monumental  symbol 
of  Belus  is  the  horned  cap  of  Hea,  the  god  of  wisdom,  the 
serpent ;   of  Sin,  the  crescent  or  new  moon  ;   of  Shamas,  the 

'  According  to  Sayce,  Asshur  means  the  water-border  (of  the  Tigris).  According  to  Kie- 
pert,  ai/iura,  in  Darius's  inscriptions,  means  " good  or  just  ;  "  originally  "  even,  smooth." 
Lehrbiich  der  alien  Geogr.,  p.  150. 

2  Berosus  in  Dubois'  Assyria  and  Chaldea,  pp.  56,  57. 

8  Not  less  than  thirty-one  of  the  thirty-nine  names  of  Assyrian  kings  contain  the  name  or 
designation  of  a  god,  thirteen  of  these  contain  the  element  Asshur:  3.S  Asshur-bil-nisi-su, 
"Asshur  (is)  the  lord  of  h's  people;"  A sshur-bani-pal,  "Asshur  is  protector  of  the 
child  ;  "  and  Buzur-Asskur,  '"  a  stronghold  (is)  Asshur."  Rawlinson  :  Ancient  Monarchies, 
ii.  248-240. 

*  Rawlinson  :  Ancient  Mojiarchics,  ii.  3. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  1 99 

four-rayed  orb,  or  creative  sun ;  of  Vul,  the  thunderbolt ; 
of  Ninip,  the  winged  guardian  man-bull  at  the  gate,  and 
the  herculean  strangler  of  lions ;  of  Nergal,  war-king,  the 
man-lion;  of  Nebo,  god  of  learning,  the  sunrise  (?),  or 
the  wedge,  and  on  his  statues  was  written  "  The  preserver 
of  those  who  hear  him  and  bless  his  name."^  Merodach 
is  the  redeeming  god,  ever  at  hand  to  save  and  restore,  — 
the  Krishna,  the  Buddha,  the  Christ,  of  the  Assyrian.  The 
angry  gods,  especially  Anu,  stand  ready  to  avenge  them- 
selves, to  break  in  with  flood  and  fire  and  pestilence.^  These 
gods  of  human  will  are  coupled,  human-wise,  with  god- 
desses. The  Persian's  symbol  of  Ormuzd,  a  winged  war- 
rior, with  bow  and  lifted  hand,  enclosed  in  the  world-circle, 
was  transmitted  to  him  from  the  Asshur  of  the  Ninevite 
kings.  Their  symbol  of  growth  also,  the  Tree  with  the 
candelabra-branches,  or  ending  upward  in  the  pine-cone 
or  vegetable  flame,  has  descended,  by  the  same  right  of 
human  significance,  in  Persian  fir-cone  and  Hebrew  burn- 
ing bush  and  tree  of  life.  How  these  gods  of  the  will 
battle  with  monsters  on  the  monumental  walls,  —  strange, 
half-human  creatures,  fit  survivals  of  the  Chaldean  chaos, 
but  all  terribly  alive  and  instinct  with  evil  purpose  !  The 
kings  are  all  Nimrods,  and  boast  their  trophies  in  hunting. 
They  are  flames  of  wrath,  besoms  of  destruction ;  deso- 
lators  of  nations,  forever  on  the  raid.  When  we  think  of 
Assyrian  art,  we  think  of  a  splendid  vitality,  animal  and 
human,  and  an  intense  will ;  of  comparative  contempt  for 
mere  scenery;  of  crude  and  grudging  treatment  of  lower 
forms  of  Nature ;  of  every  quality  that  goes  with  personal 
force,  —  strength,  grandeur,  motive  power,  ideal  purpose, 
dramatic  sympathy  with  all  vigorous  life,  earnest  religious 
abandon.     Everywhere  these  figures  spring  to    incarnate 


'  Menant :  Attfiales  des  Rois  d' Assyrie-i'p.  128. 

-  George  Smith  :  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  the  legend  of  Dibbara,  pp.  125-129  ;  the 
sin  of  Zu,  pp.  1 15-124. 


20O  DEVELOPMENT. 

life ;  the  very  cornices  are  crowned  with  animals,  the 
scroll-patterns  are  tree-shoots  and  winged  bulls.  In  the 
treatment  of  living  energy,  Nimrud  and  Koyunjik  bear 
away  the  palm  from  Greece  herself,  and  show  little  inferi- 
ority in  technical  science.  The  horse  and  his  rider  thun- 
dering to  battle  with  level  spear ;  the  resistless  king,  of  one 
body  and  soul  with  his  rushing  steeds,  launching  arrows 
like  thunderbolts  on  the  foes  of  his  god;  the  creatures 
with  outspread  wings  and  eagle  eyes  that  guard  the  sacred 
tree ;  ^  the  firm  advance  and  lifted  hands  of  lower  gods 
adoring  Asshur;  the  dying  agony  of  the  wounded  lion;^ 
the  horses  dropping  slowly  with  failing  knees ;  the  terror 
of  the  wild  ass,  speared,  and  torn  by  hounds  ;2  the  oxen 
moving  towards  each  other  with  human  feeling  in  every 
limb;^  the  guardian  bulls,  with  open  jaws  and  terrible 
talons, —  everything  in  this  art  is  alive  with  invincible  pas- 
sion, with  triumph  or  tenderness,  aspiration  or  pain,  I 
cannot  but  think  the  exquisite  lines  of  Rossetti,  on  the 
Bull-god  from  Nineveh,  have  in  them  more  of  beauty  than 
of  truth :  — 

"Those  heavy  wings  spread  high 
So  sure  of  flight,  which  do  not  fly  ; 
That  set  gaze,  never  on  the  sky  ; 
Those  scriptured  flanks  it  cannot  see ; 
Its  crown,  a  brow-contracting  load  ; 
Its  planted  feet  that  trust  the  sod :  .  •  . 
O  Nineveh !  was  this  thy  God,  — 
Thine  also,  mighty  Nineveh?" 

In  Assyrian  art,  derived  mainly  from  Babylon,  begins 
the  full  arch,  the  column,  the  arcade,  the  aqueduct,  the 
tunnel,  all  forms  that  inaugurate  movement  and  growth; 
immense  motive  force  of  transportation  by  pulley,  lever, 
roller,  and  by  human  multitudes,  working  as  one  man,  — 

'  Rawlinson  :  Aticient  Monarchies,  i.  366.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  355. 

*  Ibid-,  pp.  356-357'  *  Ibid-,  p.  331. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  20I 

all  delicate  forms  of  working  art-designs  of  metal,  as  well 
as  grand  sculpture  in  stone.  It  is  an  art  that  presses  on- 
ward and  upward,  a  steady  advance ;  as  the  kings  grow 
in  ability  to  the  last,  so  their  latest  palaces  are  their  best, 
their  last  age  the  golden.  The  Assyrian  ziggiirat  spanned 
the  whole  of  being,  —  an  observatory  and  a  tomb  ;  a  tower 
ascending  to  heaven,  a  monument  resting  on  the  dead ; 
it  watched  the  stars  above,  the  graves  beneath ;  that  of 
Babylon  held  the  tomb  of  Belus,  and  kings  were  buried 
there  as  gods.  Egypt  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  parent 
of  Assyrian  art,  because  many  symbols  are  common  to  the 
two  countries,  —  the  crux,  the  lotus,  the  goddess  on  a 
lion,  the  scarabaeus,  the  sphinx ;  ^  but  the  spirit  in  the 
two  styles  differs  as  a  flame  of  fire  from  a  pyramid  of 
stone.  So  intense  is  this  creative  fire,  this  instant  will, 
that  it  consumes  itself  in  its  burning.  Longing  for  the 
immortal,  it  seizes  on  the  most  transient  materials.  With 
plenty  of  stone  at  command,  Assyrian  architecture  fol- 
lowed the  traditions  of  Babylon,  and  used,  to  a  great  extent, 
sun-dried  brick.  Its  palaces  rapidly  decayed.  The  im- 
pulsive rulers  incessantly  dismantled  their  own  work,  — 
each  sacrificed  that  of  his  predecessor  to  the  ambition  of 
building  more  grandly,  or  else  to  anticipate  the  swift  fate 
that  approached  it.^  As  if  the  mere  doing  was  enough, 
they  set  their  gigantic  structures  on  mounds  of  earth, 
which  gave  way  under  their  weight.  We  have  here  the 
grandest  testimony  to  that  filiation  of  races,  that  conti- 
nuity of  historic  growth,  which  is  the  inspiration  of  mod- 
ern science,  and  has  dispelled  the  superstitions  of  special, 
positive  religions.  Crete,  Cyprus,  and  Sicily,  Mycena; 
and  Ilion  and  Corinth,  the  isles  of  the  Aegean  and  the 
shores  of  Asia  Minor  every  day  reveal  new  evidences  that 
the  art  as  well  as  the  mythology  of  the  classic  world  was 

1  Layard  ;  Nineveh  and  its  Remaitis,  ii.  170,  174. 

2  Rawlinson:  Aiuieut  Monarciiics,  i,  336. 


202  DEVELOPMENT. 

to  a  large  degree  an  evolution  of  Assyrian  ages.  The  old 
Cabiri  of  Samothrace,  the  Sphinx,  the  horned  Venus  of 
the  recent  excavations  in  Greece,  the  finely  carved  cylinders 
and  castings  of  amulets  and  seals  may  be  traced  across  the 
Ionian  Sea  to  these  cradles  of  thought  and  work. 

What  a  comment  it  is  on  the  passionate  self-will  em- 
bodied in  king-worship  that  so  little  has  come  down  to 
us  of  domestic  architecture  or  popular  amusement!  The 
people  are  there  on  the  monuments;  they  are  bringing 
tributes,  drawing  colossal  bulls  to  the  temples,  hurled  from 
the  battlements  of  a  besieged  city,  or  shot  down  by  royal 
arrows :  in  various  ways  they  are  carrying  out  the  instant 
will  of  their  kings.  But  hardly  more  truly  so  than  in  the 
long  ages  of  modern  civilization  that  have  succeeded  the 
monarchies  of  Asia.  We  must  not  suppose  them  ciphers. 
They  do  not  show  the  merely  conventional  uniformity  of 
the  Egyptian  masses;  but  more  of  individual  life  is  rep- 
resented, as  of  those  who  shared  the  spirit  of  achievement 
that  leads  or  drives  them  on,  —  and  this,  though  the  feel- 
ings of  family  affection  are  not  expressed  as  in  Egypt. 
The  main  themes  of  the  inscriptions  are  campaigns  and 
trophies ;  but  all  the  products  of  the  Orient  are  figured 
there,  and  prove  a  stirring  world  of  industry  and  trade. 
Hammurabi,  Tiglath-pileser,  and  Sennacherib  boast  great 
works  of  irrigation,  "  for  the  good  of  the  people,"  helps 
to  their  agriculture.  Assyrian  productive  labor  must  have 
followed  in  the  Chaldean  track.  When  Sargon  says  he 
has  cleared  forests,  opened  canals,  dug  wells,  and  spread 
fertility,^  the  claim  involves  labor  of  the  masses  for  their 
own  advantage  as  well  as  for  his  glory.  The  people  of 
Nineveh  in  the  sev^enth  century  before  Christ  traded  from 
India  in  the  East  to  Tartessus  in  the  West.^  Records  are 
extant  of  private  contracts,  and  even  of  private  banking 

^  Menant :  Annales  des  Rois  d'' Assyrie,  p.  loo- 
^  See  Sayce :  Babylonian  Literature,  p.  50. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  203 

houses.^  The  library  of  Asshur-bani-pal  alone  contained 
a  greater  amount  of  writing  than  all  the  monuments  of 
Egypt,  says  Layard.^  However  this  may  be,  it  must  have 
employed  thousands  of  scribes,  whose  art  of  preserving 
records  was  itself  a  mark  of  popular  civilization  and  es- 
tablished industrial  culture.  So  were  the  provisions  we 
find  made  for  security  of  contracts  and  their  registration.'^ 
That  kings  and  people  were  mere  voluptuaries  is  a  He- 
brew slander,  utterly  without  evidence.  A  nation  that 
maintained  for  nearly  ten  centuries  a  constantly  advanc- 
ing life  of  literary,  military,  and  industrial  power  may  be 
said  to  have  burnt  itself  out  in  the  fire  of  its  own  aspira- 
tions, but  is  surely  no  subject  for  our  commonplaces  on 
the  fall  of  empires  through  luxury  or  depravity.  Empires 
perish  when  destructive  external  forces  are  too  strong  for 
their  inward  force  of  self-preservation.  It  was  the  inva- 
sion of  Assyria  by  Scythian  hordes  in  the  sixth  century 
that  gave  her  the  decisive  blow ;  which  was  only  followed 
up  by  Cyaxares  and  his  Medes.  There  was  somewhat 
beyond  the  Semite  in  Assyrian  culture,  especially  indus- 
trial culture.  No  other  people  of  this  race,  —  Hebrew, 
Arab,  Canaanite,  —  showed  such  gifts ;  even  the  Phoeni- 
cians and  their  African  colonies  were  carriers  of  products, 
rather  than  creators.  In  fact,  what  we  see  in  this  civiliza- 
tion is  the  wonderful  fusion  of  an  older  Turanian  mental 
industry  and  material  constructiveness,  shown  in  the  build- 
ings at  Babylon,  with  Semitic  passion  and  will.  Both  ideal 
and  concrete  elements  were  already  provided  in  Chaldean 
forms;  and  to  these  were  now  supplied  the  nerve-con- 
ductors that  could  bring  the  one  to  bear  on  the  other  in 
a  magnificent  outburst  of  personal  Will,  lasting  nearly  a 
millennium,  and  taking  tribute  from  hosts  of  kings. 

'  George  Smith:  Babylonian  Literature,  p.  51. 

^  Discoveries  among  tlie  Ruins  of  Ni>ici>eh  and  Babylon,  p.  347. 

^  Lenormant:  Ancient  History  of  the  East,  i.  424. 


204  DEVELOPMENT. 

Nor  is  this  national  persistence  explicable  from  the 
Semitic  side.  The  Semite  is  unfitted  for  success  in  po- 
litical construction.  Arbitrary,  capricious,  impulsive,  he 
is  incapable  of  giving  substantial  existence  to  the  State, 
of  instituting  law  as  independent  of  instant  overruling 
wills.  Semitic  Assyria  herself  had  this  imperfection. 
The  empire  of  the  Sargonides  was  a  "  mere  congeries  " 
of  States,  so  loosely  joined  that  revolt  was  incessant,  and 
the  main  business  of  the  kings  was  punishing  their  sub- 
jects for  refusing  tribute,  conquering  rivals,  deporting 
multitudes,  extirpating  rebellious  dynasties.  Shalmaneser 
made  thirty-one  expeditions  for  these  and  similar  objects 
in  as  many  years.  Subject  States  for  the  most  part  re- 
tained their  local  institutions  and  gods.  Centralization, 
except  such  as  could  be  effected  by  royal  governors,  with 
ill-detined  powers,  was  beyond  these  children  of  passionate 
desire.  What  military  prowess  and  wild  enthusiasm  could 
do,  Semitism  accomplished;  but  other  elements,  more 
suited  to  culture  and  combination,  were  required  to  sup- 
plement and  counterbalance  them,  —  and  these  were  prob- 
ably of  Turanian  origin.  Tiglath-pileser  boasts  that  he 
brought  forty-two  countries,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting 
sun,  under  one  government  and  one  religion.  The  trade, 
science,  art,  literature,  industry,  that  drew  all  interests  of 
nations  to  centre  in  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  was  rooted  in 
forces  older  than  the  Semitic  conqueror,  and  destined  to 
outlast  him. 

The  Assyrian  kings  absorbed  all  personalities,  suffered 
no  humble  emotions  or  popular  expressions  on  the  great 
monuments  of  their  reigns,  were  gods  on  earth,  whose 
physiognomy  changed  not  from  age  to  age,  and  whose 
immortality  permitted  no  record  of  their  crimes  or  defeats. 
Their  "  reigns  were  glorified  by  official  scribes  in  formu- 
las of  great  ambiguity,  doubtless  largely  of  mythic  con- 
struction and  accepted  fiction;"  but  they  were  not  mere 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  20$ 

scourges  of  mankind.  Sennacherib  calls  himself  "one  who 
keeps  his  oath,  guardian  of  the  laws,  follower  of  justice ;  " 
glories  in  opening  springs  for  the  people  to  own,  and 
making  aqueducts  and  water-wheels,  and  streets  splen- 
did as  the  sun.^  Sargon's  palace,  built  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  must  have  been  the  finest  piece  of 
architecture  then  existing.  Asshur-nazir-pal,  in  the  pre- 
vious century,  inscribed  upon  his,  the  noblest  work  of  the 
kind  by  far  then  achieved,  the  prayer,  "  May  this  my  seat 
of  power  endure  forever,"^  They  are  great,  heroic  hun- 
ters, destroying  on  a  vast  scale  the  wild  beasts  that  in 
their  times  encroached  on  the  security  of  the  land  and 
its  labors ;  and  they  boast  of  this  as  they  do  of  victories 
over  empires  Asshur-bani-pal  is  "  strengthener  of  the 
people,"  and  "  wars  against  oppressors."  Esarhaddon 
gathers  "the  people  on  lofty  seats,  and  feasts  them  with 
the  gods."  ^  Even  Tiglath-pileser  I.  "  has  mercy  on 
those  who  submit,"  and  boasts  of  "  improving  the  con- 
dition of  his  subjects,  and  obtaining  for  them  security 
and  plenty."*  At  home  there  seem  to  have  been  few 
or  no  revolutions;  of  popular  ones  not  one  is  mentioned. 
Sargon  not  only  allows  the  towns  to  follow  their  an- 
cient ways,'^  but  even  rectifies  the  institutions  which  they 
did  not  like,  and  encourages  their  priests  to  free  dis- 
cussion.^ Asshur-bani-pal  engraves  his  moral  obligations 
on  tablets,  and  erects  them  in  his  palace  for  public  in- 
spection :  — 

"  If  the  king  in  his  punishments  violates  the  laws  and  statutes  of 
the  land,  the  people  perish  ;  his  fate  changes,  and  another  takes  his 
place.  In  place  of  unjust  kings  and  judges,  the  Judge  of  heaven  and 
earth  shall  appoint  just  ones.     If  the  judges  take  bribes,  or  officers 

1  Records  of  the  Past  (Inscription  of  Sennacli.),  i.  31,  32. 

2  Menant  ;  Les  Annales  des  Rois  d'Assyrie.,  p.  93. 

3  Records  of  the  Past,  iii.  122-23-  *  Il'i'^'  '^-  '5.  '7.  18.  22. 
6  Ibid.,  ix.  15  ;  vii.  49,  54-  ®  I^'^^-'  ^"-  ■^^- 


206  DEVELOPMENT. 

extort  tribute,  the  land  shall  go  to  its  enemies.  Whether  Ruler  or 
Priest  or  General  (he  be),  whoever  is  guardian  of  the  Temple,  shall 
revere  the  shrines  of  the  great  gods."  ^ 

It  adds  to  the  interest  of  these  remarkable  affirmations 
that  they  were  copied  by  the  Assyrians  from  an  old  Baby- 
lonian text.  In  their  substance  they  probably  belong  to 
the  early  Accadian  civilization,^  and  illustrate  the  high 
point  it  had  reached  in  the  science  of  government.  This 
last  of  the  great  Assyrian  rulers  confesses  that  none  of 
his  predecessors  had  regarded  these  ancient  edicts  of  the 
Higher  Law. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  strength  of  the  Semite  was  in 
his  religious  earnestness.  His  passions  are  the  voices 
of  gods.  Ishtar  says  to  Esarhaddon,  "  An  unsparing 
deity  am  I."  "By. her  high  command"  he  "plants  his 
standards."^  Insurgents  are  rebels  against  the  great  gods, 
who  visit  them  with  the  sword  of  their  anger."*  Hear  what 
these  world-masters  say.  "  I  brought  the  judgment  of 
Assiiur  my  god  on  evil  men."  ^  "I  did  for  the  gods  what 
they  willed.  ...  I  prayed  them  that  I  might  conquer  my 
enemies  ;  they  heard  and  came  to  my  aid.  My  great  bow 
that  Asshur  gave  me  I  took."  "  I  called  upon  Asshur 
for  life,  children,  victory,  and  I  put  my  faith  in  him.'*  '^ 
These  kings  are  ministers  of  jealous  gods,  sent  to  extir- 
pate heretics,  to  restore  the  true  worship.*^  Tiglath-pileser 
enumerates  the  whole  Assyrian  Olympus,  and  ascribes  all 
the  glory  of  his  conquests  to  each  and  every  god  at  the 
beginning  of  his  record.  They  glory  in  his  victories. 
Sin  delays  the  sunrise  to  destroy  the  foes  of  Asshur- 
bani-pal.^  In  return,  the  conquerors  feast  their  divine 
masters  in  palaces,  filled  with  trophies  and   dedicated  to 

1  Records  of  the  Past,  vii.  1 19-122.  ^  Ibid.,  iii.  104. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  105.  *  Ibid.,  iii.  i23(Inscrip.  of  Esarhad.) 

*  Ibid.,  i  50  (Inscrip.  of  Sennach.). 

6  Ibid.,  vii.  55  and  11,  12  (Inscrip.  of  Sargon) ;  vii.  77  (Inscrip.  of  Sennach.). 

'  Ibid-,  iii.  41.  *  Ibid-,  ix.  50. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  20/ 

their  service  through  all  generations  to  come.^  The  re- 
semblance of  this  Assyrio-Babylonian  piety  to  the  Hebrew 
is  obvious.  Nebuchadnezzar  sings  of  Merodach  as  the 
Psalmist  of  his  Jahveh  :  — 

"  When  the  Lord  Merodach  made  me.  he  placed  my  germ  in  my 
mother's  womb,  and  being  conceived,  I  was  brought  forth.  I,  thy 
worshipper,  am  the  woric  of  thy  hand  ;  and  tlie  empire  over  multitudes 
hast  thou  assigned  me,  according  to  thy  favor,  accorded  unto  all. 
May  thy  majesty  be  exalted!  may  it  endure  in  thy  worship  !  In  my 
heart  may  it  continue,  and  the  life  which  is  devoted  unto  thee  !  "  ' 

"  O  God  Merodach,  says  Neriglissar  [sixth  century  before  Christ], 
Light  of  the  Gods,  Father,  even  for  thy  high  unchanging  glory  a  house 
have  1  builded  !  May  its  fulness  increase  !  may  it  acquire  treasures  ! 
may  its  tributes  multiply  from  the  kings  of  all  nations  from  the  East 
to  the  West !     May  they  come  up  into  it  forever  !  "* 

Nabonidus  prays  that  the  fear  of  his  god  (the  Moon) 
may  prolong  his  life ;  and  for  his  son,  that  "  the  great 
lord  may  fix  his  awe  in  his  heart  that  he  may  never  fall 
into  iniquity,  and  that  his  glory  may  endure."  ^ 

On  the  "  black  obelisk  "  of  Shalmaneser,  Bel  is  "Father 
of  the  gods  and  the  Creator ;  "  Ishtar,  "  the  Perfecter  of 
Heroism;  "  Nebo,  the  "Father  on  high."^ 

Schrader  has  translated  several  fragments  which  show 
the  depth  of  this  Assyrian  piety,  in  the  sense  of  divine 
help  and  of  retributory  law:  — 

"  He  who  fears  not  his  God,  shall  like  a  reed  be  broken. 
He  who  honors  not  Istar,  his  strength  shall  wither. 
He  fades  as  the  light  of  a  star  is  withdrawn  ; 
Like  waters  of  the  night  he  vanishes."' 

"  Who  will  teach  me  thy  high  command  ? 
Who  will  do  the  like  with  thee  ? 
Among  the  gods  thy  brothers,  thou  hast  no  equal." 

•  Records  of  the  Past,  iii.  123,  124.  -  Ibid.,  v.  113-115. 

»  Ibid.,v.  142.  *  Ibid.,  v.  14S. 

s  Ibid.,  1).  29. 


208  DEVELOPMENT. 

"  Ilu,  my  maker,  take  hold  of  my  arms  ! 
Guide  the  breath  of  my  mouth,  guide  my  hands, 
O  Lord  of  Light !  " 

"  O  Sun,  at  thy  command,  his  sins  are  atoned  for. 
His  transgressions  are  aboHshed.''  ' 

A  prayer  for  the  soul  of  a  dying  person  is  translated  by 
Talbot,  — 

"  Like  a  bird  may  it  fly  to  a  lofty  place  ! 
To  the  holy  hands  of  its  God  may  it  ascend  !  " 

and  another:  — 

"  The  man  who  is  departing  in  glory,  may  his  soul  shine  radiant  as 

brass  I "' 
"  Bind  the  sick  man  to  heaven,  for  from  earth  he  is  being  torn  away. 

Of  the  brave  man  who  was  so  strong,  his  strength  is  departed. 

May  tlie  Sun,  greatest  of  gods,  receive  his  soul  into  his  holy  hands."  '^ 

Asshur-bani-pal  prays  to  Ishtar  to  aid  him  against  an 
invading  king  of  Elam,  addressing  her  as  queen  of  queens 
and  queen  of  gods,  and  imploring  her  presence  on  the 
field  of  battle  to  turn  the  tide  in  his  favor.  She  replies, 
"Fear  not;  according  to  thy  prayer,  thy  eyes  shall  see 
judgment."  And  "  in  the  vision  of  a  seer  she  speaks  to 
him  as  a  mother  to  a  child."  ^ 

The  king  prayed  directly  to  his  gods,  without  intermedi- 
ation of  priest,  and  consecrated  his  kingdom  to  their  ser- 
vice ;  yet  had  faith  in  the  dreams  of  seers,  at  least  when 
they  predicted  him  victory  over  his  foes.^  Asshur-bani-pal 
pays  special  court  to  Ishtar,  queen  of  the  gods,  terrible  in 
battle,  who  appears  to  his  seer  after  his  own  invocation 
of  her,  with  halo  and  bow,  and  like  a  mother  in  travail 
to  bring  him  forth.^ 

1  Schrader:  H'dllenfakri  der  Isiar,  pp.  SS,  96,  97,  105 
5  Records  of  the  Past,  iii.  134,  135. 

'•  Ibid.,  vii.  67,  6S.  ■*  Ibid.  (Asshur-bani-pal),  i.  77;  ix.  52,  591 

^  Ibid.,  ix.  52. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  209 

This  religion  survives  death.  The  spiritual  part  of 
man  {iitukkri)  dwells  in  a  dreary  underworld,  yet  is 
sometimes  said  to  be  raised  to  the  heaven  of  the  gods, 
as  are  the  heroes  of  the  epic  of  Izdubar.  Certain  pas- 
sages in  a  hymn  concerning  feasts,  blessings,  and  rest 
from  care,  supposed  by  Lenormant  and  others  to  refer 
to  a  future  life,  are  believed  by  Schrader  to  describe  the 
future  prosperity  of  Assyria.^  But  there  is  no  question 
that  the  conception  of  death  carried  with  it  the  meaning 
of  utter  helplessness  and  gloom.  It  is  that  which  we  find 
in  the  Phoenician  tombs  and  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  —  the 
underworld,  or  Sheol.  The  grave  leads  to  darkness,  to  the 
house  men  enter,  but  cannot  depart  from ;  the  road  men 
go,  but  cannot  return ;  abode  of  famine,  where  earth  is 
their  food,  where  ghosts  flutter  like  birds,  and  dust  lies 
undisturbed  on  the  threshold.^  There  an  angry  goddess 
punishes  the  intruder  from  the  realms  of  day,  even  though 
a  queen  of  heaven.  Even  in  these  abysses  there  is  a 
fountain  of  life,  of  which  Ishtar  drinks  and  is  released. 
Por  she  is  the  goddess  of  love,  who  has  descended  there 
because  "  the  son  of  life "  has  died,  and  for  Nature's 
sake  must  be  recovered  that  all  things  perish  not.  But 
whether  all  inconspicuous  persons  passed  at  death  into 
this  doleful  Hades,  and  whether,  as  the  epic  would  imply, 
heaven  was  the  reward  only  of  the  great,  of  rulers,  divines, 
or  conquerors,  is  matter  of  doubt.  Heaven  is  divided  into 
spheres,  which  testifies  to  personal  interest  in  the  here- 
after. The  ghost  can  be  brought  back  to  earth,  to  speak 
and  teach.^  There  are  passages  in  which  the  idea  of  death 
brings  even  poetic  sentiment.  It  enfolds  Heabani  "  like  a 
garment."  When  the  "  righteous  man  "  dies,  "  may  he 
rise  on  high,  with  garments  silver  white,  ascending  to  the 

'  Records  of  the  Past,  vii.  133,  134.     Lenormant:  La  Divination,  p.  153. 
2  Descent  of  Ishtar.     Records  of  the  Past,  i.   145.     Lenormant :  Origines  d.  Hist.,  pp. 
«74,  175- 

*  Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic,  p.  167. 

14 


2IO  DEVELOPMENT. 

Sun,  greatest  of  gods  !  "^  But  so  far  as  now  appears,  there 
is  no  distinction  of  good  and  evil,  no  law  of  retribution 
taking  effect  on  all  men  after  death ;  ^  and  there  is  no  hint 
that  the  common  fate  of  a  gloomy  sheol  was  in  any  sense 
a  doom,  or  even  a  consequence  of  sin.  Like  the  lament 
of  Job,  that  he  must  depart  "  to  the  land  of  darkness  and 
death-shade,  where  no  order  is,  and  the  light  itself  is 
night,"  ^  these  Accadian  images  probably  paint  the  in- 
stinctive shrinking  of  man  from  the  sense  of  his  mortality. 
The  vivid  picture  of  the  descent  of  Ishtar  through  the 
seven  gates,  of  temple,  images,  and  altars,  and  a  judge  on 
his  golden  throne,"*  of  her  gradual  disrobing  and  reinvest- 
ment, is  doubtless,  as  has  already  been  said,  explicable 
rather  from  astronomy  than  from  popular  belief 

The  extreme  interest  of  the  Mongolian  race  in  the  tomb 
as  a  centre  of  religious  rites  and  family  tributes,  causes  us 
to  feel  no  surprise  at  the  immense  number  of  these  re- 
ceptacles on  the  soil  of  Chaldea,  reminding  the  traveller 
of  ancient  Etruria  or  modern  China.  Here  are  collected 
all  things  believed  desirable  for  the  departed,  —  vessels 
of  bronze  and  clay,  images,  cylinders  (for  writing),  and 
articles  of  food.  It  is  one  of  those  inconsistencies  which 
mark  all  crude  belief  about  the  dead,  that  these  solid 
substances  should  have  been  supposed  available  for  such 
mere  shadowy  ghosts  as  they  were  imagined  to  be.  These 
objects  correspond  to  the  papyrus  and  cylinders  on  which 
the  people  of  Egypt  wrote  their  private  sympathies  and 
histories,  but  more  obscurely.  But  while  there  is  so  much 
in  Chaldea  to  testify  to  popular  belief  in  the  reality  of  a 
future  life,  nothing  as  yet  has  come  from  Assyria  to  tell 
us  what  was  to  befall  the  souls  of  the  generations  as  they 
passed  away.     Their  place  of  the  dead  was  as  dim  and 

*  Records  of  tlie  Past,  iii.  135. 

^  Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic,  p.  166.  Smith  {^Assyrian  Discoveries,  221)  says  that 
Sheol  was  destined  for  the  wicked ;  but  on  what  authority  ? 

^  Job  X.  20-22.  *  Records  0/ tlie  Past,  L  IS'- 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  211 

shadowy  as  the  Hebrew  Sheol.  Was  the  glory  of  the 
nation  and  the  immortality  of  the  royal  will  so  absorbing 
that,  as  with  the  Hebrew,  no  ethical  sanction  or  spiritual 
motive  was  sought  in  the  future  life,  and  the  mind  of  the 
people  did  not  rest  in  its  associations?  That  instinct,  or 
intuition  of  continuity,  on  which  the  belief  in  immortality 
is  based,  with  the  Semitic  nations  secured  expression  in  a 
profound  interest  in  visible  destinies  on  earth.  And  this 
is  as  abundantly  shown  in  the  abounding  life  on  the  As- 
syrian monuments,  as  the  interest  of  the  Chaldean  in  the 
future  life  is  evidenced  in  his  passion  for  tombs.  The 
one  class  represents  the  Mongolian,  the  other  the  Semitic, 
mind. 

The  royal  monuments,  Assyrian  or  Accadian,  are  not 
a  mere  dull  record  of  wars  and  buildings ;  this  flame  of 
conquest  rises  into  poetic  feeling,  and  into  the  frenzy  of 
barbarian  passions,  which  remind  us  of  the  wars  of  the 
Hebrews  in  the  days  of  the  Judges  and  the  Kings.  These 
royal  conquerors  "  scale  the  mountain  peaks,  the  misty 
heights  where  no  bird  can  pass ; "  they  "  rush  like  eagles, 
in  one  day,  upon  the  strongholds  of  their  foes."  ^  They 
love  rough,  dangerous  places,  leap  the  cliffs  like  wild 
goats,  and  drink  the  coldest  spring-water  from  the  rock.^ 
They  "  scatter  corpses  like  chaff;  thrash  the  land  like  an 
ox."  ^  Their  "  faultless  horses  step,  yoked  to  their  chari- 
ots, through  pools  of  blood,  and  the  wheels  are  clogged 
with  the  slain,"  while  "  the  heads  of  soldiers  are  stuffed 
in  baskets,"  like  scalps  on  the  raids  of  savages."*  They 
"  thunder  like  the  god  of  the  air ;  "  they  "  cast  down  rings 
and  bracelets  like  the  fall  of  rain ;  "  °  and  the  hearts  of 
kings  grow  "  feeble  as  children ;  they  trample  their  own 
soldiers  under  foot,  and  flee  like  scared  birds."  ^ 


^  Records  of  tJie  Past,  i.  15.  2  Ibid.,  i.  42,  43. 

3  Ibid.,  lii.  88,  94.  •"  Ibid.,  i.  51,  52. 

5  Ibid.,  i.  51.  •   Ibid.,  i.  53. 


212  DEVELOPMENT. 

Asshur-bani-pal  celebrated  "  the  harvest-feast  when  the 
gods  seated  him  on  the  throne  of  his  fathers,  when  Vul 
poured  down  his  rain,  Hea  feasted  his  people,  the  seed 
bore  fivefold,  the  cattle  multiplied,  and  famine  was  at  an 
end."  ^ 

In  the  myth  of  the  seven  storm  spirits,  who,  compounded 
of  beasts  and  tempests,  and  moving  in  meteors,  plot  se- 
cretly against  the  Sun  and  Moon,  the  vexed  gods,  after 
watching  them  vigilantly,  resist  their  assaults,  when,  rush- 
ing like  the  hurricane,  they  fall  like  firebrands  on  the 
earth/'^  This  prototype  of  the  Greek  war  of  gods  and 
Titans  shows  how  the  passionate  genius  of  these  world- 
stormers  invested  eclipses  and  lightnings  with  its  own 
human  ideals  of  battle  for  dominion  over  the  world. 

So  in  the  Accadian  poem  of  the  Descent  of  Ishtar,  god- 
dess of  love  and  daughter  of  the  Moon,"^  the  sympathy  of 
Nature  with  an  ideal  human  purpose  is  signified  by  the 
refusal  of  the  earth  to  bear  fruit,  or  the  beasts  to  bring 
forth  young,  or  the  gods  to  find  comfort  who  preside  over 
the  change  of  seasons,  till  through  their  interference  the 
wandering  soul  (or  son)  of  life  and  growth  is  released 
from  the  bolts  and  bonds  of  the  death-world.  It  is  not 
wrath  that  dooms  her  to  such  descent,  but  her  grief  for 
life  cut  ofi"  in  its  prime,  which  stirs  her  to  the  sacrifice ; 
and  which  we  can  only  interpret  by  the  resurrection  of  all 
things  in  Nature  at  her  return,  proving  that  the  universe 
was  secure,  and  that  life  and  light  were  the  lords  of  dark- 
ness and  death.  Her  seven  royal  forms  of  beauty,  stripped 
from  her  body  one  by  one  by  the  inexorable  law  of  the 
underworld,  are  one  by  one  restored ;  and  the  death  of 
the  Oriental  Adonis,  or  youth  of  Nature,  is  changed  by 
love  stronger  than  death  or  hell  into  resurrection. 


1  Records  of  the  Past,  i.  6j. 

2  Ibid.,  V.  164-166. 

*  Schrader  in  the  Allgemeine  Zeiiung  (Augsburg),  June  19,  1874. 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  213 

Our  review  of  Chaldeo-Assyrian  civilization  has  shown 
its  remarkable  contrast  in  respect  of  mental  type  with 
those  of  the  Hindus  and  the  Chinese.  It  is  not  cerebral 
like  the  one,  nor  vmscular  like  the  other;  but  is  repre- 
sented by  the  nen'oiis  force,  in  that  ethnic  symbolism  in 
which  we  have  found  the  best  expression  of  Oriental  qual- 
ities. In  other  words,  it  recognizes  both  ideas  and  things, 
both  inward  and  outward  relations;  subject  and  object; 
bringing  the  two  sides  together  in  mutual  dependence,  as 
efficient  cause  and  instant  result.  Hindu  tJwiigJit  clings 
to  abstractions ;  Chinese  work  plunges  through  concrete 
details,  and  is  held  there.  Iranian  nerve,  which  we  here 
begin  to  apprehend,  mediates  between  the  two  forms  of 
activity,  the  two  worlds  of  thought  and  things,  by  a  flash 
of  living  sympathy,  by  open  and  direct  rapport.  This  is 
the  condition  of  human  progress.  The  Iranian  mind,  in 
its  general  sense,  is  thus  the  connecting  bond,  or  transi- 
tion, between  the  Oriental  and  Occidental  worlds ;  and  is 
traceable  as  such  through  all  the  phases  of  civilization, 
for  the  last  two  thousand  years. 

Note  the  substance  of  these  cuneiform  records  of  Chal- 
deo-Assyrian history.  It  is  not  contemplative ;  nothing 
like  meditation  or  philosophic  construction,  scarcely  any 
form  of  continuous  intellectual  development,  appears  in 
it.  Nor  is  it  realistic  and  positive,  in  the  sense  of  dwell- 
ing on  details  or  elaborating  uses  of  things ;  of  working 
for  the  pure  love  of  work.  It  does  not  lose  sight  of  the 
principle  of  causation,  and  that  personal  energy  which  is 
the  ideal  of  causation,  for  mere  interest  in  sequences  and 
trains  of  palpable  phenomena. 

It  is  at  once  ideal  and  actual ;  the  nerve  which  is  neither 
mind  alone,  nor  matter  alone,  but  the  passage  of  one  into 
the  other ;  the  energy  of  impulse,  —  unconscious  of  self, 
unconscious  of  the  results  of  action  ;  conscious  only  of  pur- 
pose, of  rushing  powers,  of  the  inspiration  of  creative  act, 


214  DEVELOPMENT. 

of  the  victory  of  an  all-absorbing  aim.  So  earnest  is  this 
directness  of  impulse,  that  it  constitutes  the  base  of  a  reli- 
gion, —  a  religion  of  marvellous  historic  power,  which  has 
been  essentially  the  main  factor  of  European  faith  hitherto. 
For  what  is  the  natural  religious  form  of  such  a  mental 
type?  Not  the  worship  of  principles,  not  the  worship  of 
possessions ;  but  the  worship  of  personal  Will.  Its  ideal 
is  the  conquering  king,  the  royal  god ;  the  reduction  of 
the  whole  world  to  the  footstool  of  One,  whose  represen- 
tative is  the  inspired  chief  or  leader,  the  Master  to  whom 
every  knee  shall  bend.  What  we  shall  find  of  most  his- 
toric value  in  the  study  of  these  religious  faiths  which 
have  been  adopted  by  the  We^  from  the  wonderful  Se- 
mitic race,  through  the  modifying  influence  of  the  Aryan 
to  which  properly  the  West  belongs,  is  their  common  cen- 
tre in  the  worship  of  personalities  of  one  form  or  another. 
And  of  this  religious  development  the  earlier  stages  are 
palpable  in  the  Chaldeo-Assyrian  absorption  in  will-power. 
It  is  concrete  will  that  first  incarnates  the  worship  of  the 
Person.  Then  it  passes  on  into  forms  of  religious  absolu- 
tism, —  into  monarchical  exclusive  gods  of  infinite  power, 
and  saviours  whose  undivided  authority  is  veiled  in  spirit- 
ual conceptions  and  humanities,  but  whose  churches  domi- 
nate ages  and  races  with  barbarous  tyrannies  in  the  name 
of  God,  as  absolute  owner  of  mankind. 

The  principle  is  ever  one  and  the  same.  It  is  in  a  Per- 
son that  the  religious  sentiment  is  centred  here, — just  as 
in  India  it  was  in  an  idea;  just  as  in  China  it  was  in  an 
organization,  secular  and  political.  This  also  is  a  single 
phase  of  evolution ;  and  future  ages  must  see  the  personal 
element  lose  its  exclusive  sway  over  the  mind  of  man, 
just  as  the  merely  abstract  and  the  merely  concrete  have 
been  already  passed,  and  become  merged  in  a  completer 
form  of  the  Ideal.  For  as  mind  aspired  beyond  its  mere 
brain,  or  its  mere  muscle,  so  beyond  its  mere  nerve  which 


CUNEIFORM   MONUMENTS.  21$ 

binds  them  it  evolves  the  harmonious  form  of   integral 
man. 

Our  Assyrio-Chaldean  study  opens  that  intermediate 
Iranian  phase  of  world-development  which  has  now  been 
stated.  The  question  may  well  be  asked,  Why  should  it 
begin  in  Iran?  The  answer  is,  That  although  Iran  is  a 
geographical  rather  than  an  ethnic  designation,  yet  the 
word,  as  I  think,  may  fairly  stand  for  a  function  as  well, 
to  which  undoubtedly  its  geographical  relations  have 
largely  contributed.  This  function,  the  reality  of  which 
must  be  shown  in  our  proposed  study  of  the  races  which 
have  arisen  within  its  limits,  may  here  be  very  briefly 
stated,  upon  the  strength  of  what  the  reader  of  these 
volumes  may  be  supposed  to  know. 

It  was  inevitable  that  when  the  isolation  of  races  began 
to  diminish  on  the  open  plateau  of  Iran,  and  centres  of 
civilization  were  formed  at  the  mouths  of  its  great  rivers, 
like  the  Mesopotamian,  the  friction  of  elements,  the  op- 
portunities of  commerce,  the  conflict  of  interests  and 
faiths  should  awaken  the  sense  of  personal  power  and 
the  aspiration  to  recognize  and  attain  it.  The  wills  of 
men  became  their  master  faculty.  On  the  Turanian  basis 
of  material  civilization  arose  the  Semitic  passion  and  ex- 
clusiveness ;  and  in  both,  as  later  in  the  other  races  which 
swept  in  tides  over  the  high  plains  and  down  the  river 
bottoms,  the  desire  of  world-sway  became  far  more  in- 
tense than  was  possible  either  in  China  or  Hindustan.  In 
the  conflict  of  strong  passions  thus  stimulated,  the  power 
of  will  inevitably  becomes  the  religious  and  moral  ideal. 
f  The  Chaldeo-Assyrian  civilization  is  mainly  characterized 
by  the  demand  for  some  realization  of  this  ideal,  by  masses 
who  could  not  achieve  it  freely  for  themselves.  It  thus 
represents  a  very  early  phase  in  the  growth  of  the  religion 
of  personal  government.  Not  the  seiise  of  will-force,  but 
the  demand  for  it,  was  what  produced  those  terrible  kings 


2l6  DEVELOPMENT. 

and  their  absolute  sway.  These  great  accumulations  of 
human  elements  have  no  inward  sense  of  unity,  nor  re- 
spect for  law,  except  so  far  as  it  is  embodied  in  the  royal 
person  and  will.  If  the  king  dies,  all  are  in  revolt;  the 
unorganized  atoms  are  continually  breaking  away  even 
in  his  lifetime.  Always  the  sin  charged  on  subject  kings 
as  casiis-belli  is  that  they  have  dared  to  refuse  tribute,  to 
deny  allegiance.  Here  was  forming,  against  all  natural  re- 
luctance, by  superior  force  of  constructive  will-power,  the 
tremendous  idea  of  the  divine  right  of  kings.  And  this 
was  the  foretype  and  crude  primary  condition  of  the  cor- 
responding force  which  created  modern  religions ;  nor  can 
their  relations  to  universal  religion  be  understood  without 
going  back  to  the  special  line  of  human  tendency  of  which 
they  are  the  fulfilment.  So  we  shall  devote  a  chapter  to 
the  earliest  form  in  which  this  power  was  exercised, —  the 
influence  of  Babylon  on  Hebrew  religion. 


VI. 

THE   HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN. 


THE  HEBREW  AND  THE  CHALDEAN. 

T)  ABYLON  has  been  called  the  "  key  of  universal  his- 
-*-^  tory."  A  claim  so  exclusive  can  of  course  have  only 
a  limited  truth.  The  science  of  historical  construction  in 
our  age  finds  a  significance  which  cannot  be  measured  in 
every  human  aspiration,  and  traces  every  individual  cur- 
rent into  the  majestic  tide  of  progress,  to  which  it  contri- 
butes some  needed  impulse.  Nor  can  any  moral  instinct 
or  principle  of  conduct  be  tracked  to  its  human  beginning 
in  any  one  age,  or  locality,  or  person.  Not  only  is  it  im- 
possible to  explore  the  origin  of  fetichism,  polytheism, 
monotheism,  pantheism,  or  the  belief  in  incarnation  or 
development,  but  not  one  of  them  can  be  explained  or 
interpreted  by  any  special  set  of  influences,  personal  or 
institutional.  Every  effect  was  somehow  contained  in  its 
cause ;  and  to  neglect  the  foregleams,  the  prophetic  in- 
timations, the  unconscious  or  self-conscious  tendencies 
which  prove  natural  attractions  to  be  slowly  shaping  the 
mind  of  man,  is  to  forget  that  the  whole  human  cosmos 
is  implicated  in  every  stage  and  step  of  human  growth. 

Yet  it  is  true  that  there  are  crucial  epochs,  places,  move- 
ments in  history;  nucleating  points,  nerve-ganglia  as  it 
were,  where  the  collision  and  concentration  of  tendencies 
bring  forth  vast  results  for  all  time,  and  radiate  light 
alike  on  past  and  future  progress.  Wonder  and  gratitude 
have  successively  transformed  these  centres  into  exclusive 
divine  inlets,  from  whose  supernatural  gifts  the  whole  world 
has  its  meaning  and  value.  The  progress  of  universal 
religion   consists   in   finding  that  these   in  their  turn   are 


220  DEVELOPMENT. 

explicable  through  other  similar  centres ;  that  truth  does 
not  enter  man  by  jets  from  without,  but  is  slowly  evolved 
through  ages  of  growth ;  and  that  the  only  inspiration 
possible  to  man  is  his  natural  relation  to  the  Infinite,  as 
the  substance  of  his  own  being,  the  never-ending  progress 
of  his  ideal  life.  Natural  sequence  takes  the  place  of 
supernatural  interference  and  external  will.  A  "  chosen 
people  "  becomes  simply  a  race  endowed  by  the  laws  of 
genius  and  of  inheritance,  from  its  ancestral  relations  to 
other  races,  with  special  powers  of  moulding  human  history 
in  a  certain  way.  Bibles  are  found  to  be  borrowers  from 
older  experiences,  literatures  rooted  in  unsuspected  secu- 
lar soils.  The  prophets  arc  taught  from  the  heart  of  hu- 
manity, and  the  "  saviours  "  transmit  the  ancient  torch  of 
love.  Under  these  laws  of  historic  wholeness,  the  functions 
of  races  and  of  persons  are  special  functions.  And  we 
now  add  the  peculiar  civilization  of  which  Babylon  was 
the  type  to  those  of  India  and  China,  as  presented  in 
previous  volumes  of  this  work,  as  another  illustration  of 
this  truth. 

The  centre  of  Chaldeo-Assyrian  consciousness  was  the 
king ;  and  in  this  fact  lies  the  secret  of  that  special  func- 
tion which  makes  it  possible  to  speak  of  Babylonian  civili- 
zation as  a  "  key  of  history."  The  Hindu  throne  was 
subject  to  religion  as  an  absolute  idea,  incarnated  in  the 
absolutism  of  a  priesthood.  The  Chinese  throne  was 
subject  to  organic  civil  and  political  law.  The  Chaldeo- 
Assyrian  (first  form  of  Iranian  government)  owns  no 
allegiance  but  to  personal  will,  which  of  itself  represents 
Asshur  or  Bel,  —  "/reward  and  punish;  /chastise  here- 
tics; /  torture  and  ravage  and  tear  down  and  massacre 
for  my  authority's  sake.  /  bring  the  spoils  into  my 
palaces,  and  there  I  feast  my  gods;  there  I  record  my 
glories ;  there  I  repose  and  dwell  for  ever  in  my  works ; 
and  whoso  comes  after  me  shall  respect  these  and  keep 


THE   HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  221 

them  inviolate,  or  come  under  my  curse."  Tiiis,  it  will 
be  seen,  is  but  another  Lord  in  the  same  line  with  Jahveh, 
Allah,  and  the  Christian  God  of  Judgment.  It  is  the  dei- 
fied personal  Will ;  the  conscious  Ego  set  in  the  roots  of 
the  universe,  the  monarchical  element  in  religion.  Nor  is 
there  in  the  whole  series  any  essential  difference  of  qual- 
ity: the  barbarous  features  which  attend  the  conquering 
Ego  of  Nineveh  being  natural  elements  of  exclusive  will, 
and  only  partially  transferred  in  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion from  material  to  spiritual  spheres  of  sway.  These 
devastating  kings  who  condescend  to  no  other  notice  of 
the  rivals  they  overthrow  than  to  record  the  lightning 
marches  by  which  their  cities  were  razed  and  burned, 
their  treasures  carried  off,  their  people,  men  and  women, 
enslaved,  their  fastnesses  scaled,  their  goods  heaped  like 
corn  to  be  destroyed,  the  horrible  barbarities,  which  it  is 
needless  to  repeat,  inflicted  on  those  that  held  out  against 
the  invader,  eclipsing  the  occasional  mercy  shown  those 
that  submitted  on  his  approach,  —  are  paralleled  in  the 
history  of  English  Puritanism,  in  the  treatment  of  Ireland 
by  the  Church  of  England  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth,^  and 
in  the  whole  history  of  witchcraft  in  modern  Europe. 
They,  too,  are  inspired  by  religious  earnestness ;  they  em- 
body the  exclusive  rights  of  the  omnipotent  Will  they 
worship  ;  they  come  home  to  kneel  before  the  Lady  Ishtar, 
to  pour  out  their  tributes  of  spoils  before  the  sun-god,  and 
spare  men's  lives  that  they  may  learn  the  worship  of  their 
own  established  shrines.^  Sayce  maintains  that  they  are 
shown  by  the  monuments  to  have  offered  human  sacrifices 
to  Bel,  and  even  to  have  given  the  name  "  the  sacrifice 
of  Bel "  to  the  first  month  and  zodiacal  sign.^  He  also 
interprets  expressions  in  the  hymns  as  implying  vicarious 

*  Lecky :  England  m  the  Fourteenth  Century,  vol.  ii. 

-  Records  of  the  Past,  v.  17. 

'  Biblical  Archeology,  vol.  iv.  pt.  i.  pp.  25,  31. 


222  DEVELOPMENT. 

sacrifice,  though  it  may  be  early  to  accept  this  as  histori- 
cally certain.  But  is  not  the  dogma  of  the  Christian 
Church  founded  upon  forms  of  both  these  atonements; 
and  has  not  every  religious  war  which  that  Church  has 
waged  aeainst  heretics  been  for  the  maintenance  of  these 
beliefs,  and  prosecuted  with  barbarities  justified  by  the 
will  of  the  Deity,  as  were  the  corresponding  vicarious 
atonements  to  Jahveh  or  to  Bel? 

The  Assyrian  conquerors  represent  the  ardent  youth  of 
this  impulse  to  enthrone  omnipotent  will. 

As  yet  there  is  no  scientific  sense  of  truth,  no  organized 
law  of  equity,  no  balance  of  powers  controlling  personal 
desire,  to  check  it.  And  out  of  this  consciousness  of  indi- 
vidual will,  and  its  earliest  religious  form  as  allegiance  to 
exclusive  personalities,  grew  all  the  great  Semitic  faiths, 
mastering  similar  tendencies  in  the  less  intense  Aryan,  so 
as  to  have  established  themselves  as  recognized  lords  of 
revelation,  creators  of  the  religions  of  civilization ;  until 
the  Aryan  reaction  in  modern  times  has  come  to  supplant 
the  worship  of  all  gods  in  the  image  —  divine  or  human  — 
of  personal  will,  by  immutable  laws  of  the  universe,  and 
by  developed  intuitions  of  humanity. 

And  with  these  come  the  saving  checks  to  this  deeply- 
rooted  anthropomorphic  ideal,  which  assure  the  liberty 
of  every  individual  to  think,  to  doubt,  to  aspire,  and  to 
bring  his  personal  will  into  obedient  conformity  with 
natural  laws. 

How  far  the  Chaldeo-Assyrian,  or  rather  Babylonian, 
world  gives  the  key  to  universal  history  can  only  appear 
after  tracing  those  later  phases  of  its  influence  which  open 
with  the  conquests  of  Cyrus,  to  the  Jewish  captivit)^,  and 
ripen  in  the  union  of  Eastern  and  Western  civilizations 
through  the  conquests  of  Alexander  of  Macedon.  But 
the   period   of   the   cuneiform   records,   already  reviewed, 


THE   IIEP.TIEW   AND   THE   CPIALDEAN,  223 

indicates  it  as  the  source  of  much  that  has  long  passed 
for  isolated  and  special  revelation  to  the  Hebrew,  or 
original  invention  by  other  races,  Semitic  or  Aryan. 

The  ancestral  land  of  Semitism,  Northern  as  well  as 
Southern,  was  probably  Arabia.  Canaan  and  Phoenicia 
were  its  sister  provinces  of  great  antiquity,  but  Babylon 
was  its  earliest  school.  Its  gods,  legends,  and  traditions, 
especially  those  of  the  Northern  family,  point  in  this 
direction,  at  least  for  their  clearest  expression.  Its  plan- 
etary worship,  its  sun-gods  and  moon-gods,  and  their  close 
association  with  the  sexual  instincts,  shown  in  androgy- 
nous deities,  in  goddesses  riding  on  lions  or  oxen,  and  in 
the  virile  productivity  of  the  bull;  its  terrible  passion-gods 
of  fire,  the  bloody  rites  of  Moab  and  Ammon,  the  sacrifice 
of  children  to  the  Baals  and  Molochs,  of  virginity  to  the 
Astartes  (Ishtars)  and  Beltises;  its  self-consuming  frenzy 
of  undisciplined  desires,  vibrating  between  sensual  impulse 
and  ascetic  self-mutilation,  —  found  typical  developments 
in  an  Assyrio-Chaldean  form  as  tendencies  more  or  less 
universal  in  the  whole  family,  but  imperfectly  organized 
in  the  West,  and  by  tribes  less  influenced  than  the  Eastern 
Semites  by  Turanian  industry  and  culture.  They  are, 
however,  associated  v/ith  the  seven  Cabiri,  everywhere  the 
expressions  of  agriculture  and  other  toil,  with  renovation 
through  the  fires  of  energy.  They  were  all  expressions  of 
that  absolutism  of  will,  that  worship  of  all-mastering  per- 
sonal purpose,  whose  god  in  Assyria  was  military  omnipo- 
tence, whose  passion  for  self-gratification  an  all-consuming 
flame.  Yet  another  and  still  older  form  of  the  same  ideal 
was  the  thirst  to  seize  new  worlds  of  physical  resources 
beyond  the  sea,  embodied  in  the  fish-gods  of  the  Chaldean 
and  Phoenician  coasts,  the  adoration  of  oceanic  productiv- 
ity, and  in  the  commercial  ambition  of  Babylon  and  Tyre. 
These  gods  of  Nature's  productivity,  instinct  with  life,  with 
all  vital  relations  and  powers,  had  in  all  those  cults  similar 


224  DEVELOPMENT. 

names  and  toils.  The  wanderings  of  Baal-MeIkarth,Tyrian 
god  of  cities,  were  the  prototype  of  the  Greek  Herakles, 
and  closely  associated  with  the  mythic  history  of  this 
grand  embodiment  of  heroic  will,  who  carries  us  back 
also  not  only  to  the  sun-gods  of  Asia  Minor, ^  but  beyond 
these  to  Assyrian  customs  and  beliefs.^  In  all  the  Greek 
heroic  wanderings  and  labors,  east  and  west,  there  is 
everywhere  a  strong  Semitic  element  in  the  ardor  which 
thus  followed  the  victorious  march  of  the  Sun  through 
the  heavens,  picturing  his  hourly  struggles  with  monsters 
harmful  to  man,  till  he  reaches  his  martyrdom  of  fire  in 
the  glowing  west,  burning  himself  in  his  own  flames,  to 
rise  again  on  the  morrow.  The  whole  conception  of  the 
myth  is  Semitic.  It  is  characterized,  like  those  of  the 
Lydian  Sandon,  the  Assyrian  Sardanapalus,  the  Hebrew 
Samson,  and  the  Phoenician  Dido,  by  the  thoroughly  Se- 
mitic idea  of  a  tragic  death  of  the  god  or  hero  through 
his  association  with  the  other  sex.  The  service  of  Om- 
phale  in  feminine  dress  and  the  fatal  tunic  of  Dejanira, 
which  bring  the  doom  of  Herakles,  the  fall  of  Epimetheus 
through  the  box  of  Pandora,  are  foreshadowed  by  earlier 
Assyrian,  Phoenician,  and  other  myths  of  divine  men  who 
fell  under  the  dominion  of  women,  or  assumed  their  garb 
and  habits,  to  their  own  ruin.^  In  the  Assyrian  festival  of 
the  Sakae,  a  slave  was  made  to  play  the  king,  allowed  the 
freedom  of  the  harem,  dressed  in  women's  garments,  and 
finally  put  to  death.  The  myth  of  Dionysus,  as  well  as 
that  of  Herakles,  goes  back  to  Chaldeo-Assyrian  Semitism, 
where  Dian-nisi  is  the  Sun  in  his  whole  life,  death,  and 
resurrection,  interpreted  by  the  extremes  of  human  pas- 

*  Especially  the  Lydian  Sandon. 

'  Movers:  Die  Ph'dnizier,  i.  458.  O'^'p^xW^Etudes  Assyriennes,  p.  iSi.  Maury:  His- 
toire  des  Religions  de  la.  Grice,  iii.  152,  240.  Hartung :  Die  Religion  und  BIythologie 
der  Griechen,  iv.  202,  203.  Schwenck  :  Myihologie  der  Semiten,  pp.  277-318.  Duncker; 
Gesch   Alterth,  i.    154. 

3  Hartung:  Die  Religion  tind  RIythologie  der  Griechen,  iv.  202-204.  As  Niniis  and 
Semiramis,  Sardanapalus  and  his'  harem. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  225 

sion,  by  orgies  of  grief  and  joy.  The  women  whom 
EzekieP  describes  as  weeping  for  Tammuz  at  Jerusalem 
were,  —  in  part  at  least,  —  drawn  from  his  Babylonian 
experience.  Tam-zi,  "  the  sun  of  life,"  or  "  morning 
sun,"  beloved  by  Ishtar  (Ashtoreth),  queen  of  heaven,  is 
Dian-nisi  in  his  radiant  youth.  He  passes  into  night  of 
the  day  or  of  the  year,  and  the  earth  pines  and  fails  for 
grief.  Ishtar,  who  is  reproached  as  the  wanton  cause  of 
his  death, 2  descends  to  the  underworld,  probably  to  seek 
him,  though  this  reason  is  not  given,  and  finds  there 
the  water  of  immortality.  This  idea  of  immortality  is 
forever  associated  with  these  lessons  of  the  dying  year.^ 
But  this  worship  of  Tammuz  (the  Syrian  Adonis)  in  fact 
goes  back  in  Canaan  or  Syria,  as  well  as  in  all  western  Asia, 
to  the  old  Byblos  cult,  primitive  beyond  all  discovery, — 
type  of  summer  bloom,  as  parched  and  torn  to  death  by 
the  wild  boar  of  drought,  as  of  so  many  like  forms,  repre- 
senting the  religious  agonies  and  ecstasies  of  ancient  wor- 
ship. Adonis  had  been  consigned  by  Aphrodite,  his  divine 
mistress,  who  corresponds  to  Ishtar,  to  the  care  of  Perse- 
phone in  the  underworld,  part  of  which  fate  was  remitted  by 
Zeus,  but  nothing  could  forefend  the  cruel  death  to  come. 
So  Demeter,  Earth-mother  of  the  Greeks,  treats  her  beau- 
tiful Kore  (the  spring-time)  in  like  manner,  and  then  de- 
scends to  hades  in  search  of  her,  while  the  world  mourns. 
This  widespread  myth  of  the  dying  god  for  whom  Nature 
pines,  and  the  Maenad  howls  and  tears  her  hair,  and  Love 
descends  to  death  to  win  him  back  is,  in  this  special  form 
at  least,  of  Semitic  origin,  a  gift  of  Assyrio-Chaldean  Dian- 
nisi,  —  prototype,  or  rather  germ-notion,  of  redemption 
through  death  and  resurrection  of  the  just  man,  as  a  basis 
of  theological  creeds.     Equally  Semitic  is  the  tendency  of 

1  Ezek-  viii.  14. 

2  See  Assyrian  Texts  {Records  of  the  Past,  i.  141). 
*  Sayce  (Biblical  Archaology.   iii.  p.  i6S). 

IS 


226  DEVELOPMENT. 

this  tragic  fatality  to  take  the  form  of  suicide,  —  the  natural 
reaction  and  irony  of  uncontrollable  will.  The  illustration 
is  to  be  seen  in  most  of  the  myths  already  specified,  where 
that  inevitable  fall  comes  through  some  fatal  mastery  in 
what  is  one's  own,  which  outward  forces  alone  could  not 
effect.  Just  as  the  frenzy  of  passion  is  represented  as 
driving  to  self-mutilation  the  rage  of  Maenads  in  their 
Bacchic  rites,  ^  so  these  gods  and  heroes  of  Semitic  my- 
thology, whether  Assyrian,  Hebrew,  Phoenician,  or  Greek, 
build  their  own  funeral  pyres,  or  pull  down  temples  on 
their  own  heads,  or  burn  themselves  under  their  own 
treasures,  or  cut  off  their  own  heads,  like  their  prototype 
Bel-Merodach  of  Babylon.  Even  the  best  must  be  sacri- 
ficed, because  life  was  the  gift  and  power  of  God  himself 
and  man's  highest  possession,  and  the  greatest  must  give 
the  life  of  his  dearest  ones  and  his  own.  These  are  the  ter- 
rible fires  of  Semitic  faith,  the  first  fountains  of  its  bloody 
atonements,  and  its  sacrifices  of  the  "first-born"  and  the 
"only-begotten"  to  omnipotent  will;  frenzied  dualism  of 
the  productive  and  destructive  passions,  which  resulted 
in  the  Dualism  of  its  more  refined  and  spiritual  religions. 
The  sun  is  its  symbol,  —  the  sun,  not  as  centre  and  source 
and  static  lawgiver  of  the  universe,  but  as  active,  instant 
mastery;  as  tremendous  energy  of  determination,  intensity 
of  desire,  and  exclusiveness  of  claim.  This  is  Assyria,  this 
is  Semitized  Babylon. 

The  Phoenician  cosmogony  is  also  a  grand  play  of  im- 
agination with  successive  personalities,  male  and  female. 
In  the  Babylonian  and  Phoenician  cosmogonies  alike,^  the 
shaping  power  of  the  cosmos  is  desire  acting  on  a  pre- 
existing subject  mass ;  in  the  Hebrew,  the  idea  of  purpose 
in  the  brooding  "  Breath "  {riiacJi)  is  equally  personal. 
Their  chaos,  preceding  creation,  is  itself  alive  with  pro- 

'  These  are  originally  Semitic. 
*  Berosus  and  Sanchonialhoa. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  22/ 

digious  half-shaped  forms  strugghng  for  power,  and  the 
constructive  creator  must  put  them  under  by  superior  will. 
Not  like  the  Hindu  world-maker,  by  pure  thought,  nor  like 
the  Chinese,  by  pure  work,  does  the  Semite  bring  things 
to  being ;  but  by  commandment  of  will,  by  the  very  passion 
oi  life, — the  giving  forth  of  it  in  its  wholeness,  whether  by 
word  of  Elohim  or  by  suicide  of  Bel.  So  did  he  put  his 
soul  into  the  senses,  his  impulses  into  unbridled  master- 
ships, his  ideals  into  the  all-consuming  cosmic  fires.  And 
the  impetus  of  this  towering  and  aggressive  will,  self- 
abandoned  to  deified  passions,  has  made  him  a  controlling 
factor  in  the  religious  history  of  the  last  two  thousand 
years.  And  of  this  historic  power  Babylon  is  the  opening 
key.  Let  us  note  how  far  Hebrew  religion  was  traceable 
to  Chaldeo-Assyrian  influences. 

Ur,  the  traditional  home  of  the  Abrahamite  family,  now 
identified  with  Mugheir,  was  an  important  city  of  the  Chal- 
dees  (possibly  Siirippak,  the  centre  of  Accadian  literature), 
and  is  represented  on  the  tablets  as  the  most  Turanian  of  the 
twenty  cities  of  the  Euphrates  valley.^  And  still  further  back, 
the  ancestors  of  Abraham  are  connected  with  Arphaxad, 
the  "neighborhood  of  the  Chaldeans."'^  This  filiation  of 
the  Hebrews  with  the  Chaldeans  is  confirmed  by  the  close 
relation  of  their  earliest  customs  with  those  recorded  in 
Accadian  inscriptions,  —  such  as  divination  by  clouds,^  by 
trees,  as  exemplified  in  the  burning  bush ;  *  by  dreams  of 
seers,  by  evocation  of  the  dead,  the  very  name  of  familiar 
spirits  {pbotJi)  being  Accadian ;  ^  by  the  serpent,  a  Turanian 
type  of  wisdom  and  power.  The  worship  of  the  heavenly 
host  on  Hebrew  high  places  allies  itself  to  the  ziggurats 
(high  towers)  of  the  Chaldean  cities ;  the  planetary  number 

'  Saj'ce's  Smith:   Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  p.  318.    Lenormant :  Chaldean  Magic, 

P-  339- 

^  Genesis,  x. 

3  Leviticus,  xix.  26;  Deuteronomy,  xviii.  10;  2  Kings,  xxi.  6 ;  Isaiah,  ii.  6;  Micah,v.  11. 

*  Lenormant :  Divination,  etc.,  p.  86.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  162. 


228  DEVELOPMENT. 

seven,  made  sacred  by  the  Hebrews  in  their  creative  week 
before  they  conceived  of  connecting  it  with  Jahveh's  rest,^ 
is  Assyrian.  The  prophylactic  images  of  gods  {tcrdphivi), 
of  which  the  Urim  and  Thummin  were  probably  forms, 
had  their  prototypes  in  Accadian  magic.^  So  witchcraft 
and  sorcery;  and  so  demonic  possession,  exorcisms,  the 
Sabbath,  and  the  cherubim,  which  are  simply  the  winged 
human-headed  bull  of  the  Chaldean  sculptures.^ 

Previous  to  these  Assyrian  relations,  however,  must  be 
recognized  the  Canaanite  origin  of  much  in  Hebrew  tradi- 
tion and  life.  The  name  El,  for  example,  as  a  general 
appellation  of  God,  was  a  part  of  their  Canaanite  heritage. 
Phoenician  mythology,  as  we  have  it  in  the  fragments  of 
Sanchoniathon,  has  so  many  points  of  closest  resemblance 
to  the  Genesis-legend  that  the  common  origin  of  these 
traits  in  Canaanite  tribal  association  is  unmistakable. 
These  fragments  seem  to  concern  only  the  older  and  na- 
tive Phoenician  traditions,  —  that  is  the  Canaanite.  We  note 
not  only  the  striking  similarity  in  the  story  of  creation,  but 
the  common  stories  of  giant-races  and  their  wars,  the  en- 
mity of  brothers,  and  other  analogies,  among  which  not  the 
least  striking  is  the  common  name  of  the  "  Most  High 
God"  {El-elyoji)}  "Jehovah,"  says  Robertson  Smith, 
"was  never  a  Canaanite  God,  and  the  roots  of  the  popular 
religion  were  in  the  acknowledgment  of  Jehovah  as  Israel's 
God,  and  of  the  duty  of  national  service  to  Him,  which  is 
equally  the  basis  of  Mosaic  orthodoxy."  But  here  it  seems 
to  me  is  a  confusion  between  the  original  germ  and  the  pow- 
erful development  it  received  from  the  national  spirit.^ 

There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  Jahveh  was  originally 
one  of  those  sun-gods  in  whom  all  Semitic  worship  was 

'  Kuenen  :  Religion  of  Israel,  i.  pp.  236-264. 

^  Lenormant :  Chaldean  lilagtc,  p.  45. 

*  Lenormant :  Fragm.  Cosmog. ,  p.  78. 

*  Cory:  Ancient  Fragjn.  (Hodges),  pp.  1-22. 

s  Lectures  on  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  231,  423,  note. 


THE  HEBREW  AND  THE  CHALDEAN.       229 

wont  to  centre.  Leader  of  the  stars,  Jahveh  of  hosts, 
institutor  of  the  sacred  planetary  number  in  rites  and  tra- 
ditions, a  "  consuming  fire,"  a  flame  that  none  could  look 
upon  and  live,  —  he  cannot  be  separated  from  that  very- 
numerous  class  of  local  deities  of  whom  Melchizedek, 
El,  Baal,  and  Moloch  were  the  general  Canaanite  repre- 
sentatives. 

These  names  were  not  distinctively  personal,  but  meant 
merely  lord  or  king,  —  a  mighty  one.  There  was  found 
nothing  incongruous  in  combining  his  worship  with  theirs. 
Elohim,  one  of  their  generic  names,  "  the  mighty  ones," 
was  adopted  in  the  early  national  legends,  and  retained 
in  their  later  elaborations  as  the  class-name  to  express 
the  personality  of  Jahveh ;  and  Jahveh-Elohim  was  in 
common  use.^  All  these  gods  were  worshipped  alike  on 
the  high-places  {hdmoth)^-  and  a  tree,  symbol  of  Asherah, 
was  placed  beside  their  altars.  The  Jahvites  worshipped 
before  upright  stones  and  columns  (jnaistsehot/i) ,  and  also 
images  of  the  sun  {cJiammdnini)?  Solomon's  Jahvism  built 
tabernacles  to  Milcom,  Chemosh,  Astarte.  In  both  king- 
doms of  Israel  and  Judah,*  as  well  as  through  the  earlier 
periods  of  the  Judges,  this  intermixture  of  rites  was 
common  among  the  Jahvites ;  ^  and  in  the  days  of  elabo- 
rated priestly  rule  it  was  strenuously  prohibited  by  law.^ 
Hosea  tells  us  that  Ephraim  was  given  over  to  the  Baal 
calf-worship ; '  and  especially  ascribes  this  anti-national 
conduct  to  the  influence  of  Assyria.^  It  all  resulted  in 
Ezekiel's  tremendous  indictment  of  the  idolatry  of  Jeru- 
salem, as  late  as  the  exile  !  It  is  to  Jahveh  that  Jephthah 
vows  to  sacrifice  his  daughter.^  It  is  at  Jahveh's  com- 
mand that  David  hangs  up  the  sons  of  Saul,^*'  and  Samuel 

*  Exodus,  iii.  15.  2  j  Samuel,  ix.  x.  ;  Ezekiel,  xx.  28. 

3  Kuenen,  i.  24.  *  i  Kings,  xi.  xv.  14;  xvi.  14;  xxiii.  43. 

^  Kuenen  :  Religion  of  hrael,  i.  302,  303;  350-355;  80,  8t. 

^  Leviticus,  xviii.  21.  ''   Hosea,  viii.  6;  xiii.  1,4. 

*  Hosea,  vii.  11;  xii.  i.  ^  Judges,  xi.  30. 

^  2  Samuel,  xxi.  1-14. 


230  UEVELOPMENT, 

hews  Agag  in  pieces/  By  Jahveh,  as  well  as  by  every 
other  form  of  Moloch,  the  life  of  a  first-born  is  claimed, 
Abraham's  offering  of  Isaac,  in  the  myth,  though  pre- 
vented by  miracle,  at  least  implies  and  inculcates  willing- 
ness to  serve  Jahveh  in  that  way,  as  acceptable  service ; 
and  this  very  spirit  is  blessed  by  Jahveh  with  the  covenant 
of  seed.^  The  dedication  of  men  by  CJierem,  however,  not 
to  be  redeemed  from  death,  was  an  offering  to  Jahveh  as 
punishment,  not  as  tribute.^ 

It  is  evident  from  these  hints  how  difficult  it  was  for 
Jahvism  to  throw  off  its  early  associations  with  those  con- 
suming fire-gods  in  which  Semitism  embodied  the  absolute 
claims  of  omnipotent  Will.  And  all  these  traits  of  sun- 
worship  belong  to  its  Assyrian  descent.*  Adrammclech 
(fire-king),  adored  at  Sepharvaim  in  Mesopotamia,''^  to 
whom  men  "  burned  their  sons,"  is  a  fair  type  of  these 
gods  of  Western  Asia,  from  Chaldea  to  the  borders  of 
Egypt.  The  sun  and  fire  worship  of  the  Aryan,  as  we 
shall  see,  was  of  another  order. 

If,  as  is  charged  by  the  prophet,^  the  Hebrews  in  the 
desert  adored  Chiun  (the  planet  Saturn),  while  Jahveh  was 
their  guiding  God ;  if,  as  is  certain,  "  in  the  patriarchal 
age  they  accepted  as  sacred  all  the  places  the  Canaanites 
held  sacred  (trees,  mountains,  fountains,  stones),  and 
the  intercourse  was  still  closer  after  the  return  from 
Egypt,"  ^  —  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  their  worship 
of  Jahveh  grew  out  of  a  similar  circle  of  religious  con- 
ceptions. 

Whether  the  name  was  introduced  by  Moses, ^  on  the 
Elohim's  announcing  for  the  first  time  that  they  were 
Jahveh,  —  in  other  words,  by  substituting  a  more  dis- 
tinctly monotheistic   term   for  deity,  —  or  was   borrowed 

1  I  Samuel,  xv.  33.  ^  Genesis,  xxii.  16. 
^  See  Kuenen,  i.  291;  Leviticus,  xxvii.  28. 

*  See  Rawlinson  :  Aiicient  Motuirckies,  ii.  228.  ^  2  Kings,  xvii.  31. 

6  Amos,  V.  26.                '  Renan :  Langzies  Semiiiques,  p.  no.  *  Exodus,  vi.  3. 


THE  HEBREW  AND  THE  CHALDEAN.       23 1 

from  some  desert  tribe  with  whom  the  Hebrews  came  in 
contact ;  ^  whether  it  already  existed  in  Assyrian  mythol- 
ogy, and  is  to  be  associated  with  the  Phoenician  Jao,  or 
is  a  pure  creation  of  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century 
before  Christ, —  it  is  certain  that  the  Jahveh  or  Jahveh- 
Elohim  of  the  Prophets,  in  whose  interest  the  whole  liter- 
ature of  the  Hebrew  books  has  been  worked  over,  is  a 
product  of  slow  growth,  and  by  no  means  entered  full-born 
into  the  Hebrew  consciousness. 

His  final  elevation  to  a  far  higher  level  than  the  sur- 
rounding deities,  and  the  renunciation  of  their  worship  as 
idolatry,  in  favor  of  one  who  had  created  all  nations  and 
made  the  world  his  footstool,  was  a  prophetic  ideal  of  the 
eighth  century  before  Christ  and  onwards ;  but  it  was 
made  possible  only  by  the  partial  nationalization  of  reli- 
gion through  earlier  periods  of  Hebrew  history.  This 
lifting  of  a  national  god  into  a  universal  Creator  and 
Ruler  had  its  stages, — just  as  the  old  aspiration  of  the 
Assyrian  kings  to  put  all  other  gods  under  the  feet  of 
their  own  Asshur  by  conquest  of  the  nations,  and  thor- 
oughly to  absorb  the  worship  of  all  other  tribes  in  them- 
selves as  his  representatives,  was  a  long  and  necessary  step 
towards  monotheism,  and  prepared  the  way  for  receiving 
its  maturer  form  through  the  Persian  worship  of  Ormuzd.^ 
It  is  an  indispensable  condition  to  the  attainment  of  unity 
in  the  religious  idea  of  a  people,  that  the}"  should  become 
powerfully  organized  as  a  whole,  and  aim  at  unlimited 
power  as  a  national  ideal.  As  the  child's  first  idea  of 
supreme  authority  is  the  law  he  finds  in  his  parents,  so  in 
races  the  authority  of  the  national  ruler,  considered  as  a 
universal  claim,  is  the  starting  point  of  belief  in  one  defi- 
nite personal  God  above  all  gods,  or  exclusive  of  them. 
Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  positive  Jahvistic 
theism  of  the  Hebrews  was  coincident  in  time  with  the 

*  Theile  '  See  Vaftia,  i.  i ;  xix.  37;   xliii.  3,  7 ;  xliv.  i.  i. 


232  DEVELOPMENT. 

bloom  of  Hebrew  nationality  in  the  ages  following  those  of 
David  and  Solomon,^  —  just  as  the  struggles  of  the  nation 
for  existence,  in  later  times,  ripened  that  Messianic  idea 
in  which  Jahveh  came  to  his  most  exalted  form.^  In  the 
same  way,  out  of  the  sense  of  a  separate  national  person- 
ality, will,  and  destiny,  grew  up  the  reverence  for  the  one 
national  God  as  holy.  This  word  {kdddah)  in  later  times, 
the  highest  term  for  moral  and  spiritual  purity,  was  con- 
stantly applied  to  Jahveh,  in  its  natural  sense  of  separated, 
exalted,  unapproachable,  isolated,  in  correspondence  with 
distinct  national  existence  and  purpose.  The  one  was  the 
matrix  and  nurse  of  the  other.^  When  we  read  such 
phrases  as  "  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,"  we  must  remember 
that  the  idea  of  contrast  with  other  national  gods,  —  that 
is,  of  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Edom,  etc.,  —  was  always  present 
with  the  writer ;  and  that  the  moral  allegiance  implied  in  it 
had  its  foundation  and  force  in  this  sense  of  a  community 
of  relation,  origin,  purpose,  aim,  in  the  nation  as  a  whole. 
From  beginning  to  end,  Jahveh  was  indeed  more  or  less 
God  of  the  Hebrews ;  every  saint,  patriarch,  genealogy, 
conquest,  law,  temple,  prophecy,  has  its  authority  more 
and  more  in  the  service  it  pays  to  the  national  destiny. 
It  is  because  the  religious  and  national  ideals  thus  reached 
form  and  sustain  each  other,  that  we  find  such  tremen- 
dous persistency  in  Hebrew  faith,  and  such  absorption  of 
this  race  in  itself  as  the  chosen  of  God.  This  intense  local 
concentration  of  Will  has  nourished  a  commanding  self- 
confidence,  and   the  world  has  naturally,  not   supernatu- 


'  In  the  earlier  legislation  of  the  Tdrah,  as  seen  in  the  Book  of  Exodus,  a  free  worship 
at  local  slirines,  unknown  to  later  times  and  mixed  with  Canaanite  traditions  and  rites,  made 
such  national  unity  impossible.  But  what  are  called  the  "  Middle  Books''  of  the  Law, 
dating  from  the  reforming  kings,  show  the  vigorous  effort  to  counteract  this  want  of  religious 
nationality,  by  which  the  great  kings  fell  into  Baal-worship,  through  legislative  institutions 
like  those  of  Deuteronomy.  But  not  till  the  exile,  whose  results  are  seen  in  Leviticus,  was 
religion  genuinely  nationalized. 

'  Goldziher :  Mythology    aviong  tlie  Hebrews,  p.  272. 

2  Kuenen :  Religion  of  Israel,  i.  43. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  233 

rally,  yielded  to  its  religious  sway.  It  has  furnished  the 
leading  type  of  monotheism  so  far  for  Western  nations  in 
its  ideal  of  absolute  personal  Will.  It  has  thus  become  in 
the  religious  sphere  what  the  Assyrian  kings  were  in  the 
political  or  military.  Christianity,  its  offspring,  held  obe- 
diently to  its  literature  and  prophetic  inspiration,  even  after 
theology  had  advanced  far  beyond  its  national  limitations. 
The  development  of  nationality  was  by  no  means  easy. 
The  Hebrews  were  a  mixed  people  —  half  Arab,  half 
Canaanite — for  centuries,  and  their  special  Law  {tdrdJi) 
was  a  slow  evolution,  but  by  singularly  natural  stages, 
largely  from  these  elements.  There  was  in  fact  a  remark- 
able absence  of  break  in  this  process  where  all  has  been 
imagined  to  be  miraculous ;  and  nothing  can  so  perfectly 
refute  the  miraculous  theory  as  the  manner  in  which  each 
stage  in  Hebrew  legislation  interlocks  with  the  preceding, 
from  the  oldest  covenants  and  simplest  free  usages  on 
through  the  Deuteronomic  and  then  to  the  post-exilian 
Levitical  institutions.  Never  till  the  latest  epochs  had 
the  Hebrews  a  recognized  religious  law.  The  national 
god  had  no  constitutional  support  or  statute.  The  influ- 
ences of  the  Babylonian  exile,  as  already  shown  in  a  pre- 
vious chapter,  were  the  culminating  force  to  this  result, 
ending  in  the  popular  consecration  of  religion  to  nation- 
ality. In  the  great  meetings  called  by  Nehemiah  ^  and 
Ezra  after  the  return  from  Babylon,  the  earlier  migration 
covenanted  to  build  a  State  and  establish  Jahveh  in  the 
centre  of  his  people  on  a  throne  of  historical  laws. 

The  early  aspirations  of  the  Hebrews  after  a  tribal  god 
are  the  substance  of  the  Mosaic  tradition  as  now  worked 
over  in  the  Old  Testament  books.  They  furnish  the  key 
to  their  Abrahamic  call  and  covenant,  to  their  Exodus 
epos,  to  their  exchange  of  the  more  generic  name  Elohim 
for  that  of  Jahveh,  as  sign  of  unity,  supremacy,  holiness. 

'  See  Nehemiah,  x   29.     Kuenen  :  Religion  oi  hrael,  \\   229 


234  DEVELOPMENT. 

It  was  as  natural  for  them  as  for  the  other  tribes,  all  of 
whom  had  their  local  divinities,  and  all  were  mixed  in  the 
Hebrew  mind.  It  is  difficult  to  describe  a  process,  each 
step  of  which  has  been  covered  by  the  succeeding  one,  and 
by  the  reconstruction  of  ideas,  traditions,  and  literature  in 
a  new  interest,  down  to  the  great  reconstruction  of  the  tra- 
ditions and  laws  into  the  Levitical  institutions  by  Ezra 
and  the  other  priestly  scribes,  from  538  to  458  B.  C, 
under  the  influence  of  the  Babylonian  exile,  and  brought 
to  Judea  by  him  at  the  latter  date. 

But  we  may  specially  note  the  great  —  later,  I  cannot  but 
think  —  recognized  significance  of  the  name  JaJivch,  "He 
that  is,"  with  a  future  as  well  as  present  force;  in  other 
words,  simply  the  real  God,  as  contrasted  with  all  other 
national  gods,  who  were  rejected  because  held  to  be  false. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  original  selection  of  this  term  did  not 
imply  positive  monotheism  nor  exalted  purity ;  but  it  was 
well  fitted,  in  the  developed  use  of  it,  to  imply  the  con- 
centration of  thoroughly  earnest  minds  on  truth.  Here 
was  a  germ  of  moral  allegiance,  which  promised,  in  Semi- 
tic hands,  to  press  forward  into  passionate  rejection  of  that 
indifference  to  contrasts  of  name  and  quality  which  inheres 
in  polytheism.  In  the  higher  minds  at  least,  it  would  be 
developed  into  an  intense  hatred  for  the  unconscious  im- 
moralities of  old  Semitic  worship.  The  moral  exaltation 
of  Hebrew  prophecy,  that  grandest  gift  of  Semitism  to 
the  human  race,  was  thus  in  some  measure  foreshadowed 
by  the  Hebrew  tribes  in  their  earliest  conscious  acts  of  free 
religious  choice.  It  was  not,  as  Robertson  Smith  would 
argue,  a  supreme  proof  "  that  the  Old  Testament  religion 
is  no  mere  natural  variety  of  Semite  monolatry,  but  a  dis- 
pensation of  the  true  and  eternal  religion  of  the  spiritual 
God."  ^  It  is  a  perfectly  natural  Semitic  development. 
They  did  not  stand  in  the  "  secret  counsel  of  Jehovah,"  — 

1  Lectures  on  Old  Testanient.,  p.  273. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  235 

there  is  no  such  secret  counsel.  They  did  what  ideaUsts 
do  on  given  conditions.  The  full  ripening  and  purifica- 
tion of  that  noble  germ  was  very  gradual.  The  Jahveh 
of  the  later  Isaiah  was  no  immediate  inspiration  of  unity 
and  holiness.  He  grew  (as  we  have  already  shown)  from 
a  beginning  not  essentially  different  from  the  Asshur  of 
Assyria  or  the  Chaldean  Adrammelech.  His  palpable 
associations  were  with  the  solar  fires,  the  destroying  and 
productive  forces  of  Nature,  vitalized  with  conscious  pur- 
pose, omnipotent  to  create  or  to  kill,  knowing  no  impulse 
towards  the  disobedient  but  to  exterminate  them,^  and 
specially  determined  in  his  volition  by  the  peculiar  for- 
tunes of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt  and  Canaan,  as  well  as 
by  the  free  traditional  worship  on  the  high  places  prac- 
tised by  the  tribes  to  a  comparatively  late  period.  Made 
thoroughly  earnest  by  tribal  sufferings  and  the  extremes 
of  desire  and  defeat,  they  gradually  shook  free  their  ideal 
from  these  material  investments,  and  made  it  at  once  a 
supreme  personality  and  a  righteous  law.  But  through 
every  subsequent  phase  it  never  escapes  that  first  anthro- 
pomorphic, arbitrary  meaning  of  Jahveh, — a  conscious 
Will,  dividing  right  from  wrong,  determining  the  true,  re- 
jecting and  destroying  the  false,  with  two-edged  sword, 
rewarding  obedience  and  punishing  disobedience  in  ways 
of  its  own  choosing.  This  institution  of  morality  and 
holiness  by  force  of  an  omnipotent  Will  is  just  as  true  of 
the  Christ  of  the  Last  Judgment  as  of  the  Jahveh  of  the 
Exodus  and  the  Asshur  of  the  Ninevite  kings. 

The  phases  of  this  natural  evolution  were  determined  by 
the  national  destinies.  The  God  of  Amos,  as  of  the  later 
Isaiah,  was  an  outgrowth  of  secular  causes,  a  product  of 
the  whole  history  of  Hebrew  relations  with  the  human 
race.  Whatever  cultivated  their  sense  of  nationality, 
those    Semitic    instincts    of  personal    and    tribal   will,  of 

^  Genesis,  vi.  7. 


236  DEVELOPMENT. 

exclusiveness  in  the  claim  of  authority  and  in  the  sense 
of  devotion,  went  to  the  formation  of  the  rehgious  ideal. 
Its  roots  therefore  are  in  Canaanite  as  well  as  Chaldean 
soil,  and  the  parallel  strata  there  show  the  universality  of 
this  rule.  That  seething  mixture  of  humanity  and  bar- 
barism in  the  old  Hebrew  laws  and  life  was  analogous  to 
the  combination  of  military  frenzy  and  industrial  ardor 
in  the  Assyrio-Babylonian  world.  And  that  majesty  of 
righteous  law  which  bowed  the  souls  of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
and  Jesus,  and  inspired  their  immortal  protests  against  the 
vice  and  formalism  of  their  times,  came  slowly  in  the  fires 
of  spiritual  experience  out  of  the  primal  concentrated  aim 
to  find  a  separate  tribal  god.  In  this  began  the  sense  of 
holiness.  For  separateness  meant  inviolability;  in  other 
words,  reverence,  awe,  authority  of  conscience,  and  faith. 
The  same  word  {kddosli)  signifies  apart,  and  holy.  And 
that  aloofness,  which  was  at  first  the  symbol  of  tribal  pride 
and  ambition,  became  a  purity,  which  spurned  the  pre- 
tences of  formal  piety  and  the  pride  of  human  tyrannies, 
and  hastened  with  impartial  thunders  to  the  help  of  the 
weak  and  oppressed.^  Thus  the  petty  passions  of  undis- 
ciplined and  roving  clans  are  slowly  transformed  into 
universalities  of  imrnortal  principle.  Such  is  spiritual 
evolution.  Not  mere  creation  of  the  greater  by  the  less, 
but  the  implication  of  natural  intuition,  the  sacred  sense 
of  obligation,  the  cosmic  unsearchable  beauty  and  order 
in  every  step  of  growth. 

Nor  is  the  transformation  at  an  end.  Even  the  high- 
est forms  of  thought  and  feeling  in  Hebrew  experience, 
as  in  that  of  other  early  races,  were  very  crude  stages  of 
this  implication.  They  were  conceived  as  external  reve- 
lations, words  of  Jahveh  spoken  to  his  prophets  or  his 
people,  and  through  them   to  mankind.      A  divine  Will, 

1  So  the  purity  of  Ahura  in  the  Avesta  is  most  conspicuous  in  his  abhorrence  of  sin. 
Ya^na,  xxxi.   13. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  237 

analogous  to  their  human  ideal,  a  voluntary  choice  be- 
tween two  opposites,  a  distinctly  conceived  motive  and 
purpose,  impressing  itself  on  man  as  an  instrument,  were 
posited  outside  man  and  the  world  as  the  ultimate  source 
of  truth  and  ground  of  righteousness.  This  personal  re- 
lation was  so  intensely  conceived  by  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
that  their  language  assumed  them  to  be  under  a  divine 
possession,  and  took  the  form  of  a  religious  and  moral 
absolutism,  imposing  enough  to  bring  all  civilizations  to 
their  feet.  But,  overwhelming  as  they  are  to  the  anthro- 
pomorphic instinct,  these  conceptions  have  always  ignored 
the  direct  participation  of  human  nature  itself  in  all  the 
truth  and  right  it  is  cognizant  of,  and  the  impossibility 
of  receiving  either  the  one  or  the  other  form  of  experi- 
ence from  a  Will  outside  of  the  nature  of  things  and  of 
man.  To  suppose  such  a  Will,  selecting  definite  methods 
of  education  for  a  special  people,  and  communicating  these 
to  chosen  instruments,  not  through  experience  or  study, 
but  by  direct  influx,  was  but  a  Semitic  exaggeration  or 
extreme  form,  though  primary,  of  what  has  always  been, 
and  still  is,  the  popular  idea  of  religious  truth.  For  the 
notion  of  personal  commandment  is  here  intensified  by  its 
connection  with  the  passion  for  national  unity,  expressed 
by  a  central  theocratic  ruler,  and  his  extension  to  world- 
sway.  It  was  the  natural  theistic  instinct  of  the  Hebrews 
that  made  them  insist  on  having  a  king ;  an  instinct  which 
a  troop  of  judges  or  seers  could  not  satisfy.  The  Semitic 
God  is  the  divinized  king,  and  when  lifted  above  all  earthly 
kings  is  the  king  still ;  holy  because  separate,  and  awful  in 
the  power  to  do,  not  as  he  ought,  but  as  he  wills.  This  is 
the  Hebrew  theocracy,  so  potent  in  its  persistence  in  the 
Christian  church.  I  have  no  doubt  that  monotheism  is, 
as  a  rule,  reached  through  tribai  or  national  consciousness, 
and  that  Hebrew  and  Semitic  history  herein  represents  a 
decisive  phase  in  the  history  of  mankind. 


238  DEVELOPMENT. 

In  thus  ascribing  monotheism  in  a  large  degree  to  a 
poHtical  experience,  I  do  not  discredit  what  is  called  the 
intuition  of  God,  which  in  fact  merely  takes  its  conditions 
therefrom.  This  intuition  cannot  properly  be  defined  as 
teaching  any  special  form  of  deity ;  it  is  simply  the  per- 
ception of  substance  as  higher  than  phenomena,  and  as 
necessary  to  their  existence,  and  associates  itself  more 
and  more  with  the  intuition  of  duty,  holiness,  right,  with- 
out which  no  conception  of  God  can  exist.  Its  highest 
form  is  the  result  of  the  deepest  religious  and  philo- 
sophical culture.  For  this  reason,  no  conception  of  a 
personal  voluntary  agent,  apart  from  the  universe,  can 
finally  satisfy  it.  Substance,  as  inscrutable  and  indefin- 
able, the  infinite  reality  that  underlies  all  order,  beauty, 
goodness,  and  contains  all  intelligence,  all  principles  and 
laws,  is  thus,  properly  speaking,  the  universal  significance 
of  the  intuition  of  God.  To  this  highest  form  Semitism, 
in  its  great  religions,  does  not  consciously  attain,  however 
it  be  involved  in  their  logical  evolutionary  necessities,  as 
in  those  of  all  other  great  faiths  of  mankind.  Not  more 
in  the  Old  Testament  of  the  Hebrews  than  in  the  tablets 
of  Asshur,  is  this  pure  conception  of  deity  found.  The 
New  Testament  religion  is  also  worship  of  a  personal 
Will ;  a  pure  monotheism.  It  is  anthropomorphic,  and 
creates  a  God  in  human  form  outside  of  and  above  hu- 
manity; and,  although  bringing  this  God  into  closer  rela- 
tions with  individual  feelings  and  freedom  than  the  older 
faith  from  which  it  grew,  does  not  pursue  unity  or  holi- 
ness as  an  ideal  with  more  ardor  than  did  the  Hebrew 
nationality,  which  required  the  surrender  of  all  private 
desires  to  an  all-embracing  sovereign  Will,  separate  in  its 
personality  from  the  human  soul. 

It  is  in  tracing  this  passion  for  national  unity  in  its 
religious  expression,  that  we  learn  the  vast  indebtedness 
of  the  Hebrews  for  their  whole  religious  development  to 


THE    HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  239 

the  stimulus  of  those  foreign  nationaHties  which  they  re- 
garded as  its  foes.  The  legends  in  Genesis,  which  pur- 
port to  give  the  earliest  history  of  mankind,  are  palpably 
shaped  by  a  purpose  to  identify  the  passions  of  Israel 
with  the  will  of  Jahveh  as  maker  and  governor  of  the 
world.  In  this  marvellous  series  the  sovereign  claims  of 
the  chosen  people  are  affirmed,  and  their  destiny  fixed 
from  the  beginning  by  the  Supreme  Cause  of  all  things. 
In  the  oldest  portions  there  linger  polytheistic  hints  and 
traditions,^  and  there  are  marks  of  spontaneous  poetic 
faith  which  indicate  an  early  origin.  But  with  the  crude 
exclusiveness  of  the  tribe  are  combined  elements  of  uni- 
versality,—  a  conception  of  history  as  a  whole,  a  direct 
recognition  of  other  nations,  and  of  a  common  origin  and 
interest  for  all  mankind  ;  an  effort  to  deal,  in  a  simple  half- 
conscious  way,  indeed,  with  the  problems  of  social  order, 
of  human  relations,  of  life  and  death,  with  the  law  of  na- 
tional retribution  and  the  sense  of  a  secular  providence, 
which  can  only  be  explained  by  the  action  of  some  great 
force  in  various  ways  developing  and  counteracting  the 
primitive  instincts  and  desires.  This  was  Babylon,  where 
the  old  national  traditions  were  worked  up,  during  the 
Captivity,  under  the  stress  of  national  sorrows  and  reviv- 
ing hopes,  amidst  a  vast  concourse  of  nations  {-TrdfxfxiKToq 
6)(\o<i),  their  collision  of  interests,  commercial,  industrial, 
military,  and  their  cosmopolitan  experience.  Here  the 
earnest  theism  of  Persia  and  its  large  toleration  not  only 
permitted  the  Hebrew  exiles  to  study  their  own  fortunes 
and  those  of  the  human  race  in  quietness  of  mind,  but 
even  stimulated  their  productive  faculty  to  the  great  task 

1  The  latest  Biblical  studies  prove  conclusively  that  the  present  form,  and  in  large  degi  ee 
the  substance,  of  the  Genesis  stories,  the  special  Levitical  legislation  and  the  historical 
books,  —  in  short,  the  body  of  the  Pentateuch,  —  is  the  result  of  elaboration  and  construc- 
tion during  and  after  the  exile.  But  these  historical  studies  of  portions  of  the  text  are  not  our 
main  reliance.  The  more  primal  origin  of  the  whole  series  is  equally  obvious.  Earlier 
borrowing  from  Babylonian,  as  well  as  Canaanite  and  Phcenician,  must  explain  the  basis 
of  these  legends.     Kuenen  :  Religion  of  Israel,  ii.  159-168. 


240  DEVELOPMENT. 

of  literary  and  religious  construction,  never  before  fairly 
undertaken.  But  besides  bearing  an  important  part  in  the 
final  shaping  of  the  Genesis  myths,  Assyria  and  Chaldea 
were  in  large  degree  the  sources  of  their  earlier  forms. 

The  Hebrews  themselves  conceded  to  Babylon  an  im- 
mense antiquity,  as  the  city  of  Nimrod,^  in  the  third  gen- 
eration after  Noah.^  It  is  inferred  from  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  that  a  scientific  astronomy  centred  there  two 
thousand  years  before  Christ,^  resting  on  the  zodiac,  the 
division  of  the  great  circle  into  three  hundred  and  sixty 
degrees,  and  all  the  large  and  small  divisions  of  time 
known  to  us, — the  planetary  week,  the  gnomon,  the  solar 
and  lunar  years.*  According  to  Diodorus,  the  Babylonian 
had  conceived  of  the  world  as  an  established  divine  order, 
and  as  regulated  by  guardian  powers,  each  in  his  station, 
planetary  or  stellar.^  It  is  obvious  that  no  comparatively 
rude  race  like  the  Hebrew  could  have  come  into  close 
relations  with  a  civilization  so  ancient  and  so  ripe,  without 
drawing  largely  on  its  fund  of  traditional  beliefs.  Here 
indeed  we  find  the  cradle  of  Semitism ;  the  natural  key 
to  those  imaginative  Hebrew  myths  which  have  been 
regarded  as  the  gift  of  an  inspired  race  to  the  religious 
nature  of  man.^ 

The  Genesis  story  or  creation  gives  a  divine  authority 
to  the  Hebrew  Sabbath  as  the  day  of  rest  for  the  national 
God  after  six  days  creative  work.*^  This  is  manifestly  the 
motive  of  the  distinctive  Hebrew  legend,  which  in  many 
respects  grew  out  of  the  vast  elaboration  of  the  Sabbatic 
idea  by  the  priestly  legislation  after  the  exile,  though  of 

1  Genesis,  x.  lo. 

'  Carre  :  L'Ancicn  Orient,  ii    445. 

*  Lenormant :  Essai  de  comtnentaire  des  fragments  cosinogoniqiies, 

*  Lenormant :  Manual  cf  Ancient  History  of  the  East,  ii.  185. 
^  Carr^  ."  L''Ancie?i  Orient,  ii.  469,  470- 

^  It  is  only  in  accord  with  its  whole  history  that  the  Jewish  people  have  concentrated 
their  highest  traditional  respect  on  the  Babylonian  Gemara  (or  Commentary  on  the  Mishnah) 
instead  of  the  Jerusalem.     Wiinsche:    Der  Talmud. 

'  Genesis,  i.  i  ;  ii.  3. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  24I 

course  the  Hebrew  Sabbath  is  not  due  to  this  alone,  being 
of  far  earHer  origin.^  But  tlie  division  of  days  by  sevens 
is  far  older  than  the  Hebrew  Sabbath.  It  belongs  to  the 
earliest  fund  of'  religious  traditions.  It  is  not  founded  on 
any  recurrent  period  in  the  order  of  Nature,  yet  it  is  not 
arbitrary,  still  less  mystical.'^  It  is  a  part  of  that  primi- 
tive astronomy  which  was  the  infantile  unity  of  science 
and  faith,  and  appears  on  a  gigantic  scale  in  all  the  cos- 
mogonies of  antiquity.  The  central  figures  in  this  cultus 
of  the  stars  are  the  five  planets,  with  the  sun  and  moon, 
observable  among  all  the  heavenly  host  by  their  relative 
change  of  place  and  apparent  specialty  of  function.  They 
were  symbolized  by  the  seven  stages  of  the  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  ziggiirat,  or  towered  temple ;  in  the  seven 
walls  of  Babylon,  and  in  the  seven  days  of  the  week,  the 
seventh  day  being  consecrated  as  a  day  of  release  from 
labor.  An  old  Accadian  calendar,^  probably  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  before  Christ,  gives  the  special  festival  for 
every  day,  the  seventh  being  always  designated  as  a  Sab- 
bath i^Sabattu)  ;  on  which  the  king  himself  shall  not 
change  his  garments,  nor  ride,  nor  sacrifice,  till  night, 
nor  even  administer  the  government.  From  this  royal 
rest  appropriated  by  the  Semitic  races  of  Chaldea,  it  was 
but  a  step  in  the  intenser  anthropomorphism  of  the  He- 
brews to  make  their  own  God  the  example  of  Sabbatic 
release,  and  to  pronounce  it  as  his  command.  The  sec- 
ond Jahvistic  account  of  creation^  has  more  signs  of 
antiquity  and  originality  than  the  other,  and  is  referred 
by  Kuenen  to  a  possibly  earlier  period  than  the  exile ; 
but  on  doubtful  grounds.  In  the  Chaldean  cosmogony, 
as  reported  by  Berosus,  ^   in  the  Phoenician  of  Sanchoni- 

'  Kuenen:  Religion  of  Israel,  ii.  280. 

°  See  Philo's  absurd  reasons  for  a  supposed  sanctity  in  the  number  seven.  Vol.  i.  chap. 
xxx.-xliii. 

'  Records  of  i lie  Past,  vii.  157.  *  Genesis,  ii-  4,  ei  seq. 

°  Time  of  Alexander.  Berosus  drew  his  account  from  ancient  sources,  and  his  fragments 
are  preserved  in  Polyhistor,  Arbydenus,  and  Eiisebius. 

16 


242  DEVELOPMENT. 

athon,  and  in  the  cuneiform  inscription,  which  is  now 
believed  to  be  Assyrian  and  not  Accadian,  the  beginning 
of  things  is  the  formless  chaos,  full  of  incomplete  germs 
and  half-made  creatures, —  Tiamat  {Tiamtu  of  the  As- 
syrians, 77zi<//^^  of  Damascius,  Thalatta  o{  Berosus)  mean- 
ing the  sea  in  the  sense  of  abyss.  The  Hebrew  expression 
for  this  first  material  of  the  world  is  Tchom,  the  same  word 
as  Tiamat,  and  characterized  as  without  form  and  void. 
Compare  the  first  sentence  of  the  Genesis  story  with  the 
cuneiform  Creation  tablets  :  ^  — 

"  When  above  were  not  raised  the  heavens,  and  below  on  the 
earth  a  plant  had  not  grown,  and  the  bounds  of  the  abyss  had  not 
been  opened,  the  chaos  of  waters  was  the  producing  mother  of  all 
things.  And  tlie  waters  were  gathered  into  one  place.  But  a  tree 
had  not  grown  :  a  flower  had  not  unfolded,  when  the  gods  had  not 
yet  sprung  up,  and  order  did  not  exist.  .  .  .  Then  were  made  tiie 
great  gods.  All  that  was  done  by  the  great  gods  was  delightful 
[very  good]  to  them."'' 

"  He  (Anu)  constructed  constellations,  like  figures  of  animals 
(zodiac)  ;  by  them  dividing  the  year  into  twelve  months  :  planets 
also  for  rising  and  setting  ("  signs  ").  Wandering  stars  to  shine, 
harmless,  in  their  courses.  He  made  the  gates  strong,  right  and  left. 
He  set  the  moon  to  rule  the  night.  .  .  .  And  the  sun  arose  in  glory." 

The  lunar  phases  are  perhaps  described,  yet  in  a  pas- 
sage extremely  obscure;"^  while  in  another  connection 
there  is  recorded  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath,^  though 
we  know  from  other  sources  that  the  seven-day  ^\•eek  and 
Sabbath  rest  are  really  Accadian  institutions  for  kings  and 
people.^  The  close  resemblance  between  this  very  ancient 
cosmogony  and  its  Hebrew  analogue  is  broken  by  the 
single  circumstance  that  it  symbolizes  the  steps  of  creation 
by  successive  pairs  of  male  and  female  powers,  and  seeks 

*  Records  of  the  Past,  ix.  167. 

2  Smith:  Cluildean  Account  of  Genesis.  In  Sayce's  edition  (18S0)  a  different  translation 
is  given,  p.  57. 

8  Smith:   C/t/t7<inin  Account  of  Genesis  fSayce),  pp.  64,  65. 

«  Ibid.,  p.  30S.  6  Ibid.,  p.  89. 


THE   HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  243 

to  express  their  stability  rather  than  any  special  order  of 
production.  The  successive  steps  of  creation,  of  which  so 
much  has  been  made  by  the  harmonists,  are  not  very  well 
made  out,  and  their  enumeration  by  days  I  find  myself 
unable  to  recognize  at  all  as  yet.^  The  account,  so  far  as 
it  is  rightly  interpreted,  may  however,  as  Sayce  suggests,^ 
rest  on  older  traditions  ;  and  although  of  comparatively  late 
Assyrian,  not  Accadian,  origin,  it  is  certainly  older  than 
the  present  form  of  the  Hebrew  story.  But  a  fragment, 
now  missing,  is  believed  to  have  described  the  emergence 
of  light,  atmosphere,  land,  and  plants. 

Finally,  man  appears,  created  by  Hca,  and  is  commanded 
to  worship  daily  in  fear  of  his  Maker, 

"That  they  might  obey  (?),  he  has  created  mankind  ;  the  merciful 
one  with  whom  is  hfe.  May  he  establish  and  never  may  his  word 
be  forgotten  in  the  mouth  of  the  black-headed  race  whom  his  hands 
created." 

•'  May  he  also  remove  mischief  ;  may  he  overcome  it  for  the  future. 
Because  all  places  he  made,  he  pierced,  he  strengthened.  Lord  of 
the  world  is  his  name,  called  even  Father  Bel.  The  names  of  the 
angels  he  gave  to  them." 

"  With  friend  and  comrade  speech  thou  makest.  In  the  underworld 
speech  thou  makest  to  the  propitious  genii.  When  thou  speakest  also 
he  will  give."  •' 

What  we  must  specially  notice  is  that  the  Chaldean 
account,  as  at  once  combining  in  one  system  many 
primitive  elements  of  belief  which  do  not  appear  in  the 
Hebrew,  and  resting  upon  ideas  which  could  not  possibly 
have  been  evolved  from  the  Genesis  story,  is  obviously 
more  original,  while  the  Hebrew  is  its  adaptation  to  the 

1  Of  the  Iwpothetic  number  of  tablets,  only  four  have  been  discovered,  of  which  that 
called  the  seventh  is  so  called  only  provisionally  ;  and  those  conjectured  to  be  the  second  and 
third  are  in  the  highest  degree  doubtful,  to  the  uninitiated  eye  certainly,  affording  no  evidence 
whatever  of  the  special-creation  works  the  translators  have  found  in  them.  (Sayce's  Smith: 
Chaldean  Accoicnt  of  Genesis,  pp.  62,  63.)  The  first  ascribes  the  generation  of  heaven  and 
earth  to  "the  boundless  deep,"  "  the  chaos  of  the  sea,"  conceived  as  a  female,  and  before  the 
existence  of  the  gods  themselves.     Ibid.,  pp.  57,  58. 

^  Smith:  Chaldean  A  ccotpit  of  Genesis,  p.  22.  ^  Ibid.  (Sayce),  p.  73-7S. 


244  DEVELOPMENT. 

supremacy  of  the  national  God.  In  Semitic  cosmogo- 
nies, as  given  by  Berosus  and  others,  the  water  is  the 
first  material  of  creation.  The  Phoenician  and  Hebrew 
"  deep "  was  a  waste  abyss  over  which  wandered  the 
wind,  or  breath.  So  Chaldean  and  Phoenician  civilization 
began  with  amphibious  deities,  having  fish  heads  above 
the  man's ;  and  the  probably  Semitic-Polynesian  myth 
makes  the  father  of  gods  and  men  fish  up  the  earth  from 
the  sca.^  It  is  obvious  that  such  beliefs  as  these  point  to 
centres  of  civilization  on  the  seashore.  The  intimation  is 
confirmed  by  numerous  records  going  to  show  that  the 
shores  of  the  Erythraean  Sea  were  the  great  point  of  de- 
parture for  civilized  Semitism.  But  the  cosmogonies 
which  begin  from  ocean  as  a  chaotic  abyss,  contain- 
ing the  germs  of  things,  rest  on  a  wider  basis  than  any 
such  special  geographical  location.  They  are  found 
among  mountain  tribes  as  well,  and  at  the  root  of  Aryan 
as  well  as  Semitic  mythology,  and  even  of  the  oldest  phi- 
losophies. Their  ocean  is  the  brooding  atmosphere  of 
space,  conceived  as  preceding  the  gathering  of  all  floating 
seeds  of  life  into  a  living  world,'^  the  appointment  of  plane- 
tary courses,  and  the  orderly  voyage  of  the  Sun  scattering 
the  powers  of  life  and  growth  around  him  as  he  moves. 
Even  here  water  plays  an  important  part.  The  interest 
is  mainly  centred  in  the  conflict  of  the  lightning  or  the 
sunbeam  with  the  piled  and  rolling  raincloud,  —  the  storm- 
struggle  which  opens  the  mysterious  storehouse  of  waters 
hidden  in  the  black  roaring  deeps.  As  Indra  slays  "  the 
enveloping "  (Vritra)  serpent  in  the  writhing  clouds  in 
Hindu  mythology,  as  Tistrya  fights  the  demon  Apaosha 
and  expels  him  from  the  great  sea  Vouru-kasha,  and  Thrae- 

'  Fornander :   The  Polytzesiizn  Race,  p.  63. 

-  Eckstein  {Les  Sources  de  la  Cosmogonie  de  Sattckoniathoti)  has  explored  this  field. 
Berosus'  Chaldean  cosmogony  traces  all  things  back  to  Thalatta  or  Tiamat,  containing 
forms  of  mixed  creatures,  —  a  semi-scientific  recognition  of  evolution  and  prngress  from 
the  crude  and  confused  forms  of  life  to  higher  beauty. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  245 

tona  slays  Dahaka,  both  dragons  in  Iranian,  —  as  Apollo 
pierces  the  Python  in  Greek,  — •  so  Bel  divides  in  two  the 
Serpent  (Tiamat),  queen  of  the  Chaldean  Chaotic  Sea. 
The  association  of  vast  resource  and  far-reaching  expan- 
sion with  roaring  and  rolling  waters  is  as  natural  for  pas- 
toral as  for  littoral  tribes.  Space  arid  sea  are  equally 
parents  of  these  amazing  fertilizers  and  producers ;  and 
similar  names  and  legends  would  be  associated  with  these 
infinitudes  of  living  power. ^ 

Look  over  a  boat-side  on  a  breezy  day,  following  the 
wind  out  to  sea,  and  you  will  easily  understand  the  simple 
instincts  to  which  the  waters  were  the  primal  cosmogonic 
element.  What  productive  energy  in  this  undulating  mass, 
vital  in  every  atom ;  in  these  multitudinous  waves,  so  swift 
to  break  up  sunshine  into  fiery  flakes,  and  fling  it  off  in  a 
rain  of  delight !  How  mobile  this  liquid  element,  obedient 
to  stir  of  wind,  to  lead  of  tide  !  To  some  unseen  brooding 
Will  it  seems  to  say,  "  Shape  me  as  you  will,  I  am  ready 
for  your  largest  purpose,  for  your  light  and  your  law  ! 
And  were  they  not  right  who  said,  with  foregleam  of  sci- 
ence, that  the  earth  was  product  of  water?  Are  not  the 
green  islands  its  offspring,  the  continents  its  heaped  sedi- 
ments, the  record  of  its  secular  art?  Has  it  not  piled 
the  countless  layers,  —  its  footfalls,  its  world-architecture? 
And  as  the  living  creatures  came  swarming  in  their  times, 
has  it  not  numbered  and  fed  them  and  laid  them  to  rest 
under  its  gentle  rain  of  atoms,  —  the  continents  crumbled 
as  they  had  been  builded  by  its  hand?  Well  might  we 
fancy  this  rippling  laughter,  this  pulsing  rise  and  fall,  this 
long  commingling  and  commotion,  to  be  the  very  quiver 
of  the  fecund  life  swarming  beneath,  —  a  life  that  foreshad- 
ows all  forms  elsewhere  existing,  and  has  its  foretypes  of 
all  strivings  towards  the  human,  gracious  and  hateful,  noble 
and  mean.     How  universal  the  sea !     The  very  hordes  of 

^  See  tlie  BiindeAesh  story  of  the  sea  Vouru-kasha  (,vii.  xiii.). 


246  DEVELOPMENT. 

its  tide-water  pools  mirror  all  greeds  and  competitions  of 
man,  —  his  Tartar  raids,  his  hermits,  and  his  parasites 
of  thought.  Its  fine  sands  mingle  scent  of  sea-weed  and 
stir  of  minute  life,  the  gleaming  dust  of  shells,  and  the  fric- 
tion of  abraded  stone  ;  no  element  of  that  earth-plasm  for- 
got, which  is  to  bloom  into  herb  and  flower,  and  beast  and 
man.  Its  shores  suggest  what  an  infinitude  of  moods, 
emotions,  aspirations,  passions ;  what  stress  of  resistance 
and  endeavor ;  what  tones  and  harmonies !  The  very 
pebbles  it  rolls  and  heaves  into  barriers  to  its  own  march 
resound  monotonous  with  the  familiar,  ever  unsolved  mys- 
tery of  life  and  death,  the  cry  of  whence  and  whither  that 
ceases  not  from  man's  infancy  to  his  latest  maturity ;  and 
all  is  folded  in  a  deeper  silence  and  peace,  where  the 
mightiest  waste  of  unrecorded  history  lays  its  hand  on 
man's  loneliness  and  fear,  with  gentle  compulsion  to  trust. 
The  Greeks  held  Ocean  to  be  the  father  of  Nemesis,  —  ir- 
reversible moral  sequence;  ethical  requital.  "Retribution," 
says  Sophocles,  "  grows  slowly,  like  the  wave  that  rolls  up 
the  black  sand."  All  nations  have  used  it  as  the  symbol  not 
only  of  slow  retributory  law,  but  of  wisdom  hid  in  fathom- 
less depths,  —  Mimir-wells,  where  the  eye  even  of  a  god  is 
lost  in  gaining  it ;  of  strength  from  patient  discipline,  of 
toil  that  earns  the  victory,  of  far  ventures  for  ideal  ends, — 
man's  eternal  monitor  to  courage  and  progress. 

For  the  sea  is  no  mere  heap  of  salted  waves ;  it  is  an 
idea ;  nor  would  it  otherwise  have  been  the  mighty  reser- 
voir of  mythology  and  faith.  How  full  is  man's  speech 
and  song  of  its  ideal  meaning  as  lord  of  wisdom  and  pro- 
vidence !  Glaucus  the  mythic  fisherman,  longing  for  an 
ocean  birth,  and  fascinated  by  the  taste  of  briny  plants, 
became  a  sea-god,  blessing  the  people  of  the  isles  and 
shores  with  divine  forewarnings ;  builder  too  of  that  mys- 
tic Argo  which  bore  the  tragic  freight  of  sympathies  and 
conquests  for  the  Mediterranean  races.     All  the  old  sea- 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  247 

gods  are  prophets  and  teachers  of  the  arts  of  life.  Out 
of  ocean-depths  comes  up  Cannes,  Cadmus,  Melkarth  of 
Tyre.  Into  them  sails  away  Mexican  Quetzalcoatl,  fugitive 
from  the  world  he  has  blessed,  to  return  in  better  days. 
Out  of  deluge-waters  emerge  good  men,  in  arks  and  with 
sacred  words  unlost,  to  re-people  and  rebuild  the  earth. 
Out  of  the  welter  of  a  ruined  world,  the  twilight  of  the 
Scandinavian  gods,  uprise  new  isles,  in  whose  springing 
grass  are  hid  the  dice  of  Destiny  unharmed.  So  new 
religions  rise  from  the  chaos  of  outworn  beliefs,  to  prove 
the  eternal  youth  of  the  soul,  whose  births  are  cyclic,  like 
the  returning  tides.  Proclus  said  with  reason  that  "  Ocean 
is  the  cause  of  all  motion,  intellectual  and  natural."  To 
the  ancients  these  symbols  were  the  ocean  itself;  for  the 
moderns  they  must  be  read  between  the  hnes  of  its  visible 
outward  movement. 

Thus  conceived,  the  primal  deep,  whether  of  sky  or  sea, 
is  not  a  material  waste,  but  a  prolific  idea,  in  the  religious 
consciousness  of  man.  Whether  personal  Will,  which  in 
the  Chaldean,  Phoenician,  and  the  Hebrew  cosmogony  is 
the  creative  force, ^  is  emphasized  as  the  organizer  of 
chaos  {Bel),  or  as  shaper  of  it  (E/o/iim)  in  the  beginning, 
— whether  as  a  mysterious  desire  {Pothos)  inspiring  it,  or  as 
Tauthe,  the  intelligible  creator  who  brings  wisdom  into  the 
Phoenician  world  of  man,  —  is  not  matter  of  essential  dif- 
ference. The  Chaldean  Chaos,  as  well  as  the  Phoenician,  is 
itself  conceived  as  a  person ;  and  so  is  the  Hebrew  Chaos. 
"  Creation  out  of  nothing,"  that  intense  monotheism  which 
has  been  ascribed  to  the  Elohistic  will,  is  indeed  as  con- 
trary to   primitive   intuition   as   it  is   to   science ;  ^    it  is  a 

1  How  much  more  strongly  pronounced  is  this  element  of  Will  here  than  in  Hindu 
mythology,  which  draws  the  world  out  of  the  One,  —  the  unity  of  Being,  "breathing  not," 
neither  "  existence  nor  non-being,"  creating  the  worlds  with  a  thought  !  Hesiod,  again,  like 
the  Phoenician,  rests  creation,  not  on  will,  but  on  desire  or  love.  It  is  in  the  Avesta  that  is 
seen  this  Aryo-Semitic  will-power  fully  recognized  as  the  creative  force. 

^  The  Hebrew  word  bara.  rendered  ''  created,"  properly  meant  shaped-,  out  of  some  given 
material,  and  so  brought  forth  thence.     See  Fiirst  and  Gesenius. 


248  DEVELOPMENT, 

modern  abstraction  unknown  to  the  Hebrew  myth,  as  to 
the  other  analogous  ones,  from  El  to  Zeus.  In  these 
cases  the  abyss  remains  behind  the  personal  act,  which 
shapes  it  to  orderly  heaven  and  earth.  And  the  imagi- 
native aspect  in  which  the  abyss  presents  itself  forbids 
us  to  regard  it,  so  far  at  least,  as  a  materialistic  concep- 
tion: Nature  was  full  of  personal,  human  meaning,  the 
invincible  Pothos  or  Eros  of  the  Phoenician  and  Greek. ^ 
The  difference  seems  to  be  that  in  the  Chaldean  creation 
this  personality  is  divided  into  a  series,  beginning  with 
chaos  conceived  as  female;  while  in  the  Hebrew  it  has 
completer  unity  through  all  stages,  as  Elohim  conceived 
as  a  man.  Even  this  unity  is  of  later  origin,  and  the  very 
plurality  of  Elohim  is  strong  evidence  of  an  original  con- 
currence of  many  wills.  The  stricter  monotheism  belongs 
to  the  prophetic  and  post-exilian  theology,  and  is  certainly 
the  Jahvistic  elaboration  of  ideas  closely  resembling  the 
Chaldean. 

That  half-disguised  personal  Will  in  the  Chaldean  Tia- 
mat,  at  the  beginning,  is  worthy  of  notice.     Damascius^ 

—  who  derived  his  Chaldean  cosmogony  from  ancient 
sources  —  gives  a  series  of  male  and  female  principles, 
preceding  the  positively  creative  work,  which  coincide 
with  the  birth  of  primal   gods    in  the  tablet  inscriptions, 

—  all  centring  in  Tiamat,  the  living  abyss.  From  these 
comes  Belus,  the  demiurge  or  positive  framer  of  things. 
The  imagination  of  the  ancient  world  always  filled  up  the 
unity  or  space  of  religious  conceptions  with  multiplica- 
tions of  names,  either  of  special  functions  or  successive 
generations  or  times.  So  Elohim  says,  "  Let  ^ls  make 
man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness."  But  personality  is 
always  involved.  To  suppose  that  by  chaos  a  material 
origin  is  intended,  is    a  delusion  read  into  the  old  texts. 

1  Cory :  A  ncient  Fragments,  p.  92. 

2  Lenormant:  Chaldean  Magic,  pp.  122,  123. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  249 

Early  mythology  is  imaginative,  and  never  conceives  of 
creation  otherwise  than  as  the  evolutionary  act  of  living 
force ;  not  always  of  direct  personal  volition,  but  of  life 
in  some  form.  The  cosmos  itself  swarms  with  individual 
being,  and  there  is  nothing  inert  or  dead.  Desire  is  as 
old  as  the  world,  and  inherent  in  its  elements.  Intelli- 
gence lives  in  the  plasmic  germ,  and  does  not  wait  for 
man's  upright  form  to  hold  it.  The  waters  of  Tiamat 
teem  with  strange  monsters,  not  accounted  for  save  by 
her  living  sway.  Order  enters  when  Bel,  the  male  prin- 
ciple, proceeds  to  divide  her  substance,  destroying  the 
crude  abortions  of  the  dark,  and  separates  heaven  and 
earth,  slaying  her  dragon  life,  in  whose  far-stretching 
monstrous  folds  all  elements  were  involved.  A  Hebrew 
reminiscence  of  this  myth  survives  in  the  seventy-fourth 
Psalm,  where  God  is  praised  for  breaking  the  heads  of  the 
sea-monsters,  and  notably  giving  the  dead  leviathan  for 
meat  to  his  people;  and  again,  in  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah^ 
concerning  Babylon,  where  judgment  is  invoked  upon  her 
as  "leviathan,  the  piercing  serpent,  and  the  dragon  that  is 
in  the  sea."  The  pictures  of  the  sea-monster  in  the  one 
hundred  and  fourth  Psalm  and  in  Job  ^  may  be  added  in 
proof  of  this  traditional  association  of  the  waters  with 
monsters  of  uncontrolled  power,  —  quite  as  likely  to  be  a 
reminiscence  of  the  chaos-myth  of  Bel  and  Tiamat  as  of 
the  Egyptian  crocodile.  The  grand  intuition,  here  worth 
all  other  mythic  elements  together,  is  the  universal  deriva- 
tion of  order  from  strife  and  strength  of  Will,  from  oldest 
Ophion  and  Cronos  to  Hellenic  Zeus, —  the  supreme  secret 
of  philosophy  and  conduct,  the  meaning  of  Dualism  in  all 
ages  of  the  world.  Not  less  striking  is  the  human  form 
given  in  both  cosmogonies,  and  the  rationality  of  man  as 
partaking  of  the  Divine  mind.  Elohim  creates  man  in  his 
own  (physical)  image;   and  in  the  second  account,  Jahveh- 

'  Isaiah,  xxvii.  i.  2  job,  xli.  ;  iii.  S. 


250  DEVELOPMENT. 

Elohim  makes  him  out  of  his  breath  and  the  dust  of  the 
earth.  In  both  cases  the  materials  are  palpably  sensuous, 
and  the  likeness  is  doubtless  mainly  physical.^  So  in  the 
Polynesian-creation  myth,  which  follows  the  Hebrew,  even 
in  details.^  Man,  whether  formed  of  dust  and  breath,  or 
of  earth  and  brain,  can  be  like  his  Maker  only  in  the  sense 
that  the  latter  is  in  human  form,  a  colossal  omnipotent 
man;  and  this  is  precisely  the  fact  concerning  the  con- 
versing, walking,  planning,  and  punishing  powers  of  the 
Hebrew  Jahveh-Elohim. 

But  here  again  the  substance  is  ideal ;  and  the  root  and 
type  of  man  is  found  in  the  highest  known  personal  life. 
The  intenser  monotheism  of  the  Hebrew  Creator,  as  com- 
pared with  the  Babylonian,  who  represents  a  brotherhood 
of  gods,  is  due  in  part  to  a  stronger  sense  of  tribalism, 
and  partly  to  the  combination  of  Persian  Ormuzd-worship 
with  the  prophetic  spirit  fostered  in  the  Hebrews  by  the 
exile.  The  Avesta  legend  of  creation,  deriving  man  and 
woman  ^  from  the  blood  of  the  Bull  (genius  of  earth),  is 
a  comparatively  late  construction  of  primitive  Aryan 
myths.*  But  the  older  theism  of  the  Yagnas,  in  the  sec- 
ond part,^  is  quite  pure  enough,  as  well  as  sufficiently 
spiritual  and  practical,  to  have  had  a  large  part  in  the 
formation  of  the  highest  Jahvistic  conceptions.  Ahura- 
mazda  is  upholder  of  the  pure  creation,  and  first  fash- 
ioner of  the  same ;  to  him  belongs  all  that  is  best  and 
fairest,- — the  good  spirit,  the  good  law,  the  good  wis- 
dom, the  kingdom  and  the  power.*^  Nothing  could  have 
helped  the  Hebrew  mind  to  positive  monotheism  so 
powerfully  as  this  Persian  god.  The  order  of  his  crea- 
tion, however,  as  described  in  the  nineteenth  Yagna  and 

1  Von  Bohlen  :  Genesis,  p.  18. 

^  Fornander  :   The  Polynesian  Race,  p.  6i. 

3  Mashya  and  Mashyana  are  generic  terms  for  man  and  woman,  like  Adam  and  Eve. 

*  Darmesteter:  Ortnazd  ei  A  hriman,  p.  287,  ei  seg. 

^  Ya(na,  xxviii.  et  seq.  5  Ibid.,  xix.  ;  xliv.  i  ;  xxxvii.  ;  xliii. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEA: 

developed  in  the  much  later  Bundehesh,  has  but  slight 
resemblance  to  the  Hebrew.  It  is  completed  not  in  six 
days,  but  in  three  hundred  and  sixty-five ;  and  its  order 
is  as  follows,  —  heaven,  water,  earth,  the  Bull  (cattle), 
trees,  fire,  pure  man ;  and  it  is  very  doubtful  if,  in  its 
oldest  form,  this  order  represented  a  succession  in  time. 
Still,  there  are  points  of  resemblance :  Creation  is  pro- 
duced in  six  periods,  Gahanbars  taking  up  a  year. 

Seen  in  the  strong  light  of  modern  worship  of  an  Infi- 
nite Person,  this  Hebrew  story  of  creation  is  in  the  highest 
degree  poetic.  A  will  analogous  to  the  human  brings  all 
things  into  being  by  word  of  mouth.  "Let  there  be  light: 
and  there  was  light."  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth."  The  idea  of  such  creative  word  is 
common  to  the  Hebrew  and  the  Persian  (^Dcbar-J^ahveh 
and  AJmna-vairya  are  kindred  conceptions),  and  to  all 
races  which  worship  pure  Will,  in  distinction  from  im- 
personal ideas  or  principles,  which  were  represented  in 
ancient  time,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  Hindu  conception 
of  the  world  as  creation  by  pure  thought.  But  we  must 
remember  that  this  conception  of  the  cosmos  is  neither 
intellectually  nor  scientifically  true.  To  say  that  the  world 
is  made  by  the  word  of  God  is  no  truer  than  to  say  that 
it  is  made  by  the  sword  of  Bel-Merodach,  cutting  off  his 
own  head,  or  dividing  the  female  principle  from  the  male. 
Days,  in  any  sense,  do  not  exist  before  the  sun ;  nor  light 
earlier  than  the  seeing  eye  of  man ;  nor  the  heavenly 
firmament  or  the  grass  of  the  field  before  the  sun  and 
moon.  And  probably  when  the  truths  of  evolution,  the 
sciences  of  unfolding  laws,  are  truly  conceived,  the  eter- 
nal unity  of  the  world  with  its  substance  will  require  no 
such  anthropomorphic  images  to  express  its  sublimity; 
these  will  cease  to  be  poetically  sublime,  because  sup- 
planted both  in  the  poetic  and  the  philosophic  mind  by 
forms  more  adequate  to  the  sense  of  truth.     "  The  world," 


2  52  DEVELOPMENT. 

says  even  Philo,  "  could  not  have  been  created  in  time, 
because  it  is  itself  necessary  to  relations  of  time,  and  the 
heavens  themselves  mean  mind." 

The  purely  human  interest  of  the  Hebrew  story  appears 
more  fully  in  the  second  account  of  creation,  in  which 
God  is  called  Jahveh-Elohim.^  It  centres  in  the  forma- 
tion ol  man  It  would  explain,  out  of  the  national  con- 
ception of  deity,  how  man  is  closely  related  to  this  God ; 
how  he  comes  to  be  gifted  with  speech,  so  as  to  name 
creatures  and  things,  and  how  woman  comes  to  be  inferior 
and  dependent.  In  the  first  account  nothing  is  said  of 
distinction  between  the  sexes ;  nor  is  there  any  hint  of 
Adam's  intimacy  with  the  Maker,  and  of  the  gifts  and 
commands  that  attest  it.  Other  differences  have  been 
ingeniously  noted,^  not  so  important  nor  so  certain,  —  that 
the  first  account  appears  to  belong  to  a  river  country  (like 
Babylon),  where  water  would  naturally  be  held  the  first 
condition  of  things ;  and  the  last  to  a  dry-land,  where  pro- 
duction seems  spontaneous  or  instantaneous,  where  men 
and  trees  might  seem  formed  from  the  dust,  and  mists 
from  the  earth,  not  rain,  water  the  land.  More  striking 
is  the  very  sensuous  conception  of  Jahveh-Elohim,^  and 
the  mystical  etymology  of  the  name  of  woman  {'ishd) 
from  that  of  man   {'is/i)} 

I.  In  view  of  the  manifest  dependence  of  the  Hebrew 
story  of  creation  on  Persian  influence,  as  well  as  on  a  devel- 
oped nationality,  we  can  hardly  be  mistaken  in  regarding 
the  elements  which  it  has  in  common  with  the  Chaldean 
legend  as  borrowed  from  the  latter,  rather  than  as  sug- 
gesting it.  And  this  judgment  is  confirmed  by  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  cuneiform  record,  and  by  the  confession  of 
the  Hebrews  as  to  their  original  home,  the  locality  of  their 
Eden,  and  the  point  of  departure  for  varieties  of  tribes  and 

*  Genesis,  ii.-iii.  ^  Von  Bohlen. 

*  Genesis,  ii.  18-21;  iii  8.  *  Ibid.,  ii.  23. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  253 

languages  at  Babylon.  The  assertion  of  Ravvlinson,^  that 
"  the  inspired  author  of  Genesis  has  preserved  the  genuine 
account  of  a  primeval  tradition  of  creation  common  to 
the  race,  while  the  Chaldeans  disfigured  it  with  evident 
mythology,  such  as  the  cleaving  of  the  woman  Thalatth 
in  twain,  and  the  beheading  of  Belus,"  betrays  notions  of 
the  receptivity  of  primeval  man  for  information  as  to  his 
own  origin  for  which  science  can  have  little  respect.  The 
origin  of  such  assumptions  in  preconceived  ideas  of  Bib- 
lical infallibility  is  obvious.  A  purer  example  of  elaborate 
mythological  construction  than  the  Hebrew  story  of  Crea- 
tion can  hardly  be  imagined.  But  beyond  Chaldean  anti- 
quity, into  the  mists  of  prehistoric  time,  it  is  idle  and 
impossible  to  follow  this  myth  of  creation.^ 

II.  The  Eden  Legend^  testifies  to  its  origin  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  —  the  names  of  the 
other  two  rivers  being  words  that  simply  mean  "  flowing 
waters,"  and  used  as  generic  terms  for  the  purpose  of 
making  up  the  number  four,  the  conventional  sign  of 
completeness  in  all  Eastern  mythologies.  It  has  been 
noted  that  the  mention  of  the  name  Euphrates,  without 
comment,  as  already  well  known,  points  to  a  Babylonian 
origin.  The  conjecture  of  Von  Bohlen  that  Eden  is  Eran, 
with  the  change  of  r  into  d,  is  less  probable.  Eden  cor- 
responds with  Persian  "  parks,"  but  not  with  the  Avesta 
paradise  of  Yima,  which  is  a  form  of  social  relations  and 
polity  conceived  as  ideally  perfect,  free  from  sin  and  dis- 
ease, the  heaven  of  a  few  pure  Zoroastrian  disciples.  The 
Genesis  myth  is  in  fact  a  conscious  generalization  of  his- 
tory, with  the  purpose  of  explaining  moral  evil  and  the 
stern   necessity  of  labor   as   results   of  disobedience   to   a 

*  Aiicietii  Monarchies,  '\-  144. 

*  See  Halevy  [Rev.  Crit.  d'Hisioire  et  de  Literature,  December  13,  18S0  ) 

*  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  in  1S69,  deduced  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  the  full  conviction 
that  the  Genesis  paradise  was  meant  to  be  Gan-Duniyas  or  Babylonia  ;  and  the  belief  is  not 
now  seriously  opposed. 


254  DEVELOPMENT. 

personal  commandment.  Crude  as  the  idea  was,  it  came 
to  be  combined  with  the  really  philosophical  notion  of 
bringing  the  living  creatures  to  man  to  receive  their  names. 
And  this  alone  would  indicate  the  late  origin  of  the  story. 
It  has  evidently  grown  out  of  developed  views  of  the  pri- 
macy of  mind  over  matter,  of  a  natural  harmony  of  man 
with  the  universe,  and  his  dependence  on  conformity  with 
its  laws. 

When  we  add  that  the  terms  "  Eden  "  and  "  Garden  of 
God  "  belong  especially  to  the  exile-period,^  it  becomes 
very  certain  that  the  myth  received  its  distinctive  form 
in  the  midst  of  the  advanced  civilization  of  Babylon.  This 
philosophical  interest  in  the  problems  of  life  and  charac- 
ter apparent  in  the  Genesis  legends  as  a  whole,  could 
hardly  have  been  combined  with  the  childlike  qualities 
originally  conspicuous  in  them  without  a  long  period  of 
incubation  in  a  much  wider  horizon  than  the  narrow 
nationality  of  the  Hebrew  could  supply.  But  behind  the 
whole,  and  determining  its  animus,  is  the  nomadic  temper- 
ament, jealous  of  its  license,  hating  labor,  and  relucting  at 
its  slow  conditions ;  trusting  spontaneous  Nature,  and  ab- 
sorbed in  the  imperious  will  of  a  tribal  chief;  making 
protest  against  inevitable  contact  with  a  more  complex 
and  progressive  civilization.  Thus  far,  nothing  corre- 
sponding to  the  Genesis  paradise  has  been  found  in  the 
cuneiform  records,  but  it  is  hardly  possible  that  such  a 
feature  should  be  wholly  vv^anting. 

III.  These  elements  come  out  more  forcibly  in  the 
Legend  of  the  Temptation  and  Fall.  We  have  here  the 
Hebrew,  and  more  distinctly  the  Semitic,  conception  of 
the  origin  of  evil,  in  a  rebellious  conflict  of  the  will  of  man 
against  the  will  of  God,  his  Creator.  No  other  or  deeper 
ground  enters  into  the  theory  of  this  legend ;  no  reason 
for  the  command  to  abstain  from  the  tree  of  knowledge 

^  Ezekiel,  x;;vi!i.  13. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  255 

but  the  arbitrary  will  of  God ;  no  explanation  of  disobe- 
dience but  the  arbitrary  will  of  man.  In  the  Avesta  it  is 
the  falsehood  of  the  tempter's  teaching  that  makes  the  sin 
of  yielding  to  it.  In  Genesis,  what  the  tempter  teaches 
is  true,  and  the  sin  is  simply  in  the  refusal  of  the  human 
will  to  be  led  by  the  Divine.  Ahriman  does  not  rebel 
against  the  will  of  Ahura  as  such ;  he  chooses  the  dark 
as  Ahura  chooses  the  light,  —  the  one  the  false,  the  other 
the  true.  In  both  cases,  the  origin  of  moral  evil  is  in 
disobedience  to  a  personal  Will ;  but  in  the  Avesta  the 
rights  of  this  Will  rest  on  the  deeper  ground  of  truth  and 
light ;  in  Genesis  they  have  no  ground  be}^ond  themselves. 
Thus  in  the  Persian  the  ethical  claim  dominates  and  ex- 
plains the  personal ;  in  the  Hebrew,  the  personal  is  abso- 
lute and  all-controlling.  The  older  Avesta  has  nothing 
corresponding  to  the  special  legend  of  Adam's  fall.  In 
the  later  Bundehesh,  the  story  of  Mashya  and  Mashyana 
has  few  resemblances  to  it  beyond  the  facts  that  in  both 
stories  a  primitive  couple,  born  innocent  and  taught  the 
right  way,  are  tempted  by  the  power  of  evil,  break  the 
law  of  duty,  and  are  punished.  In  one  case  the  punish- 
ment is  by  expulsion  from  Eden  ;  in  the  other,  by  demoral- 
ization of  habits,  and  by  condemnation  at  last  to  hell,  the 
details  of  which  are  given  in  the  Bundehesh.^  In  neither 
case  is  there  the  slightest  approach  to  a  solution  of  the 
great  problem  of  evil. 

Again,  the  ethnic  distinction  already  noticed  between 
Iranian  and  Hebrew  conceptions  is  here  well  illustrated, 
(i)  The  cause  of  Yima's  fall  is  "  lying  speech,"  as  in  itself 
the  crime  of  crimes ;  while  that  of  Adam  consists  in  dis- 
obedience to  the  special  command  of  an  arbitrary  Will  to 
refrain  from  a  certain  kind  of  food.  Aryan  worship  of 
personal  power  is  wont  to  find  some  foothold  in  the  nature 
of  things  as  foundation  of  moral  allegiance,  while  the  in- 

1  Chap.  XV. 


256  DEVELOPMENT. 

tense  Semitic  form  of  the  same  worship  rests  on  the  pure 
rights  of  an  absolute  Will.  (2)  In  the  Paradise  from  which 
Yima  falls,  labor  is  the  blessed  condition  of  freedom  from 
age,  disease,  and  sin ;  and  Yima's  toils  fill  his  dominion 
with  seeds  and  harvests,  with  cattle  and  men  innumerable. 
In  the  Adamic  Eden,  God  himself  has  planted  the  garden, 
which  man  has  only  to  dress,  and  keep,  being  bidden  to 
eat  freely  of  every  tree  of  the  garden  but  of  the  tree  of 
the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  And  labor  becomes  the 
penalty  he  incurs  in  being  exiled  from  it;  the  cause  of 
exile  from  the  nomadic  heaven  of  exemption  from  man- 
ual work,  —  a  free  roving  life  in  Nature.  Here,  as  in  the 
succeeding  legends,  especially  that  of  the  murder  of  Abel, 
the  nomad  signifies  his  dislike  of  the  settled  agriculturist 
and  industrial  races,  his  reaction  against  that  Babylonian 
civilization,  probably,  from  which  he  had  emigrated  in  the 
early  time.  The  later  experiences  of  the  Captivity  fostered 
the  inborn  instinct.  And  the  subtile  myth  in  its  present 
form  consciously  reproves  the  curiosity  of  man  for  knowl- 
edge as  sin  against  an  imminent  Will,  whose  prerogative 
it  is  to  govern  through  jealous  monopoly  of  the  wisdom 
that  entitles  to  sway.  It  has  even  been  said  that  the  hatred 
of  the  nomad  for  labor  was  the  source  of  the  story  of  the 
Fall.  This  hatred  of  labor  was  transmitted  to  the  later 
Jews,  who,  however,  escape  the  old  prejudice  in  their 
Talmud.^ 

The  childish  fear  of  a  tribal  god  has  become  developed 
by  later  associations — among  which  subjection  to  a  highly 
enlightened  conquering  state  was  not  the  least  impressive 
—  into  the  conception  that  progress  in  knowledge  is  marked 
by  Divine  displeasure  as  sin;  and  the  recklessness  of  the 
nomad  for  the  morrow  survives  all  experiences  of  a  better 
culture,  ending  as  it  began  in  pronouncing  labor  a  curse, 
and  warning  against  that  desire  to  know,  that  curiosity 

1  Schreiber :  Talmud,  p.  46. 


THE   HEBREW  AND  THE   CHALDEAN.  257 

to  construct  and  aspire,  of  which  labor  is  the  instrument 
and  the  crown.  At  the  same  time,  the  Hebrew  had  been 
obHged  to  admit  that  this  form  of  hfe  makes  men  resemble 
gods,  and  that  the  arts  and  inventions  of  society  have  pro- 
ceeded from  these  apparent  crimes  against  the  nomad  and 
his  rights.  Cain  built  a  city  east  of  Eden  and  called  it 
Enoch,  after  his  first  descendant  (compare  Assyrian  e7iiLk, 
"wise"),  an  evident  reference  to  Chaldean  centres;  and 
his  subsequent  line  discover  music  and  metallurgy.^  All 
this  Jahveh  has  cursed  as  the  fruit  of  fratricide,  the 
martyrdom  of  the  nomad.  Such  the  connection  of  the 
Hebrew  legend  with  historical  and  ethnic  relations. 

Nothing,  however,  answering  to  the  Genesis  Fall  of 
Man  has  yet  been  discovered  in  Chaldean  inscriptions 
or  traditions.  The  Deluge  is,  perhaps ;  it  would  seem 
so  from  one  passage,  — "  the  doer  of  sin  bore  his  sin, 
the  blasphemer  bore  his  blasphemy."  ^  But  the  figures 
supposed  by  Smith  to  represent  the  temptation  scene  — 
the  man  and  woman  under  the  tree  eating  fruit,  with  the 
serpent  erect  behind  them  —  turns  out  not  to  picture  the 
two  sexes ;  and  the  Creation-tablet,  referred  to  the  same  • 
idea  by  Smith,  is  now  shown  by  Oppert  to  require  a  very 
different  translation.^  Nevertheless,  Lenormant  finds  very 
close  resemblance  to  the  old  naturalistic  use  of  the  ser- 
pent as  the  representative  of  evil  and  temptation.^  And 
his  zeal  for  orthodoxy  leads  him  to  emphasize  the  idea 
that  the  inspired  writer  of  Genesis,  in  making  this  use  of 
an  unhistorical  tradition  among  the  old  races  around  him, 
was  moved  solely  by  the  desire  to  give  it  a  moral  mean- 
ing, in  explaining  the  Fall  of  Man  through  misuse  of  evil 


'  Genesis,  iv.  16-22. 

*  Smith  :  The  CfuildeciK  Accmint  0/ Genesis,  Izdubar  col.  v.  15,  p.  2SS  (Sayce). 
3   Ibid.,  p.  75. 

*  Les  origiiies  de  Vhistoire,  p.  93.  Very  similar  representations  have  been  found  on 
Roman  sarcophagi,  imitated  by  early  Christian  artists,  of  the  Fall,  and  on  a  Phoenician  vase 
of  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  discovered  by  Di  Cesnola  in  Cyprus. 

17 


258  DEVELOPMENT. 

will.     And  this  he  thinks  has  been  the  "  only  "  solution  of 
this  redoubtable  problem  "  to  be  found  in  history."  ^ 

The  various  motives  combined  in  the  story  of  the  Fall 
show  it  to  be  the  result  of  late  elaboration.  The  shame 
at  sexual  relations  alone  Avould  mark  a  late  origin.  Could 
such  ascetic  quality  be  natural  to  the  Hebrews?  What 
other  infantile  people  ever  coupled  the  desire  of  knowl- 
edge with  shame  at  discovering  their  own  nakedness? 
But  we  may  now  recognize  the  elements  which  point  to 
a  very  ancient  fund  of  Semitic  beliefs.  The  attempt  to 
justify  the  dependence  of  woman  upon  man,  "  bone  of  my 
bone,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh,"  by  making  her  from  his  rib, 
and  to  hold  her  responsible  for  his  violation  of  a  command 
which  the  legend  does  not  pretend  that  she  had  heard, 
appears  to  indicate  a  dogmatic  motive  rather  than  an  early 
instinct.  But  the  martyrdom  and  fall  alike  of  Semitic 
gods  and  heroes  are  always  mythically  associated  with 
the  female  as  instrument  of  the  evil  fate,  as  we  have 
already  shown.  Far  back  in  Accadian  times,  the  epic 
hero  Izdubar  refuses  the  love  of  the  goddess  on  account 
of  the  innumerable  woes  caused  by  her  enchantments 
and  temptations.  But  in  one  respect  this  older  dispar- 
agement of  the  female  element  differs  from  that  of  the 
Genesis  legend.  It  refers  moral  evil  back  to  the  lower 
passions  in  human  nature ;  while  the  other,  in  conformity 
with  the  general  spirit  of  Hebrew  thought,  makes  it  a 
positive  wilful  revolt  against  higher  will.  The  Persians 
had  no  such  associations  with  the  female  sex,  as  respon- 
sible for  man's  fall.  Falsehood,  not  woman,  was  the  wea- 
pon of  Ahriman ;  by  that  he  corrupted  Yima,  by  that  he 
seduced  Mashya  and  Mashyana  from  their  primitive  inno- 
cence. In  this  later  legend  of  Creation  the  sexes  were 
so  united  as  to  be  indistinguishable,  and  only  quarrel 
after  Ahriman  has  deluded  both.^ 

'  Lenormant  :  Les  origines  de  Pkisioire,  p.  loS.  '  Bundcliesh,  xv. 


THE   HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  259 

The  choice  of  the  serpent,  in  human  form,  as  tempter 
of  Eve  to  become  equal  with  God,  might  seem  a  natural 
selection  of  the  great  type  of  intelligence  throughout 
antiquity,  to  represent  that  forbidden  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge which  was  the  Hebrew's  peculiar  dread.  But  so 
special  a  reason  is  not  required.  The  name  ndchdsJi  (ser- 
pent) is  Aryan. 1  The  serpent  belongs  to  the  Ahrimanic 
creation,  and  is  even  Ahriman  himself,  —  the  symbol  be- 
ing easily  traceable  to  the  hostile  meaning  of  the  wreathed 
rain-withholding  cloud  in  that  incessant  atmospheric  war- 
fare of  light  with  darkness  round  which  Aryan  mythology 
revolves.  It  is  extremely  probable  that  the  Semitic  hate 
of  the  serpent  rests  primitively  on  these  same  apparently 
universal  phenomena.  But  the  direct  origin  of  the  latter 
is  evidently  in  Chaldean  traditions.  The  two-edged  swords 
of  the  cherubim  are  identical  with  the  winged  bulls  of  the 
Assyrian  palaces ;  ^  and  though  there  is  no  miention  of  a 
forbidden  Tree  of  Knowledge,  there  is  at  any  rate  a  Tree 
of  Life  both  in  the  tablet  monuments  and  in  the  legends. 
The  old  Babylonian  seal  represents  two  figures  sitting  be- 
side a  tree  and  holding  out  their  hands  to  its  fruit,  while 
a  serpent  is  in  the  background.  That  the  date  of  these 
Chaldean  elements  must  be  at  least  2000  years  B.  C.  is 
attested  by  numerous  seals  and  inscriptions.  The  ser- 
pent Ophion,  first  a  god,  precipitated  into  the  sea  by 
Cronos,  holds  the  position  of  evil  power  in  the  Phoenician 
mythology.  In  contrast  with  these  traditions,  strong  proof 
of  the  comparatively  late  origin  of  the  Hebrew  story  is  to 
be  found  in  a  complexity  of  structure  and  purpose,  which 
even  the  simplicity  of  its  elements  and  style  cannot  cover, 
—  the  prostration  of  the  serpent,  and  its  thoroughly  dog- 
matic explanation ;  the  manifest  purpose  to  justify  the 
subjection  of  woman ;   the  punishment  of  man  for  yielding 

1  It  is  given  by  the  Buddhists  lo  the  primitive  tribes  of  India  and  Thibet. 
*  Lenormant :  Les  origines  de  VhUtoire  d^apris  la  Bible,  p.  129. 


260  DEVELOPMENT. 

his  will  to  the  sex  which  should  represent  the  passive  as 
he  the  active  elements ;  the  jealous  God,  deliberately  test- 
ing his  offspring,  and  enforcing  an  obedience  which 
touches  hidden  springs  of  character;  the  pains  of  child- 
bearing,  the  burden  of  toil,  referred  to  highly  artificial 
causes  in  human  disobedience  to  arbitrary  will.  Here  is 
obviously  the  result  of  an  elaborate  construction  to  meet 
a  state  of  mind  in  which  religious  preconceptions  and 
speculative  questions  were  curiously  intermingled.  The 
air  of  simplicity  is  due  to  that  intense  consciousness  of 
personal  relations  with  God  which  the  Hebrew  inherited 
in  his  Semitic  nationalism.  This  imminent  personal  Will 
is  distinctly  human ;  walks  in  the  garden,  converses,  gives 
way  to  emotions ;  guards  his  exclusive  right  to  immortal 
life  by  Chaldean  cherubim  and  waving  sword.  Of  course, 
the  cherubim  are  the  winged  creatures  at  the  gates  of 
Assyrian  palaces,  and  the  sword  is  the  weapon  of  Bel 
which  "  waved  four  ways."  ^  The  autocratic  jealousy 
which  says,  "  Behold  now !  man  is  become  like  one  of 
us,"  differs  most  decidedly  from  the  aristocratic  con- 
tempt of  Zeus  for  that  "  wretched  race  of  men  "  whoni 
Prometheus  had  exalted.  Greek  mythology,  indeed,  ex- 
plains the  dark  side  of  nature  and  life  by  the  jealousy 
of  its  Olympian  powers.  Pallas  and  Hera  and  Poseidon 
are  jealous  deities ;  and  from  the  play  of  their  exclu- 
sively human  loves  and  hates  come  the  wars  and  woes 
of  mortals,  the  tragedy  and  epos  of  the  world.^  But 
the  balance  of  powers  and  tendencies  in  polytheism 
involved  these  conflicts  of  motives  and  claims :  they  tes- 
tify to  an  inward  protest  against  exclusiveness  in  the  in- 
terest of  beauty  and  freedom.  The  jealousy  of  Jahveh  is 
immitigable,  and  cannot  relent  in  face  of  opposition ; 
it  is  absolute  as  his  unity,  as  arbitrary  as  his  creative 
will. 

^  Records  of  the  Past,  ix.  p   136.  *  See  Odyssey,  v.  119. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  261 

Modern  theology,  dating  from  Paul  of  Tarsus,  has  read 
into  this  doctrinal  myth  of  the  expulsion  from  Eden  a 
more  startling  dogma,  of  which  it  is  entirely  innocent,  — 
that  of  the  representative  Fall  of  the  first  man,  and  its  con- 
sequence, inherited  sin ;  of  which  the  theory  of  redemption 
through  an  incarnate  God  is  the  necessary  correlative.  A 
striking  instance  of  the  Bibliolatry  with  which  scientific 
studies  are  still  confused  and  disabled,  is  in  Lenormant's 
elaborate  collection  of  mythologic  resemblances  in  the 
description  of  the  Fall  of  Man  by  various  races, ^  to 
prove  that  an  original  tradition,  revealed  to  men,  "  of 
the  events  by  which  the  fate  of  humanity  was  decided," 
preserved  "  in  a  mysterious  symbolic  memory,"  had  been 
distorted  by  the  spirit  of  error  among  the  Gentiles,  and 
partially  among  the  Hebrews  also,  but  restored  to  its  true 
significance  "  by  the  inspired  author  of  Genesis."  It 
should  be  needless  to  say  that  no  such  events  are  shown, 
nor  is  any  "  symbolic  memory"  of  them  proved;  and  that 
the  version  of  the  Fall  in  Genesis  has  no  monopoly  ot 
ethical  or  spiritual  meaning. 

The  leading  purpose  of  the  legend  seems  to  have  been 
to  bring  out  of  Adam  a  twofold  race,  —  one  representing 
the  accursed  slaves  of  labor,  the  other  the  happy  favorites 
of  freedom.  The  grudge  of  the  nomadic  against  the  set- 
tled races,  which  thus  betrays  itself  in  the  penalty  of  the 
Fall  and  in  the  overthrow  of  Babel,  is  more  boldly  con- 
fessed in  the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel,  whose  very  names 
express  the  antagonism.  This  prejudice  appropriated  to 
its  uses  the  old  wide-spread  myth  of  the  foundation  of 
cities  by  fratricides,  whose  diffusion  equals  that  of  the 
Deluge,  yet  is  not  used  by  Lenormant  to  prove  a  primi- 
tive revelation,  because  it  would  hardly  suit  his  purpose. 
Its  real  meaning  consists,  of  course,  in  the  social  antag- 
onism of  the  settler  and  the  nomad.     As  we  go  on,  the 

*  Contemporary  Review,  September,  1879. 


262  DEVELOPMENT. 

proofs  multiply  of  a  Hebrew  reaction  against  that  splendid 
industrial  civilization  from  which  the  materials  for  these 
stories  were  inevitably  drawn.  No  less  striking  is  the  con- 
trast with  the  agricultural  tendencies  of  the  Avesta.  The 
reaction  referred  to  was  in  fact  a  reinsistence,  in  the  inter- 
est of  national  association,  on  the  beliefs  and  habits  of  a 
tribe  which,  wandering  from  its  Chaldean  home,  made 
the  deserts  and  mountains  of  northern  Mesopotamia  its 
halting-place,  where  it  unfolded  that  antagonism  between 
the  inhabitants  of  highlands  and  those  of  plains  along  the 
navigable  streams,  which  belongs  to  early  epochs  in  Aryan 
and  Semitic  races  alike.  This  antagonism,  too,  had  much 
to  do  in  producing  the  famous  genealogy  of  nations  in  the 
tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  and  is  clearly  traceable  in  the 
distinct  parallelism  of  the  names  of  the  two  lists  of  Adam's 
sons,  —  the  Sethites  and  Cainites, —  in  which  each  name  is 
slightly  modified  in  the  one  list  to  produce  an  opposite 
moral  meaning  to  that  which  it  bears  in  the  othcr.^ 

In  the  list  of  Shem's  descendants  this  is  not  so  evi- 
dent. The  names  of  the  ten  patriarchs  had  their  fore- 
type  in  Chaldean  tradition.  The  ten  antediluvian  kings 
of  Berosus'  chronology  cover  four  hundred  and  thirty-two 
thousand  years,  —  evidently  an  astronomical  cycle,^  the 
great  year  of  the  stars,^ — and  their  nam.es  have  been  inge- 
niously derived*  from  the  animals  of  the  zodiacal  and  side- 
real signs,  first  marked  and  named  by  the  Chaldeans.  The 
same  number  of  progenitors  appears  in  most  ancient  cos- 
mogonies, —  in  the  Persian  Peshdadians,  the  Hindu  great 
gods,  the  ancestors  of  Odin,  the  Chinese  mythic  kings. 
But  whatever  their  astronomical  meaning,  the  names  of 
these  Chaldean  antediluvian  kings  are  mostly  compounds 
of  Anu,  oldest  and  chief  of  Chaldean  gods.     The  number 


1  Lenormant :  Les  origines  de  Phistoire  d' npris  la  Bible,-p.  iSi.     Von  Bolilen  :  Gc7iesis. 

^  Lenormant  :  Essai  des  fragments  cozutogonigues,  p.  230.     Died.  Sic   ii.  p.  36. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  216.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  249,  250. 


THE    HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  263 

ten  has  a  universal  mythic  vahie,  which  has  even  been 
traced  back  to  the  name  for  the  fingers  of  the  hand.^  The 
only  direct  point  of  attachment  of  the  ten  Hebrew  patri- 
archal names  with  these  solar  traditions  is  the  lifetime  of 
Enoch,  which  has  precisely  the  length  of  a  solar  year. 
Yet  not  only  their  undoubted  origin,  but  their  elaboration 
at  Babylon,  must  have  associated  them  with  physical  and 
even  solar  phenomena.^  Some  of  them  are  found  to  be 
Babylonian  and  Phoenician.^  They  were  taken  from  a 
pre-existing  fund  of  materials  for  mythic  construction, 
since  they  are  mainly  the  same  with  the  previous  list 
of  Cain's  descendants,  and  have  been  used  to  serve  very 
different  purposes  in  such  construction.  The  main  point 
is  that  they  are  now  shown  to  have  belonged  to  the  so- 
called  "Book  of  Origins,"  compiled  by  a  priestly  writer 
in  the  Captivity.  The  very  limited  lifetimes  ascribed  to 
the  patriarchs,  as  compared  with  the  Chaldean  kings,* 
indicate  that  the  purpose  of  this  writer  was  not  like  that 
of  the  latter  enumerator,  to  fill  up  the  vast  void  of  past 
time  with  human  or  divine  lives,  but  a  very  different  one; 
probably  to  show  that  disobedience  has  gradually  dimin- 
ished the  actual  duration  of  a  lifetime,  and  to  exalt  Jahveh 
as  ordainer  of  the  law  that  virtue  assured  length  of  years, 
and  vice  early  death.  God's  spirit  would  not  endure  long 
strife  with  evil-doing;  and  so  from  Adam  to  Abraham, 
the  allotted  period  shrinks  from  nine  centuries  to  less  than 
two. 

These  mythic  procedures  do  not  yield  us  any  light  on 
the  transition  from  patriarchal  to  civil  forms  of  govern- 
ment, nor  should  we  expect  any  such  historic  or  political 

'  Eckstein  :  Les  Sources  de.  la  Cosmo^onie  de  Sanchoniathon. 

^  Goldziher  :  I^Iythology  among  the  Hebrews,  pp.  18,  ig. 

3  Smith  :   The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis  (Sayce),  p.  316. 

*  Lenormant  imagines  that  he  finds  one  of  the  exact  scales  on  which  these  earlier  cyclic 
numbers  were  diminished  by  the  Hebrew  mythologer  {Les  Origines  de  Vhistoire,  etc., 
p.  276)  in  the  reckoning  of  each  patriarch's  life  down  to  the  birth  of  his  oldest  son.  Oppert 
thinks  he  put  a  week  for  every  five  years  of  the  Babylonian  figures  (Ibid.,  p.  277). 


264  DEVELOPMENT. 

sense  in  the  Hebrew  tribes.  We  have  here  simply  a 
genealogical  tree  of  the  Hebrew  race,  constructed  on  the 
principles  already  stated,  to  meet  the  demand  for  some 
account  of  that  primeval  epoch  which  the  religious 
importance  of  the  Deluge  made  of  high  interest. 

IV.  In  view  of  the  derivation  of  all  things  from  a  watery 
chaos  at  the  divine  command,  the  notion  of  Floods  over- 
whelming disobedient  races,  whose  life  had  proved  the 
failure  of  this  creative  process,  was  perfectly  natural. 
The  fact  that  many  races,  especially  Semitic  and  Aryan, 
have  the  idea  embodied  in  myths,  does  not  prove  a  com- 
mon origin,  still  less  a  primeval  revelation.  It  was  sim- 
ply a  recurrence  of  the  mind  to  the  primitive  waste  and 
disorder,  as  a  state  which  would  give  opportunity  to  the 
good-will  of  God  to  evoke  a  new  human  order  by  a  repe- 
tition of  the  first  process,  or  by  one  analogous  to  the  first. 
The  large  significance  given  by  ancient  mythology  to  the 
term  ocean,  would  make  it  easy  for  a  people  dwelling  be- 
side great  rivers  like  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  to  ascribe 
world-wide  destructive  effects  to  their  inundations,  and  to 
make  these  the  basis  of  moral  and  social  renewal.  The 
class  of  myths  to  which  the  Deluge  belongs  grows  out  of 
the  demand  of  the  human  mind  for  cyclic  movement, 
for  rhythmic  recurrence  of  conditions,  as  a  sign  of  con- 
tinued purpose,  harmonious  relation,  and  providential 
care.  The  safe  return  of  the  circle  into  itself  guarantees 
perfect  order.  So  the  soul  is  set  to  rhythms  of  its  own, 
and  instinctively  seeks  alternation  in  the  destinies  of  the 
cosmos  as  in  the  details  of  experience.  It  keeps  con- 
stant regard  to  its  past  steps,  will  have  familiar  nodes, 
recurrent  refrains,  that  make  its  movement  ideal,  and  turn 
even  its  limits  into  liberties.  And  so  cyclic  destruction 
and  renovation  belong  to  the  very  framework  of  positive 
religions,^   confessions    of  the  mingled  faith   and   fear  on 

1  Brinton  :  Myths  0/ the  Xew  IVerld,  p.  198. 


THE   HEBREW   AND  THE   CHALDEAN.  265 

which  these  are  strung.  The  Deluge-myth  is  moreover 
too  widely  spread  in  various  forms  to  be  referred  to  any- 
thing less  universal  than  such  a  demand  as  is  here  de- 
scribed.^ But  historically  the  Hebrew  story  is  evidently 
of  Chaldean  origin,  as  its  extreme  resemblance  to  that  of 
Berosus  and  that  of  the  Izdubar  epic  is  sufficient  to  show.^ 
The  Xisuthrus  of  this  very  ancient  legend  is  the  Hasisadra 
of  the  cuneiform  epic,  —  as  found  and  translated  by  George 
Smith,  and  improved  by  later  interpreters.  The  Izdubar 
epic  is  far  older  than  the  Hebrew  version,  and  even  more 
nearly  identical  with  it  than  the  account  in  Berosus,^  since 
it  explains  the  Deluge  as  a  penalty  for  sin ;  as  does  also 
the  Greek  legend  of  Deucalion.  The  corresponding  Hindu 
legend,  on  the  contrary,  in  which  Manu  is  saved  by  the 
fish  as  an  incarnation  only,  has  no  hint  of  this.  The  Chi- 
nese "  Deluge  of  Yao  "  is  no  deluge  at  all,  but  a  myth  of 
agricultural  industry.  The  originality  of  the  story  of  Hasi- 
sadra is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  makes  a  part  of  a  great 
epopee,  and  that  its  whole  setting,  as  well  as  spirit,  is 
Chaldean.  It  could  never,  by  any  possibility,  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  Genesis  record.  The  points  of  resem- 
blance are  decisive ;  those  of  difference  few  and  trivial, 
relating  only  to  petty  details.  These  differences,  —  such 
as  the  size  and  form  of  the  ark,  the  location  of  the  moun- 
tain, the  smaller  number  of  persons  saved  in  the  Hebrew 
Deluge  to  re-people  the  earth,  the  translation  of  Hasisadra 
like  Enoch  to  heaven  or  some  remote  region,  his  voice 
heard  in  the  air  bidding  his  companions  take  up  the  books 


^  What  has  been  said  of  Lenormant's  effort  to  show  a  wide-spread  similarity  in  creation- 
myths  to  justify  his  conclusion  of  a  primeval  revelation,  is  still  more  applicable  to  his  collec- 
tion of  parallel  Deluge-legends.  The  advocates  of  such  a  revelation  have  little  or  nothing  to 
stand  upon,  loudly  as  they  have  proclaimed  the  Noachic  story.  Behind  the  Babylonian  epic 
it  is  impossible  to  penetrate.  This  has  been  satisfactorily  shown  by  the  criticism  of  Hnlevy  on 
Lenormant's  Les  origiiies  de  civilization  in  the  Revue  Critique  de  V Hist,  et  Lit.,  Dec.  27, 
1880.     See  also  Revue  de  V Hist,  des  Religions,  ii.  i  ;  iii.  2. 

^  Cory:  Ancient  Fragments,  p.  54  (extract  from  Syncellus). 

^  Given  in  Polyhistor  and  Arbydenus. 


266  DEVELOPMENT. 

of  the  law  buried  at  Surippak  and  give  them  to  the  world, 
—  are  part  of  the  local  coloring,  and  do  not  throw  doubt 
on  the  conclusion  above  stated.  In  no  case  is  the  indebt- 
edness of  the  Hebrews  more  evident.  The  command  to 
build  the  ark,  the  threat  to  destroy  mankind,  the  entry  of 
the  animals,  the  opening  of  the  windows  and  sending  forth 
of  birds,  the  altar  built  on  leaving  the  ark,  the  pleasant 
savor  of  the  offering  to  the  senses  of  Jahveh,  the  promise 
that  the  earth  should  not  again  be  drowned,  the  covenant 
and  the  blessing,  —  all  show  that  the  Hebrew  copied  from 
this  original.  Not  only  is  the  ark  coated  with  bitumen 
in  both  legends,  but  precisely  such  gopher-wood  structures 
navigate  the  Euj)hrates  to  this  day.^ 

The  origin  of  the  ark-form  of  the  Deluge-myth  is 
probably  in  the  notion  of  an  enclosed  vital  energy,  which 
breaks  forth  out  of  chaos  to  make  or  renew.  World-egg, 
vessel,  chest,  basket,  various  symbols  of  this  envelopment 
are  conceived;  and  the  mythology  of  Deliverance  is  trace- 
able throughout  antiquity  by  these  varied  forms  of  one 
idea.^  The  vital  energy  of  the  world  or  sun,  in  manifold 
forms  of  struggle  against  the  powers  of  darkness,  or  of 
triumph  over  chaos  or  death,  is  ever  represented. 

Osiris,  Adonis,  Dionysus,  Melkarth,  are  forms  of  what 
the  Egyptian  funeral  ritual  invokes  as  "  the  Great  One  in 
the  chest,"  or  ark.  The  sacred  ship  that  bears  gods  or 
heroes  or  divine  men  to  world-mastery  or  redeeming  work, 
sails  through  every  mythologic  sea,  and  is  borne  in  every 
festal  train.  The  egg  breaks  asunder,  and  life,  order,  deity 
emerge  by  the  law  of  birth  out  of  death,  which  nought 
escapes.  The  infant  king  of  Assyria,  and  the  babe  who  is 
to  deliver  Israel,  alike  lie  exposed  in  baskets  among  the 
rushes  of  the  river,  and  must  be  saved  themselves  before 
they  can  save  others.     The  arks  of  Sargon  and  of  Moses 

'  Loftus  :   Chaldiea  and  Srisiuna,  p.  6g. 

*  See  this  well  put  in  Brown's  Great  Dionysiak  Bfyik,  i.  196. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  267 

are  after  all  the  same  symbol  as  the  mystic  basket  of  the 
Persian  ritual  and  the  Deluge-arks  whence  the  world  is 
renewed.  Finally,  the  old  land  of  exile  itself  becomes  the 
world-egg,  or  sacred  chest  for  a  new  Messiah,  of  whom  it 
was  written,  "  out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my  Son." 

The  Hebrew  relaters  of  the  Flood  differ  from  all  others 
in  laying  the  scene  of  world-renewal  in  a  region  remote 
from  their  own,  thereby  confessing  their  indebtedness  to  a 
foreign  source.  They  have,  in  addition,  set  the  beginning 
of  the  rain  at  the  autumnal  equinox,  which  time,  in  Chal- 
dea,  actually  opens  the  rainy  season.^  Undoubtedly  the 
Euphrates  furnished  the  materials  of  the  story  by  its  in- 
undations, which  still  cause  the  whole  land  to  become 
"pools;  "^  and  these  materials  were  used  in  the  later 
Hebrew  theological  revival,  as  well  as  in  the  Chaldean 
epos,  to  enforce  the  idea  of  chastisement  by  a  personal 
God  for  disobedience  to  his  will.  In  the  early  time,  all 
the  Nature-gods  come  in  to  help  Hea,  the  god  of  waters, 
bring  on  the  storm ;  and  Bel,  as  deliverer,  takes  Hasisa- 
dra  by  the  hand.  This  fact  alone  would  prove  the  Hebrew 
version,  as  strictly  monotheistic,  to  be  the  later.  Never- 
theless, Rawlinson  as  usual  assumes  that  the  Hebrews 
have  preserved  the  tradition  of  the  Deluge  in  its  prime- 
val truth,  while  the  Chaldean  account  adds  these  points 
in  which  the  two  stories  differ,  "  because  not  content  with 
the  plain  truth  "  ! 

The  Hebrew  legend,  though  more  monotheistic,  is  at 
the  same  time  more  exclusive,  arbitrary,  and  dogmatic  in 


*  Lenormant :  Le  deluge  et  V epofiee  Babylonlenne. 

2  At  this  day  "the  waters  which  descend  every  year  from  the  Armenian  mountains  are 
sufficient  to  make  several  such  rivers  as  the  Euphrates,  which  breaks  over  its  banks  and  cuts 
new  channels,  and  but  for  incessant  canalling  would  keep  the  rich  lands  of  Mesopotamia 
under  water  every  year.  The  peasants  told  Kadree  Pasha  that  the  overflow  of  the  Euphrates 
was  in  the  hands  of  God.  'I  am  not  going  to  look  into  that  matter,'  answered  the 
unbiblical  Moslem  official ;  '  what  concerns  me  is  how  you  have  spent  the  twelve  thousand 
pounds  appointed  by  the  government  to  regulate  it.'  "  Geary's  Journey  through  Asiatic 
Turkeyi  vol.  i   chap.  xi.  1878. 


268  DEVELOPMENT. 

tone  than  the  Chaldean.  It  carries  the  worship  of  per- 
sonal Will  to  a  more  extreme  form,  centring  in  a  jealous 
Individual,  whose  whole  dealing  with  man  is  by  tests  and 
retributions.  In  no  other  way  could  the  sovereignty  of  a 
national  God  be  displayed ;  and  so  the  later  mythologies 
explain  the  mysteries  and  burdens  of  life  as  penalties 
of  his  inflicting.  The  first  man  and  woman  are  made  to 
sin  that  the  Creator  may  subject  the  one  to  the  burden 
of  labor  and  the  other  to  the  pangs  of  childbirth  and  the 
will  of  her  husband.^  Next,  all  mankind  sin,  that  the 
Omnipotent  Individual  may  doom  all  to  death;  He  finds 
Noah  only  worthy  to  be  saved,  in  order  that  in  this  one 
family  the  whole  future  of  mankind  may  be  concentred. 
He  is  evidently  laying  down  the  (mythic)  rule,  according 
to  which  all  history  should  converge  to  a  single  people, 
as  alone  fit  to  be  chosen  for  his  own.  And  so  the  whole 
primeval  history  of  man  is  shaped  into  a  chain  to  bind 
the  human  race  into  the  service  of  the  Hebrew  and  his 
God. 

The  Chaldean  story  of  the  Deluge,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  simply  an  episode  in  an  epic,  based  on  natural  phe- 
nomena describing  the  work  of  Nature-gods,  and  had  no 
special  motive  beyond  transporting  a  holy  man  to  a  remote 
place  of  blessedness,  where  the  hero  of  the  epos  may  con- 
sult him,  far  away  along  the  Erythraean  shores  consecrated 
by  traditions  of  the  primal  ocean,  of  the  first  revelation  of 
social  wisdom,  the  earliest  schools,  libraries,  and  priest- 
hoods. There  is  no  purpose  of  extolling  the  gods  of  As- 
syria or  Chaldea,  nor  of  expounding  the  philosophy  of 
penalty,  nor  of  accounting  by  personal  inflictions  for  the 
evils  of  life.  These  old  materials  of  a  common  Semitic 
fund  the  Hebrew  revisers,  under  the  new  national  impulse, 
elaborated  in  the  conscious  interest  of  a  God  who  from  the 
beginning  chooses  out  one  man  to  receive  his  favor,  while 

1  Genesis,  iii.  i6-ig. 


THE   HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  269 

all   the    rest   suffer  the  penalties   of  disobedience  to  his 
sovereign  will.     No  indication  of  the  nature  of  this  sin  is 
given,  beyond  the  charge  that  men  took   wives    at    their 
will.     The  assertion  ascribed  to  Elohim,  that  every  imagi- 
nation  of   man's   heart  was   evil   continually,  and  that  he 
repented    having   made  him,   is   evidently  a   late   product 
of  dogmatic   motive.      No -early  social  epoch   of  civiliza- 
tion could  be  guilty  of  so   pessimistic   a  view  of  human 
nature.     It   is  devised  for  the  purpose  of  setting  off  the 
righteousness  of   Elohim,   and  justifying  his   choice  of  a 
special  people :   his  rage  at  his  own  work  and  his  resolve 
to  destroy  it  are  not  less  characteristic  of  autocratic  will. 
Noah  (renewal)  is  interpreted  to  mean  comfort :  one  man 
only,  a  type  of  the  chosen  people,  with  his  family,  is  saved 
from  the  deluge  of  evil  in   the  surrounding  world.     The 
intense    earnestness    of  this   motive   gives  a  simplicity  to 
the   style,    which   renders   it  at   once   naive   and   sublime. 
All  description  of  Nature  is  wanting,  because  the  motive 
has  no  regard   either  for  Nature  or  beauty  as  such.     It  is 
absorbed  in  the  absolutism  of  Divine  Will.     It  culminates 
in  a  commandment  to  be  fruitful  and  multiply,  and  to  avoid 
eating  flesh  with  the  blood,  or  the  shedding  of  blood,  —  tra- 
ditional precepts,  marking  early  transitional  steps  towards 
civilization,  —  and  in  what  is  called  the  Noachic  covenant,  of 
which  the  sign  is  the  bow  in  the  cloud.     Of  this  exclusive- 
ness  the  Chaldean  story  has  not  a  trace.    It  lays  no  empha- 
sis on  Hasisadra  being  the  only  good  man :   his  servants, 
male  and  female,  and  "  the  sons  of  the  people  "  are  saved 
with  him.     The  gods  do  not  act  arbitrarily  nor  autocrati- 
cally.     Hea   tenderly    remonstrates    with    Bel,  dissuading 
him  from  severity  towards  men ;   and  the  final  propitiation, 
answering  to  the  promise  to  Noah  in  the  rainbow,  is  in- 
duced not  as  in  his  case  by  the  sweet  savor  of  a  sacrifice, 
but  by  the  reasons, suggested  through  Hea,  that  a  sweeping 
penalty  would  be  unjust,  and  by  the  sympathy  of  Ishtar, 


270  DEVELOPMENT. 

who  with  the  other  gods  compassionates  mankind  with 
covered  lips,^"  The  only  form  in  which  the  idea  of  a 
Deluge  appears  in  the  Persian  books,  is  the  battle  of 
Tistrya  to  purify  the  great  waters  of  Ahura  from  the 
poison  of  Ahriman.-  The  rain  falls  for  ten  days  and 
nights,  and  the  earth  is  covered  to  the  height  of  a  man, 
and  all  evil  creatures  are  drowned.  A  great  wind  sweeps 
the  waters  into  a  great  sea,  which  Ahura  sends  Tistrya  to 
free  from  the  poison  of  Ahriman's  dead ;  and  in  the  great 
battle  he  is  aided  by  mighty  rains,  which  afterward  serve 
to  fertilize  the  earth.  This  is  evidently  wholly  discon- 
nected from  the  penal  deluge  of  the  Semites,  and  forms 
but  a  natural  phase  of  the  great  War  of  Deliverance 
which  Mazdeism  carried  through  all  the  elements  and 
forms  of  Nature.  The  waters  are  not  penal ;  they  are 
healing,  the  pure  gift  of  Ahura,  serving  only  to  bless 
mankind.  They  are  invoked,  in  the  Avesta  legend,  by 
the  serpent  Dahaka,  for  aid  in  destroying  men ;  but  in  the 
form  of  the  spotless  Ardvi-gura  they  refuse  him  the  boon,^ 
while  she  grants  the  prayer  of  Thraetona  for  aid  to  destroy 
the  serpent.'*  "  Come,  O  ye  clouds,  come  !  Let  the  waters 
spread,  fall,  and  spread  abroad  !  Pour  ten  thousand  waves, 
— speak,  O  holy  Zarathustra  !  for  the  destruction  of  disease 
and  death,  of  the  evils  sent  by  evil  powers  ;  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  that  injures  men.  Let  the  earth,  plants,  all 
healing  things,  be  renewed."  ^ 

V.  The  ethnographical  study  in  the  tenth  chapter  of 
Genesis,  purporting  to  be  the  descending  line  of  Noah's 
sons,  is  a  carefully  prepared  record  of  the  nations  known 
to  the  Hebrews  of  the  exile,  and  of  those  only,  —  each 
treated  as  a  distinct  person,  instead  of  a  mixed  community. 
It  illustrates  again  how  powerful  was  the  Semitic  impulse 


1  Savce's  Smith  :   TJie  CJialdean  Acccnint  of  Genesis,  p.  2S7,  et  seq. 

2  Bundehesh,  vii.  ^  Aban-Yaskt,  7.  *  Ibid.,  8. 
6  Vendidad,  xxi.  3-14;  Harlez.     See  also  Vafita,  Ixiv. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  271 

to  give  a  personal  form  to  every  object  of  thought.  Of 
linguistic  relations  there  is  really  no  more  conception 
than  would  be  conveyed  by  the  fact  that  the  nations  are 
grouped  according  to  their  geographical  position,  as 
Herder  recognized  long  ago.^  Such  a  study  was  possible 
only  in  a  centre  like  Babylon.  The  Hebrews,  in  their 
early  tribal  isolation,  could  not  have  conceived  such  a 
synthesis.  Haui  simply  means  black  tribes  of  the  hot 
south;  and  y<:r///'r/Z',  whether  signifying  the  "brilliant"  or 
the  "  far-spread,"  is  really  a  term  for  the  nations  of  the 
West.^  Canaan  is  oddly  enough  placed  among  the  Ham- 
ites,  though  Canaanite  and  Hebrew  were  certainly  of  the 
same  ethnic  origin,  of  which  the  writers  were  probably 
unaware.  The  Philistines  are  wrongly  traced  to  Egypt. 
Elam  was  not  Semitic,  but  Accadian.  The  reference  to 
Sidon  proves  a  late  origin.'^ 

VI.  This  geographical  character  of  the  distribution, 
which  explains  the  ethnological  errors,  modifies  the  na- 
tional interest  of  the  myth ;  *  but  such  an  interest  becomes 
very  evident,  not  only  in  the  treatment  of  the  family  of 
Ham,  but  especially  in  the  legend  of  the  Tower  of  Babel. 
A  cuneiform  tablet  recently  discovered  speaks  of  a  confu- 
sion of  counsels  relating  to  a  piece  of  tower-work,  and  of 
its  destruction  by  the  anger  of  Anu.^  Berosus  helps  con- 
firm the  probability  that  this  is  the  original  story  of  the 
Tower  of  Babel,  by  his  own  story  that  the  gods  in  early 
time,  angry  at  men's  efforts  to  scale  the  sky,  overturned 
their  work  by  great  winds,  and  caused  confusion  of  speech, 
which  had  before  been  one  and  the  same.*^     But  this,  so 

1  Herder  :  Ideen  zur  Geschichte  der  Metischheit. 

^  Goldziher's  solar  etymologies  on  these  points  are  extremely  unsatisfactory. 

^  Rawlinson  {Origin  of  Nations)  has  an  elaborate  effort  to  show  that  nothing  in  the  table 
is  disputed  by  science.  But  his  argument  is  a  palpable  failure,  full  of  hypotheses,  and  after 
all  finding  a  mere  fraction  of  the  designations  historically  verified. 

*  Von  Bohlen ;  Genesis,  ii.  202. 

5  Records  of  the  Past  (tr.  by  Boscawen),  vii.  129.  Smith  :  Tlie  Cliaidean  Account  of 
Genesis,  Sayce,  pp.  163-165. 

®  Cory;  Ancient  Fragments  (from  Alexander  Polyhistor),  p.  75. 


272  DEVELOPMENT. 

far  as  it  goes  on  the  ethnology  of  Babel  as  "  confusion," 
must  have  come  from  the  Hebrews;  no  Chaldean  would 
ever  have  supposed  Babel  to  mean  anything  but  the  "  gate 
of  God."  Whatever  may  have  been  the  earliest  form  of 
the  story,  the  anger  of  God  at  the  pride  of  man  which 
sought  to  scale  heaven  is  thoroughly  Hebrew.  The  ha- 
tred of  the  nomad  for  settled  life,  which  constructed  the 
tale  of  Cain's  fratricide,  and  ascribed  to  his  descendants 
the  first  cities,  sciences,  arts,  and  which  perhaps  moved 
the  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  to  go  out  from  "  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees,"  was  stimulated  by  the  great  gathering  of  races 
at  Babylon  and  their  diversity  of  speech.  These  were  an 
offence  to  the  nationality  of  the  exiles.  The  unfinished 
tower  of  Belus,  the  mighty  ruin  with  its  haunting  legend 
of  offended  powers,  was  taken  as  the  sign  of  a  becoming 
jealousy  in  their  own  God ;  the  vitrified  bricks  around  it 
proved  a  fall  by  lightning,  —  and  so  the  story  reached  its 
present  shape  in  the  Jahvistic  rcvisal  of  traditions  after 
the  exile.  Rawlinson  again  gives  the  Hebrew  the  credit 
of  preserving  the  original  revelation,  and  the  Chaldean  the 
discredit  of  having  tampered  with  its  interest  for  mankind 
for  the  sake  of  enhancing  certain  "  sacred  books  "  of  their 
own, —  a  charge  really  applicable  to  the  Hebrews,  whose 
interest  in  mankind  is  confined  to  bringing  the  whole 
race  under  the  power  and  wrath  of  their  national  deity. 
Later  still,  the  Christian  writers  Cyril,  Eusebius,  Syncellus, 
and  others,  citing  Berosus  who  says  the  gods  overturned 
the  tower  of  Babel,  falsified  the  text  to  make  it  correspond 
with  the  Bible,  substituting  "  God  "  for  "  the  gods."  ^ 

In  Bible  apologetics  of  the  kind  we  have  given,  Rawlin- 
son simply  follows  the  traditional  method  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  relation  of  the  Hebrew  myths  to  the  ethnic 
ones  which  they  so  much  resemble,  when  not  positively 
inverted  so  as  to  make  the  latter  the  borrowers,  is  mis- 

*  Carrd  :  L'A^icien  Orient,  ii.  462. 


THE   HEBREW   AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  273 

represented  as  being  the  introduction  of  a  wholly  new  and 
higher  spirit,  universal  and  divine  as  the  others  are  human 
and  special,  and  as  revealing  the  one  true  God  as  distin- 
guished from  the  false  gods  of  the  Asiatic  races.  But  the 
Hebrew  introduced  no  such  new  foundation  of  authority, 
no  such  new  ground  of  certitude.  What  the  Abrahamite 
really  demanded  was  that  his  God  should  have  a  more 
human  volition  and  selection,  if  possible,  than  other  gods ; 
that  a  covenant  should  be  made  with  him  as  between  two 
men,  promising  a  special  care  and  the  multiplication  of 
seed  on  the  one  side  in  return  for  obedience  on  the  other. 
After  the  exile  had  somewhat  purified  this  personal  rela- 
tion by  a  consciousness  of  ethnic  connection  and  depend- 
ence ;  after  maturer  thought  had  applied  it  to  the  solution 
of  social  and  moral  problems ;  after  the  prophetic  spirit 
had  breathed  upon  it,  —  the  same  monotheistic  separatism 
and  exclusive  interest  still  remained  firm,  although  obliged 
to  concede  somewhat  to  these  enlarging  influences.  The 
national  theocratic  writer  who  worked  up  the  old  mythol- 
ogy in  its  present  form  was  mainly  intent  on  bringing  the 
history  of  mankind  into  the  line  of  Jahvistic  providence 
and  guidance.  Now  the  historic  value  of  this  step  is  sim- 
ply that  which  belongs  to  the  idea  of  personal  Will  as  the 
substance  of  God.  This  idea  we  have  already  stated  to 
be  characteristic  of  all  the  religions  of  Iran.  We  have 
here  its  culmination  in  a  series  of  acts  by  which  Jahveh 
chooses  a  single  people  as  his  typical  heirs  and  representa- 
tives for  the  government  of  the  world.  It  is  this  expansion 
of  the  Iranian  type  of  worship  by  the  Hebrews  that  makes 
their  traditional  mythology  interesting  in  our  present  in- 
quiry. As  a  stage  in  the  progress  of  man  to  universal 
religion,  the  Iranian  conception  is  still  predominant;  and 
the  Hebrew  phase  of  it  is  of  immense  historic  importance. 
But  neither  the  Iranian  conception,  nor  its  Hebrew  or 
Semitic  expansion,  is  for  us  the  measure  and  test  of  uni- 

iS 


274  DEVELOPMENT. 

versal  truth.  This  mode  of  conceiving  the  substance  of 
the  universe  can  no  longer  remain  unquestioned,  even  in 
its  still  more  expanded  form,  as  Christian  theology.  We 
have  seen  that  the  Hindu  mind  tended  to  worship  ab- 
stract unity  and  super-personal  being  as  more  satisfactory 
than  any  definite  personal  conception.  In  its  pantheism  a 
conscious  personal  choice  of  human  instruments,  men,  or 
nations  would  be  out  of  place.  The  Chinese,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  not  separated  deity  from  the  concrete  detail  of 
the  universe ;  and  here  again  such  a  personal  choice  would 
not  be  rational.  Modern  science  has  still  other  objections. 
Science  abolishes  supernatural  volitions  acting  from  with- 
out, and  so  tends  to  reject  the  idea  of  a  personal  Creator, 
in  the  commonly  received  sense  of  the  words.  Universal 
Religion,  reaching  to  the  inscrutableness  of  Infinite  Being 
as  the  substance  of  the  cosmos  itself,  shrinks  ever  more 
and  more  from  ascribing  personal  motives,  intentions,  or 
individual  volitions  to  this  Substance.  The  authority  of 
principles  whose  root  is  in  realities  behind  all  personal 
wills,  which  must  be  based  in  them,  not  they  in  it,  becomes 
the  foundation  of  absolute  morality.  The  Semitic  religions, 
—  Judaism,  Christianity,  Islam,  —  were  enfolding  sheaths 
of  anthropomorphic  mythology,  needed  for  a  time  to  pro- 
tect the  growing  sense  of  essential  cosmic  order,  until  that 
which  they  instinctively  groped  after  should  come,  as  they 
had  come,  successively,  in  their  day.  That  Christianity 
gave  noble  meaning  to  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  Will,  by 
emphasizing  the  element  of  Fatherhood  therein  is  true, 
and  hence  its  immense  historic  value ;  but  that  did  not  and 
could  not  destroy  the  essential  character  of  sovereign  Will 
as  arbitrary,  finite,  external.  With  all  its  tenderer,  freer 
materials,  Christianity  did  not  alter  the  Hebrew  way  of 
conceiving  God.  Still  less  did  the  Jahvism  of  the  post- 
exilian  Hebrews,  though  improving  in  some  ways  on  the 
old  Chaldean  mythology,  substitute  a  new  method.     And 


THE   HEBREW  AND   THE   CHALDEAN.  275 

we  can  no  longer  set  off  the  Hebrews  from  other  more 
Oriental  branches  of  the  Semitic  fiamily,  in  respect  of  the- 
istic  beliefs,  as  a  supremely  chosen  people,  with  gifts  to 
humanity  of  a  wholly  new  and  specially  providential  kind. 
To  abandon  this  error  is  the  grand  edict  issued  to  relig- 
ious thought  from  the  new-risen  tablets  of  Nineveh  and 
Babylon. 

The  result  of  these  Genesis-studies  may  be  briefly  stated. 
The  religious  mythology  of  the  Hebrews,  rooted  primarily 
in  an  old  Chaldean  and  Semitic  fund  of  legend,  and  the 
national  aspiration  for  an  exclusive  deity,  were  worked 
over,  under  an  influence  which  intensified  the  longing 
for  national  independence  by  a  bitter  sense  of  loss,  and 
at  the  same  time  expanded  their  vision  and  gave  it 
philosophical  and  historic  direction.  This  influence  came 
from  Babylon,  in  the  exile.  Here  was  a  concourse  of 
races  which  could  not  fail  to  inspire  the  idea  of  human- 
ity as  a  whole.  Here  was  a  large  historic,  traditional,  and 
poetic  literature,  from  which  the  Hebrew  annalists  and 
psalmists  drew  much  of  their  tone  as  well  as  material.^ 
Here  were  legends  of  the  origin  of  things,  of  divine  pur- 
poses, of  penalties  for  sin,  of  physical  and  moral  con- 
ditions, and  of  national  destiny.  Here,  as  their  whole 
subsequent  record  shows,  the  tribes  had  opportunity  to 
learn  spiritual  discipline  and  the  devoutness  of  resigna- 
tion and  trust,  and  to  fit  themselves  for  world-wide  ser- 
vice in  the  realm  of  religious  culture.  We  may  even  say 
that  at  Babylon  began  their  literary  sense  as  well  as  their 
ecclesiastical  organization.  Here  they  dropped  their  He- 
brew tongue  and  assumed  the  Aramaic,  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury before  Christ.  Here  was  adopted  the  astrological  and 
demonic  imagery  of  the  book  of  Daniel,  so  fertile  for 
their  future  apocalyptic  writing.  Here  the  spectacle  of 
the  rise  and  fall  of  empires  taught  them  a  kind  of  ui^^ii- 

'  Schrader  (AUgeuteine  Zeitun^,  Augsburg,  June  19,  1S74).  t 


2/6  DEVELOPMENT. 

versality  in  theoretic  scope,  without  disturbing  that  intense 
self-consciousness  which  made  them  interpret  all  history 
as  centring  in  themselves.  In  the  Chaldean  exile  origi- 
nated that  strange  mixture  of  opposites  which  imposed 
itself  on  the  world  as  the  one  only  true  philosophy  of 
historic  providence,  and  which  has  had  its  day  in  the 
Christian  method  of  constructing  history  around  a  chosen 
people  and  a  personal  Messiah.  Instead  of  finding  the 
evolution  of  human  nature  in  history,  this  providential 
Judaism  saw  simply  an  omnipotent  personal  Will  work- 
ing on  mankind  and  shaping  its  destinies  in  the  interest 
of  the  Hebrew  tribes;  while  the  modern  method,  still  the 
orthodox  one,  as  in  Bossuet's  day,  differs  from  it  only  in 
changing  the  objective  point  of  the  same  set  of  events 
and  data,  and  so  using  them  as  to  make  the  providential 
Will  act,  not  in  their  interest  as  tribes,-  but  in  the  interest 
of  a  Hebrew-born  human  God,  whose  claims  they  declined 
to  accept.  The  theories  of  religious  authority  and  divine 
government  which  have  predominated  in  Christendom 
down  to  the  present  moment,  the  recognized  foundations 
of  theology  and  solutions  of  life  and  the  world,  we  repeat, 
began  to  take  shape  and  direction  in  the  experience  of 
the  Hebrew  exiles  by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  weeping  when 
they  remembered  Zion,  their  harps  hung  on  the  willows. 
Accursed  Babylon  was  the  mother  of  Christianity. 

These  beliefs  enter  naturally  into  the  history  of  human 
development;  they  represent  a  maturing  stage  in  the  evo- 
lution of  religion  considered  as  the  worship  of  personal 
Will.  This  is  the  key  to  their  imperfections,  their  want 
of  universality,  their  rejection  by  science.  This  worship  of 
individual  Will  is  the  real  substance  of  the  exclusive  and 
jealous  claims  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  —  of  their  nomadic 
hatred  of  other  races  settled  in  their  habits  and  regulated 
by  laws.  This  explains  their  substitution  of  arbitrary 
commandment  for   rational    freedom ;    their   superstitions 


THE  HEBREW  AND  THE  CHALDEAN.       2// 

concerning  divine  rewards  and  penalties ;  their  dread  of 
knowledge  as  a  religious  trespass ;  their  fear  of  the  Gen- 
tile as  one  under  curse,  or  as  ignorant  of  the  conditions 
of  safety. 

The  Genesis-legends  which  grew  out  of  these  elements 
are  found  to  lack  simplicity  and  spontaneity ;  to  be  a  mix- 
ture of  myth  and  dogma,  and  evident  elaborations  of  early 
and  largely  Chaldean  materials  for  special  apologetic  pur- 
poses, —  such  as  justifying  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath, 
the  right  of  man  over  woman,  the  exclusion  of  foreign 
races  from  divine  favor,  the  claim  of  Jahveh  to  do  accord- 
ing to  his  will.  Even  Lenormant  admits  in  his  elaborate 
discussion  of  their  origin,  that  the  writers  availed  them- 
selves of  myths  already  prevalent  in  the  nations  around 
them  for  dogmatic  purposes,  to  represent  more  strongly 
the  violence  of  the  iniquity  of  the  world  outside.  But  we 
shall  not  explain  their  origin  in  human  nature  by  merely 
detecting  their  errors.  Behind  these  are  moral  and  spirit- 
ual facts,  which  history  has  here,  as  elsewhere,  been  con- 
structed to  meet  and  illustrate,  —  the  demand  of  the 
religious  nature  of  man  for  a  solution  of  the  problems 
of  his  experience,  for  reconcilement  to  the  conditions  of 
existence  and  the  order  of  the  universe ;  the  demand 
of  his  nature  for  a  philosophy  of  history,  for  a  concen- 
tration of  motives  on  some  central  truth,  for  unitary 
movement  in  human  progress ;  demands  which  from  age 
to  age  find  new  meanings,  but  always  testify  to  the  common 
nature  and  aim  of  man. 

More  definitely,  these  antique  gropings  of  imagination 
and  faith,  with  all  their  dross  of  hatred,  desire,  and  fear, 
are  outgrowths  of  the  conscience,  —  of  the  eternal  dread 
of  penalty,  natural  and  personal,  when  the  soul  is  under 
consciousness  of  evil  doing ;  of  the  ideal  in  man  when  he 
reflects  on  the  defect  of  promised  good,  conceived  as 
somewhat  for  which  he  was  born,  and  whose  loss  is  a  fall 


2/8  DEVELOPMENT. 

from  Paradise ;  of  the  infection  of  evil  in  man  and  Nature, 
giving  the  aspect  of  a  poetic  justice  to  deluges,  fratricides, 
and  the  shortening  of  human  life ;  and  of  the  hardship  of 
toil,  —  sole  inevitable  condition  of  wisdom  and  success. 

Realities  like  these,  not  mere  word-changes  nor  solar 
phenomena,  are  what  construct  myths,  make  Bibles,  found 
religions.  In  the  crudities  of  their  early  history  and 
the  persistent  illusions  of  maturer  ages,  there  is  no  more 
powerful  agent  than  the  fears  and  hopes  involved  in  the 
worship  of  personal  Will. 


J 


POLITICAL    FORCES. 
I. 

BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA. 


BABYLON,  CYRUS,  PERSIA. 

"  I  ^HE  foregoing  section  has  given  some  idea  of  the 
-*-  complexity  of  those  race-quaHties  that  were  to  be 
gathered  up  by  the  Persian  empire  into  a  dynamic  basis 
for  the  civihzations  of  the  West.  All  the  nerve-fibres  of 
historic  force  were  in  fact  converging  into  one  massive 
ganglionic  centre,  of  whose  coming  energy  that  spray  of 
races  dashed  by  the  will  of  Xerxes  over  heroic  Greece 
gave  but  a  feeble  and  transient  sign. 

The  Babylonian  Chaldeans  called  themselves  the  nation 
of  the  Four  Tongues ;  and  we  have  seen  that  they  con- 
tained Semitic,  Turanian,  and  Cushite  elements,  probably 
Aryan  also.  The  "  mixed  multitude  "  that  thronged  the 
streets  of  Babylon  furnished  food  for  the  imagination  of 
Greek  dramatists^  and  Hebrew  mythologists  and  prophets. 
Even  Egyptian  features  are  visible  through  the  dusky  civi- 
lization of  the  Euphrates  valley.  The  cuneiform  records 
of  Assyrian  conquests  astonish  us  by  the  immense  number 
and  variety  of  tribes  that  had  reached  distinct  names  and 
fames  at  so  early  a  period,  and  were  swept  into  subjection 
to  a  common  master.  Nineveh  was  substantially  Semitic 
in  her  religious  and  sensuous  intensity,  in  her  passion  for 
the  universal  sway  of  her  national  gods,  and  in  her  concen- 
trated worship  of  personal  Will.  Then  came  the  semi- 
Aryan  Mede,  —  not  Aryan,  for  the  Medes  were  largely 
Turanian,  the  very  name  of  their  country  being  a  proof  of 
it;  and  the  Aryans  were  but  a  dominant  class,  —  one  of  six 
classes,  as  Herodotus  tells  us.     Oppert  even  considers  the 

'  Aeschylus :  Persce. 


282  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

great  Median  kings,  whose  history  he  records,  beginning 
with  Deioces,  the  founder  of  the  State,  as  of  the  Turanian 
race.  A  hardy  mountain  people,  for  two  centuries  sub- 
ject to  Assyria,  bursts  in  on  the  overgrown  giant,  spread 
out,  inert  and  loose,  and,  after  hurling  aside  with  barbaric 
treachery  hordes  of  purely  destructive  Scythian  intruders, 
shapes  the  elements  into  that  first  great  international  bond 
of  fellowship  in  human  history,  —  the  League  of  Lydia, 
Media,  and  Babylonia,  6io  B.  C. 

This  Median  empire  was  but  a  flash  of  nerve-lightning. 
It  lasted  less  than  a  century ;  but  when  it  had  passed  by, 
the  nations  were  found  possessed,  like  iron-filings  beneath 
a  magnet,  by  a  stupendous  force  of  coalescence.  The  full 
organization  of  these  materials,  which  Semitic  Assyria  bent 
on  conquest  only  could  not  begin  to  effect,  even  semi-Aryan 
Media  had  to  transmit  to  a  mightier  hand.  The  function 
of  the  Mede  was,  with  a  Turanic  //c?;/,  to  break  up  the 
fixed  soil,  and  to  open  channels  for  a  more  creative  fire. 
This  was  not  difficult,  for  the  confluence  of  nations  was 
but  mechanical,  and  without  organic  relations.  Herodotus 
tells  us  that  Nineveh  fell,  not  from  internal  strife  nor  de- 
cay, but  by  the  revolt  and  desertion  of  her  allies ;  and  the 
cuneiform  tablets  record  one  incessant  struggle  to  hold 
together  an  empire  always  crumbling  at  every  point. 
Cyaxares  the  Mede,  we  are  told,  was  the  first  really  to 
organize  an  Asiatic  army,  combining  the  confused  hordes 
which  mere  conquest  brought  together.  He  was  a  great 
personality,  and  Median  history  centres  in  him.  But  the 
main  function  of  the  Mede  was  to  introduce  the  Persian, 
first  absorbing  the  little  kingdom  of  Achaemenes,  then  in 
turn  being  absorbed  by  his  descendant,  the  great  Cyrus. 
He  must  decrease,  that  the  returning  Achaemenide  might 
increase.  He  came  and  went,  leaving  no  trace.  The 
wooden    pillars    of    his    palaces    speedily    perished ;  ^    his 

'  Rawlinson  :  Ancietit  Monarchies,  \\.  ^i^^-2^^■ 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  283 

sculptures  disappeared,  and  but  one  broken  lion  remains 
to  tell  their  story ;  ^  his  towns  were  few  and  unwalled ; 
he  left  no  literature,  no  record  of  his  origin,  no  permanent 
institutions.  His  principal  record  is  in  a  few  monumental 
carvings  and  scattered  notices  by  writers  of  other  countries. 
These  indeed  retain  some  shadowy  image  of  the  fleeting 
I  world-master,  like  the  filmy  outlines  of  primeval  sea-rovers, 
which  we  sometimes  find  tenderly  spared  by  Nature  through 
her  metamorphosis  of  rocks.  Recent  researches,  too,  seem 
to  indicate  that  the  Magi  of  Herodotus,  whom  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  identify  with  the  Mazdean  fire-priest 
(^Athrava),  represented  the  old  religion  of  the  Turanian 
Medes,  especially  its  demonology,  in  many  respects  an- 
tagonistic to  the  Persian  faith,  which  the  conspiracy  of 
Gomatcs,  the  pseudo-Smerdis,  under  lead  of  these  Magi, 
succeeded  for  a  time  in  striking  down. 

The  Medes,  it  must  also  be  observed,  maintained  their 
language,  in  spite  of  Aryan  dominion,  through  the  reigns 
of  the  greatest  Achsemenidan  kings ;  and  Darius  held  it  in 
such  honor  as  to  give  it  precedence  of  the  Assyrian,  in  the 
great  trilingual  inscription  in  which  he  recounted  his  ex- 
ploits to  his  subject  States.  These  are  signs  of  an  energetic 
national  life,  however  brief  its  glory,  and  make  plausible 
enough  the  features  which  we  may  gather  from  Greek 
history  to  construct  their  portrait.  Tall,  handsome,  grace- 
ful, merciless,  and  brave,  the  compact  troop  of  "  horse- 
archers  "  swept  down  from  their  mountains,  to  pierce  the 
Ninevite  armor  with  their  long  spears,  and  open  ways  for 
a  more  vigorous  life.  There  is  a  fine  ease  of  movement  in 
these  irresistible  cavaliers,  who  touch  their  appointed  hand- 
work with  the  free  grace  of  their  own  fluted  caps,  or  of  the 
pillared  arcades  which  they  introduced  into  Oriental  art, — 
a  large  genial  handling,  typified  in  their  taking  the  colors 
sacred  to  the  five  planets  and  the  sun  and  moon  to  make 

^  Rawlinson  :  Ancient  Mottarchies,  ii.  321. 


284  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

a  rainbow  of  their  city  walls ;  a  firmness  of  grasp  which 
has  become  proverbial  as  a  synonym  for  inexorable  laws, 
and  a  consciousness  of  authority  that  well  fitted  them  to 
be  heralds  of  the  centralizing  power  of  personal  Will, — 
as  appears  in  what  Herodotus  and  Strabo  tell  us  of  their 
haughty  kings,  who  were  not  to  be  approached  even  by 
prostration,  and  who  withdrew  at  their  pleasure  into  des- 
potic seraglios  where  eunuchs  kept  guard. 

The  religious  motor  of  modern  civilizations  has  been  the 
worship  of  personality.  It  is  natural  to  find  their  springs 
in  that  succession  of  Asiatic  empires,  each  of  which  was 
the  sudden  triumph  of  some  petty  tribe,  forcing  its  way  to 
power  over  the  mass  by  its  individual  compactness  and 
unity,  and  by  the  inspiration  of  a  definite  aim.  The  course 
of  the  present  chapter  will  amply  illustrate  this  law  oi 
history. 

Even  Babylon  revives  from  her  subjection  to  Assyria  at 
the  touch  of  the  Mede,  and  for  a  little  while  wields  a  sway 
wider  than  either  over  the  ferment  of  nations.  Again  the 
pregnant  atom  of  personal  purpose  rules  the  chaos  of  ten- 
dencies :  the  smallest  of  States  holds  the  mass  by  its 
magnetic  force.  But,  unlike  the  Mede,  the  Babylonian 
embodied  in  himself  the  whole  substance  of  these  eth- 
nic elements  in  their  finest  forms,  —  as  history,  tradition, 
institution,  accumulated  mental  resource. 

His  rise  to  supremacy,  therefore,  as  we  have  already 
said,  shows  the  scope  of  that  prophetic  construction  which 
was  going  on  in  the  Iranian  world.  The  Babylonian 
kings,  all  gathered  up  at  last  into  one  speech,  one  apparel, 
one  record  of  arrow-head  syllables,  are  of  many  races. 
Berosus  tells  of  Arabian,  Chaldean,  Median,  Semite  dynas- 
ties. Many  of  their  names  are  still  linguistic  riddles,  and 
some  (such  as  Hammurabi)  point  to  races  now  unknown. 
They  had  found  room  in  their  pantheon  for  all  the  older 
gods,  every  one  the  ideal  of  some  tribe  of  riien.     It  is  no 


^ 


BABYLON,    CYRUS,    PERSIA.  285 

longer  an  adventurous  troop  of  warriors  taking  in  hand  a 
decaying  empire,  but  a  vast  historic  result,  gathering  into 
imperial  personality  the  arts  and  sciences  of  a  thousand 
years  of  growth,  and  the  product  of  interfused  races  and 
religions,  temples  and  priesthoods,  on  an  unexampled  scale, 
and  in  possession  of  a  literature  that  summed  up  the  wis- 
dom of  the  race,  —  an  industrial  achievement  surpassing  all 
that  Asia  had  known  ;  a  passion  for  national  construction  far 
beyond  the  Assyrian,  and  culminating  in  Nebuchadnezzar's 
reconstruction  of  every  historical  monument,  city,  or  great 
canal  in  the  Babylonian  land ;  its  metropolis  with  the  full 
dimensions  of  a  State,  with  an  area  of  two  hundred  square 
miles,  condensing  the  commerce,  wealth,  and  religion  of  a 
hemisphere.  Babylon,  "  hammer  of  the  nations,"  forcing 
their  tributes  before  her  feet,  and  their  hordes  into  her 
legions,  was  infinitely  more;  she  was  mother  of  arts  to  the 
teachers  of  Phidias  and  Apelles,  the  builders  of  Athens 
and  Italy.  She  guaranteed  that  not  one  gift  or  tendency 
in  them  all  should  be  lost,  not  one  acquisition  of  humanity 
fail  of  circulating  through  coming  time.  Babylon,  "  key 
of  history,",  was  the  prophecy  of  unity,  of  culture,  of  uni- 
versal religion,  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  the  Hebrew  legend 
cast  down  among  the  beasts  for  his  pride,  was  not  proud 
enough  to  boast,  or  even  to  know,  the  grandeur  of  his 
function  among  men. 

Observe  again  what  it  is  that  controls  the  elements  to 
ends  beyond  itself  or  them.  Personal  will  has  here  almost 
reached  its  absolute  form,  so  far  as  the  monarch's  power 
Is  concerned.  Another  master  is  yet  to  come,  with 
greater  genius  for  sway,  because  it  is  the  genius  of  a 
whole  tribe  concentrating  its  forces  in  one  man.  Baby- 
lonian autocracy  rests  on  religion ;  Persian,  on  self- 
conscious  gift  and  positive  culture.  Nebuchadnezzar  is 
Merodach  ;  Nabonidus  is  Bel.  Every  royal  name  is  here 
a  compound  of  gods  and  the  dealings  of  gods  with  men. 


286  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Even  the  rage  that  tore  and  the  heel  that  crushed  the 
nations  were  but  conditions  of  this  personal  sway,  by 
which  direction  was  given  to  the  thought  and  faith  of 
coming  ages ;  and  in  the  succeeding  European  civiliza- 
tions, whose  central  force  has  been  always  some  factor  in 
the  worship  of  will-power,  have  not  these  Babylonian  con- 
ditions of  such  worship,  in  one  or  another  form,  maintained 
their  ground? 

In  spite  of  that  remorseless  indictment  by  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  echoed  by  the  Christian  seer,  which  have  made 
this  queen  of  Western  Asia  a  hissing  on  the  lips  of  ages, 
the  strongest  unconscious  testimony  to  the  significance  of 
her  work  comes  from  these  enemies  themselves.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  prophets  have  nothing  to  charge  against  her 
of  which  they  do  not  confess  that  their  own  people  were 
guilty  to  the  full  extent  of  their  power.  The  pseudo- 
Jeremiah's^  picture  of  Babylon's  licentiousness  and  idolatry 
is  surpassed  by  Ezekiel's  description  of  the  abominations 
of  Jerusalem  of  that  day,^  and  pales  before  the  mournful 
confessions  of  the  later  Isaiah  in  the  name  of  his  rescued 
nation.  Nevertheless,  the  Hebrew  asserted  the  unaltered 
claim  of  these  desperate  rebels  to  be  the  children  of  Jah- 
veh's  mercies  and  the  future  crown  of  his  rejoicing,^  while 
Babylon  had  forfeited  the  right  to  live.  On  the  other  hand, 
Jeremiah,  noblest  of  the  prophets,  who  dared  to  speak  his 
mind  in  face  of  princes  and  priests  on  the  meaning  of  public 
events,  who,  undismayed  by  foul  dungeon  or  patriotic  rage, 
denounced  the  great  national  crime  of  re-enslaving  free- 
men, and  launched  Jahveh's  thunders  at  the  head  of  a  cruel 
and  treacherous  king,  and  who  outlived  the  charge  of  trea- 
sonable sympathy  with  the  foreigner,  to  find  his  insight 
justified   by   the    course    of  events,  —  this  one  statesman 


'  The  denunciation  of  Babylon  (chaps.  ].,  li.)  at  the  close  of  his  prophecies  belongs  to  a 
period  after  his  death,  and  is  manifestly  the  work  of  a  later  hand. 

-  Ezekiel,  viii.  xvi.  xxii.  3  ibid.,  xx.  33-44. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  28/ 

among  the  prophets  has  nothing  but  welcome  and  honor 
for  the  Chaldean  city,  as  Jahveh's  avenger  and  the  ap- 
pointed refuge  of  his  people. 

Not  till  the  tread  of  the  Persian  marching  to  Babylon's 
destruction  broke  on  the  Hebrew  ear,  was  Jeremiah's  name 
used  by  another  to  pull  down  the  honorable  prestige  he 
had  built  up  for  her ;  not  till  then  do  we  hear  of  the 
"golden  cup"  that  has  made  the  nations  drunk  and  mad, 
whose  end  is  come,  and  the  measure  of  whose  covetous- 
ness  is  full,  inhabited  only  by  hyenas  and  owls.  It  was 
the  Hebrew's  way  to  construct  events  when  they  had 
passed  into  fulfilment  as  inspired  predictions  of  his  own 
absolutism. 

But  none  other  than  the  prophet  himself  whose  lips  were 
glowing  with  the  grandest  gospel  of  political  and  religious 
liberty  that  stands  between  the  lids  of  the  Bible,  —  "  After 
those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward 
parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts,  and  they  shall  teach  no 
more  every  man  his  neighbor,  saying,  '  Know  the  Lord,' 
for  they  shall  all  know  me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the 
greatest  of  them,"  ^  —  none  other  than  he  it  was  who  said 
to  foolish  kings,  in  the  same  great  Name,  Behold,  I  have 
given  all  these  lands  into  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Bab}-lon, 
my  seri^ant,  and  the  nation  that  will  not  serve  him  will  I 
punish  with  the  sword.  Hearken  not  to  lying  prophets, 
but  serve  the  king  of  Babylon  and  live.^  And  to  the  cap- 
tives from  Jerusalem,  "  Seek  ye  the  peace  of  the  city 
whither  I  have  caused  you  to  be  carried,  .  .  .  and  pray 
unto  the  Lord  for  it ;  for  in  the  peace  thereof  shall  ye  have 
peace."  ^  "  Jahveh's  sword  is  in  his  hand,"  says  Ezekiel, 
too,  of  the  Chaldean,  "  and  Pharaoh's  arm  shall  be 
broken."  ^ 

'  Jeremiah,  xxxi.  33,  34.  ^  Ibid.,  xxvii.  °  Ibid.,  xxix. 

*  Ezekiel,  xxx.  In  the  Talmud  the  Jewish  Rabbins  ascribe  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  to 
the  neglect  of  popular  education  and  the  decay  of  schools  (Schaff,  119)  ;  also  to  the  stern  literal- 
ism with  which  the  law  was  executed,  to  the  neglect  of  its  milder  spirit.    (  B.  Meziah,  306.) 


288  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

And  what,  after  all,  was  the  special  ofifence  of  a  people 
from  whom  Jahveh  was  bringing  deliverance  to  the  de- 
based tribes,  and  from  whom  was  to  come  their  full 
fruition?  "  Because  ye  rejoiced  and  exulted,  O  ye  plun- 
derers of  my  inheritance,  because  ye  wantoned  like  a 
thrashing  heifer  and  neighed  like  a  stallion,  your  mother 
is  utterly  confounded ;  she  that  bore  you  is  put  to  shame." 
"  Because  she  hath  exalted  herself  against  Jahveh,  .  ,  . 
therefore  shall  her  young  men  fall  in  her  streets,  and 
nothing  of  her  be  left;"  because  also  the  years  of  cap- 
tivity had  gone  on,  as  Jeremiah  had  predicted  they  would, 
and  still  "  the  oppressor"  refused  to  let  "  his  people"  go.^ 
In  short,  it  was  because  the  national  God  of  the  Hebrews 
was  ignored  and  set  aside,  that  their  religious  zeal  dared 
to  put  upon  the  dead  lips  of  Jeremiah  himself  those  in- 
vented directions  to  his  disciple,  to  cast  his  "  book  of 
the  woes  of  Babylon  "  into  the  Euphrates,  bound  to  a 
stone,  saying,  "  Even  so  shall  Babylon  sink  and  rise  no 
more.    ^ 

And  yet  it  is  from  their  own  admissions  that  we  learn 
to  ascribe  to  this  "oppressor"  a  treatment  singularly  gen- 
erous and  kind.  The  later  romance  of  Daniel  gives  evi- 
dence at  least  that  the  Babylonians  exercised  a  hospitality, 
religious  and  intellectual,  unequalled  in  any  other  State  ; 
that  their  sovereign  was  accustomed  to  seek  out  unblem- 
ished men  from  foreign  lands,  skilled  in  all  outside  wisdom 
and  science,  so  that  the  learning  of  the  Chaldeans  might 
be  sown  in  choice  soil  for  public  service ;  ^  and  that  he 
had  the  insight  to  discern  in  a  Hebrew  youth  abilities  be- 
yond all  his  astrologers  and  magicians,  and  liberality  to 
reward  him  with  the  highest  official  station.*  If  this  na- 
tive culture  is  denounced  as  sorcery,  let  us  not  forget  that 
Daniel  himself  was  but  another  among  the  king's  inter- 

1  Jeremiah,  1.  ^  ibid.,  li. 

3  Daniel,  i.  4.  ^  Ibid.,  ii.  48 ;  vi.  3. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  289 

pretcrs  of  dreams.  In  the  same  way  it  accorded  with 
later  Hebrew  associations  to  represent  Nebuchadnezzar 
and  Cyrus,  —  the  Pharaoh  and  the  Messiah  of  the  national 
exile,  —  as  alike  converted  to  the  worship  of  Jahveh,  and 
to  sound  their  praises  in  the  language  of  the  national 
psalms.^  Surely  there  was  more  justice  in  this  acknowl- 
edgment than  in  the  bitter  complaints  of  oppression  that 
broke  out  from  the  exiles,  when  they  heard  the  advancing 
tramp  of  the  Persian  host,  —  "  Woe  to  the  spoiler,  who 
showed  no  mercy,  proud  against  the  Holy  One  of  Israel ! 
She  shall  be  snared  and  taken,  so  that  none  shall  escape; 
she  shall  be  dealt  with  according  to  her  works." ^  Nor  can 
we  help  accounting  for  the  later  Isaiah's  tender  wail  over 
Israel  in  exile,  "  as  a  man  of  sorrows,  acquainted  with 
grief,"  by  the  long-pent  feeling  of  national  thraldom,  rather 
than  by  any  special  severities  on  the  part  of  the  master. 
But  this  indignation  found  freer  vent  in  the  later  Hebrew 
legend,  where  Babylon  figures,  to  meet  the  exigencies  of 
an  anti-Syrian  passion,  as  a  nest  of  cruelties  and  idolatries, 
a  fiery  furnace  for  the  martyrs  of  Israel's  God,  a  haunt  of 
lying  priests,  who  befool  king  and  people  till  Daniel  out- 
wits them ;  the  throne  of  a  dragon-god,  till  the  same 
prophet  chokes  him  with  a  bolus  to  prove  him  mortal ;  a 
den  of  lions  for  a  prophet,  who  is  fed  by  one  brought 
from  Judea  by  the  hair  of  his  head,  till  the  tyrant,  who 
is  no  other  than  Cyrus  himself,  is  forced  to  confess  the 
Hebrew  God.^ 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  religious  exclusiveness 
should  combine  in  this  way  with  patriotic  wrath,  especial- 
ly when  we  remember  the  despondency  of  the  Jews  after 
the  exile,  at  Jahveh's  failure  to  bring  the  promised  Messi- 
anic age.  But  Babylon  was  not  the  persecutor  of  nations 
and  faiths ;   it  was  their  gathering-place,  and  the  germinal 

'  Ezr.\  i   2-4  2  Jeremiah,  1.  29. 

*  See  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  Old  Testament. 
19 


290  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

point  of  their  unity.  As  Jeremiah  had  counselled  the 
exiles  to  pray  for  the  peace  of  Babylon,  so  Ezekiel's  con- 
ferences with  their  elders  show  that  they  were  allowed  to 
retain  their  civil  and  religious  institutions,  governed  by  a 
chief  of  their  own,  although  by  his  own  testimony  they 
were  altogether  unworthy  of  the  privilege.^  The  exiles 
were  not  only  protected  in  life  and  property,  they  were 
represented  at  court.  Nehemiah  was  royal  cup-bearer. 
Jehoiachin,  their  imprisoned  prince,  was  released  and 
treated  with  distinguished  honor.^  They  increased  in 
numbers,  and  while  three  times  as  many  persons  were 
ready  to  return,  upon  the  permission  of  Cyrus,  as  had 
been  carried  away  two  generations  before,  the  large  and 
influential  number  of  those  who  stayed  in  Babylonia,  not- 
withstanding the  exertions  of  Ezra  and  his  friendly  coad- 
jutors in  literary  and  legislative  activity,  is  a  proof  of  the 
strong  root  that  had  been  struck  in  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  their  Chaldean  home.  Nor  could  the  patriots 
fairly  complain  of  the  manner  in  which  the  interests  of 
their  country  were  looked  after  by  the  conquerors.  Geda- 
liah  was  doubtless  the  best  governor  who  could  have  been 
appointed  for  Judea,  and  his  foul  murder  by  his  own  coun- 
trymen was  anything  but  encouraging  to  royal  benefac- 
tions. The  free  choice  of  Zerubbabel  and  Jeshua  as 
leaders  of  the  return  was  no  better  sign  of  the  friend- 
ship of  Cyrus  than  of  the  normal  condition  of  Hebrew 
institutions  in  the  land  of  exile.  How  prodigious  the  con- 
trast with  their  utter  degradation  and  the  ruin  of  the  Pales- 
tinian remnant  and  the  fugitives  in  Egypt,  a  glance  at  the 
record  shows.  Never  did  a  people  exhibit  less  political 
capacity  under  difficult  relations  with  their  stronger  neigh- 
bors than  did  these  children  of  an  exclusive  religious  zeal 
upon  their  own  soil.  Nothing  but  the  crash  that  flung 
their    quivering  fragments   into    the   fostering   arms    of  a 

■  Ezekiel,  xx.  33-38;  xxiii.  -  Jeremiah,  lii.  31. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  29 1 

hated  foreign  civilization  like  the  Persian,  highly  regulated 
and  organized,  whose  very  success  stimulated  them  with 
mingled  mortification  and  hope,  saved  those  germs  of 
future  influence  upon  human  history  that  lay  hidden  in 
their  very  self-isolation.  The  secret  of  their  tragic  destiny 
is  revealed  in  that  seething  of  undisciplined  passions  which 
mingled  in  one  volcanic  outbreak  against  Babylon  the  ten- 
der^st  pathos  of  homesick  exiles  and  the  merciless  rage  of 
savages.  "  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  there  we  sat  down ; 
yea,  we  wept  when  we  remembered  Zion.  O  daughter  of 
Babylon !  happy  shall  he  be  who  dasheth  thy  little  ones 
against  the  stones."-' 

When    the    returning    exiles    have    come    under    Ezra's 
Law  in  their  own  land  they  are  a  new  people ;   properly 
for  the  first  time  a  people ;   possessed  by  a  conviction  of 
national  and  religious  unity,  due  in  no  slight  measure  to 
the  stimulus  of  the  exile  and  return.     Jahveh  is  now  the 
centre   of  the   one   national  ritual.     Israel,  the  servant  of 
God,  suffers  for  the  popular  sins,  redeemer  of  the  world. 
How  they  put  away  their  very  wives  and  children  in  the 
name  of  national  duty !    A  more  or  less  permanent  written 
constitution  has  been  accepted,  whose  main  peculiarity  is 
a  compromise  between  the  two  elements  until  then  exist- 
ing in  sharp  antagonism,  —  the  prophetic  and  the  priestly. 
Both  are  in  fact  transformed  ;   and  while  the  ecclesiastical 
system   becomes   far    more    hierarchical    and   vicarious  in 
form,  the  prophetic  has  lost  its   individual  inspiration,  is 
recognized  as  having  no  more  the  old  fire  which  had  glori- 
fied the  days  of  tribal  discord,  but  is  diffused  more  widely 
in   the   popular   mind  in  a  spirit  of  reaction   against  the 
exclusivcness  and  pride  of  the  second  Temple,  and  in  an 
increase  of  religious  and  national  enthusiasm  fostered  by 
the  instructions  of  the  scribes.     The  Temple  of  Jerusalem 
is  now,  as  vainly  proposed  by  Josiah,  the  only  place  of 

*  Psalm,  cxxxvii. 


292  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Jahveh's  presence ;  the  law  is  a  systematic  ritual ;  the  old 
Levitical  rights  to  priesthood  are  suppressed  as  punishment 
for  the  national  sin  of  free  worship  on  the  high  places, 
while  the  sons  of  Aaron  are  exalted  into  an  exclusive  hie- 
rarchy, a  high-priest  of  mediatorial  dignity  at  their  head,^ 
splendid  in  dress  as  in  function,  with  sacrifices,  vows,  festi- 
vals reorganized  in  their  interest.^  The  sorrows  of  the 
exile  have  intensified  religious  nationality,  or,  we  may  say, 
created  it  in  the  form  of  an  aristocracy.  Yet,  on  the  other 
hand,  this  very  official  and  aristocratic  spirit  compelled  a 
certain  democratic  quality,  a  free  many-sidedness,  in  which 
lay  the  germs  of  the  Maccabcan  heroes, of  Hillel  and  Jesus, 
of  Essenic  sainthood,  of  the  moral  and  philosophical  sub- 
limities scattered  through  the  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Apoc- 
rypha, of  the  free  doubts  and  varying  dogmatic  questioning 
of  the  "  Preacher  "  and  the  Son  of  Sirach,  of  the  lawless 
treatment  of  historic  facts  and  laws  by  the  Chronicler,  of 
the  stimulating  strife  of  factions  in  Asmonean  times,  of  the 
growth  of  sects  and  of  those  Greek  sympathies  of  Hero- 
dian  times  which  did  so  much  to  counteract  the  legalism 
of  the  church,  and,  especially,  of  the  efforts  to  escape  an- 
thropomorphic views  of  deity,  which  appear  both  in  Judea 
and  Alexandria.  The  epoch  bore  the  noblest  poetry  in 
the  psalms  of  the  Temple,  full  of  popular  love  and  longing 
for  its  holiness ;  while  the  Persian  satrap  and  the  remote- 
ness of  the  Temple  of  Jahveh's  presence,  aided  by  the 
synagogues  spread  over  the  land,  could  not  but  combine 
to  foster  local  independence  and  protest. 

Moreover  the  Law  itself,  in  its  reformations,  brought  with 
it  a  sense  of  national  remorse  which  made  it  provide  for 
many  wants  and  claims  of  the  masses.  Contrast  Nehe- 
miah's  Sabbatarian  bigotry  and  his  rage  against  mixed 
marriages  with  his  rebukes  of  ricli,  usurers  and  his  release 
of  poor  debtors   fron;  their  hands.     Note  the  limitations 

1  Zechariah,  vi.  9-15.  -  Kuenen  :  Religion  0/ Israel,  ii.  259. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  293 

set  in  the  post-exilian  law  to  the  blood-avenger's  rights 
and  powers,^  and  the  scheme  for  a  Sabbatical  jybilee-year 
of  release  from  debts  and  alienations  of  land,  with  the  many- 
laws  facilitating  redemption.^  These  humanities  stand  in 
relief  against  the  many  barbarous  injunctions  inspired  by 
the  fear  of  heathen  interference  with  the  separation  of  the 
holy  nation  to  Jahveh.^  When  we  read  the  grand  humani- 
ties of  Malachi  and  the  later  Isaiah,  who  wrote  upon  the 
eve  of  the  great  national  metamorphosis,  we  cannot  help 
thinking  that  these  last  and  grandest  utterances  of  the 
prophetic  spirit  point  not  only  backward  to  the  expand- 
ing and  softening  influences  of  the  exile,  but  forward  to 
those  noble  landmarks  of  universality,  —  the  books  of  Jo- 
nah and  of  Ruth.  Between  these  stands  the  whole  distinc- 
tive Levitical  legislation  into  which  Hebrew  tradition  and 
life,  from  the  old  free  tribal  usages'^  through  the  Deuter- 
onomic  reformation,  crystallized  at  last,  as  ecclesiasticism 
does  crystallize,  —  traced  by  the  keen  analysis  of  recent 
scholarship  to  the  labors  of  the  Babylonian  Jews  of  the 
exile,  beginning  with  Ezekiel,  but  mainly  after  the  first 
emigration  of  Zerubbabel  and  Jeshua,  during  the  eighty 
years  between  538  and  458  B.  C,  and  even  later,  at  Jerusa- 
lem itself.  Here,  as  well  as  previously  at  Babylon,  Ezra  and 
his  companions  were  compiling,  constructing,  collating  his 
Book  of  Laws  ^  for  the  use  of  the  new  people  of  Jahveh,  for 
whom  these  scribes  saw  in  a  regulated  priestly  ritualism 
the  nationality  required.*^  They  did  their  best  to  join 
these  to  the  old,  forgotten,  and  the  recognized  statutes 
and  usages  of  the  land ;  but  they  did  not  scruple  to  alter 
and  add  to  these  very  largely,  always  in  the  interest  of 
ecclesiastical  centralization  and  authority."     For  them  the 

1  Numbers,  xxxv.  9-34.  *  Leviticus,  xxv.  1-7. 

'  See  Numbers,  xxxi.  49.  *  Exodus,  xxi.-xxiii. 

6  Levitical  Book  of  Origins  (Ewald).  6  gee  Kuenen,  ii.  152,  153,  233. 

'  So  the  author  of  Chronicles,  who  seeks  to  give  Davidic  authority  to  their  later  ecclesi- 
astical laws. 


294  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

great  age  of  the  prophets  was  dead  and  gone.  It  had 
not  united  Israel,  nor  saved  her.  The  age  of  written  law 
must  come ;  of  the  hedges  of  the  scribe  about  it,  and  the 
right  of  the  priest  to  administer  it.  Yet  see  what  lessons 
the  rude  Hebrews  must  have  learned  at  Babylon,  what 
breadth  even  in  hating  and  repelling  what  was  too  great 
for  them  to  ignore ;  and  how  the  Persian  universalism 
followed  them  up  in  the  edict  commanding  Ezra  "  to  in- 
struct all  the  people  in  the  laws  of  their  God."  ^  Of  the 
influence  of  Zoroastrianism  itself  in  the  hundred  years  of 
Persian  sway  over  Judea  we  shall  speak  elsewhere  ;  Baby- 
lonia is  our  present  subject. 

These  Hebrews  have  learned  the  arts,  traditions,  litera- 
ture of  an  ancient  and  great  civilization.  Their  priests 
and  prophets  have  been  working  out,  amid  these  large 
resources,  a  reconstruction  of  their  nomadic  mythology, 
a  systematic  religious  code  and  ritual  which  shall  recon- 
cile the  differences  of  their  past  and  present,  of  their 
formal  and  spiritual  elements,  and  bind  in  one  meaning 
the  Elohim  of  their  fathers  and  the  Jahveh  of  their  faith. 
Nothing  is  more  manifest  in  their  post-exilian  literature, 
unreliable  as  it  is,  than  the  purpose  to  give  unity  to  their 
history  by  making  these  two  names  of  deity,  which  rep- 
resent distinct  stages  in  the  growth  of  the  religious  idea, 
completely  interchangeable.  And  this  they  did  so  suc- 
cessfully, that  the  words  probably  conveyed  no  more 
suggestion  of  difference  than  we  find  in  the  terms  "  God  " 
and  "  the  Lord,"  by  which  they  are  respectively  rendered  in 
the  English  Bible.  They  were  even  joined  in  a  single  title, 
Jahveh-EldJnm,  the  "  Lord  God."  There  can  be  no  surer 
sign  of  cosmopolitan  experience  in  a  people  than  the 
effort  to  give  unity  to  their  rdigious  history.  To  gather 
up  all  its  germinal  stages  into  an  ideal  purpose,  is  a  step 
which  involves  previous  intercourse  with  larger  forms  of 

'  Ezra,  vii.  25. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  295 

civilization.  And  this  result  of  the  captivity  was  the 
opening  for  constructions  of  universal  history,  like  those 
in  Daniel  and  the  Apocryphal  books,  as  well  as  in  the 
ethnic  genealogical  tabic  of  Genesis ;  ^  all  of  which,  how- 
ever marred  by  national  and  ecclesiastical  exclusiveness,  at 
least  indicates  that  this  was  giving  way  to  a  supreme  inter- 
est in  human  history  as  a  whole.  For  this  pregnant  edu- 
cation of  Judaism,  Christianity,  its  offspring,  should  credit 
the  much-abused  banks  of  "  the  river  of  Chebar."  We 
may  maintain  that  the  age  of  prophecy  was  dead ;  but 
after  all,  till  the  day  of  the  exile  the  Hebrew  prophet  was, 
with  all  his  moral  ardor  and  protest,  truculent,  narrow,  and 
extravagant,  extremely  wild  and  irrational.  There,  as  the 
exile  sat  and  mused,  were  opened  larger  heavens  than 
those  of  Ezekiel's  vision  or  Ezra's  priestly  ritualizing. 
The  whole  future  of  his  people  shaped  itself  then  among 
the  heathen  laws  and  hospitable  liberties  he  held  accursed. 
No  one  could  condense  the  evidences  of  this  stimulating 
influence  better  than  Dean  Stanley  has  done  in  one  sen- 
tence in  his  "  History  of  the  Jewish  Church,"  —  "The  cap- 
tivity bore  the  greatest  of  Hebrew  prophets,  the  chief  of 
Hebrew  scribes,  the  founder  of  Hebrew  law,  the  fathers 
of  Hebrew  literature."  Ezekiel  is  possessed  with  the  pic- 
ture of  Israel's  history.  His  lamentations  over  this,  and 
his  tracing  out  through  all,  of  Jahveh's  justice,  is  the  earli- 
est great  construction  of  national  history  on  moral  and 
religious  principles,  —  of  a  Divine  administration  of  affairs, 
and  of  the  supreme  authority  of  a  personal  Will.  The  in- 
terpretation of  the  Law  by  the  best  collected  mind  of  the 
nation  was  substituted  for  the  dogmatism  of  the  prophet ; 
the  constitution  of  the  theocracy  for  the  arbitrariness  of 
kings  and  priests. 

But  a   greater  social  and  political  renewal  than  any  of 
these  must  be  noted.     There  in  prevailing  Parsi  customs,^ 

1  Genesis,  chap.  x.  2  Kueiien  :  Religion  of  Israel,  iii.  35. 


296  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

we  may  add,  began  the  democratic  element  in  Hebrew 
religious  forms,  —  the  recognition  of  the  human  element 
in  the  law  for  the  instruction  of  the  people,  the  Sabbath 
meeting  in  the  synagogue,  the  expansive  legal  studies  of 
the  Scribes  and  growth  of  the  oral  law,  the  public  assem- 
blies called  to  reconstitute  nationality,^  and  the  reshaping 
of  the  old  prophecies  and  histories.  So  also  began  there 
the  devout  listening  to  the  history  of  Jahveh's  dealing 
with  their  fathers,^  the  public  reading  of  the  Law,  and  the 
freer  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  that  bore  such  a 
leading  part  in  the  origins  of  Christianity  when  the  Scribes 
had  overcome  the  priestly  power,  degenerating  indeed  into 
the  narrowness  of  the  later  Palestinian  sects,  but  holding 
its  own  in  that  larger  survey  of  principles  which  distin- 
guished Babylonian  from  Judean  Talmudists,  and  which 
afterward  suffered  from  Judean  narrowness  as  did  early 
Christianity.^ 

To  Babylon, then, the  Hebrews  owed  their  later  language, 
calendar,  and  religious  imagery ;  but,  above  all,  an  expansion 
of  mind,  a  historic  sense ;  germs  of  universality,  hopes  of 
national  life,  an  emotional  experience  of  sorrow  and  faith 
that  was  no  less  than  a  change  of  heart,  and  which  flowed 
forth  in  psalms  of  resignation  and  aspiration,  of  humble  trust 
and  spiritual  yearning,  of  noble  purpose  and  happy  praise. 
Here  the  nation  saw,  through  its  old  and  now  established 
rite  of  slaughtered  rams,  even  by  reaction  against  this 
ritualism  to  the  nobler  meanings  of  sacrifice,  in  the  heroic 
sainthood  that  suffered  for  the  sake  of  all,  the  pious  ser- 
vant of  God,  the  true  Israel  of  exile,  who  was  bruised  for 
the  iniquities  of  his  people,  and  by  whose  stripes  they 
were  healed.  Here  in  the  hospitable  shadow  of  a  great 
empire  they  grew  into  that  home-trust  which  could  after- 

1  Neliemiah,  viii.  10;  Ezra,  ix.  6-15. 
"^  Nehemiah,  ix.  s- 

'  Geiger :  Das  Judenthian  u>id  seine  Geschichte,  ii.  31,  32.  Miihlfelder :  Rabh,  ein 
Lebensbild  zur  Gesch.  d,   Talmud 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  297 

wards  say,  "  He  who  emigrates  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem 
commits  a  crime,  breaks  a  command."  ^  Here  had  indeed 
been,  and  here  was  again  to  be,  when  eight  or  ten  cen- 
turies had  passed,  in  the  great  age  of  Talmudic  teaching, 
and  under  many  of  the  Persian  Sassanidse,  through  the 
Christian  persecutions  of  Constantine  and  Justinian,  a  Har- 
bor of  Refuge,  such  as  Judaism  could  not  find  elsewhere 
in  the  civilized  world.  That  the  Jews  themselves  were  in 
some  degree  conscious  of  their  debt  of  gratitude,  for  a 
time  at  least,  appears  from  the  refusal  of  the  high-priest 
to  transfer  the  national  loyalty  from  Darius  to  Alexander 
after  his  great  victories  over  the  Persian  king.^ 

It  has  been  too  long  the  fashion  to  see  this  great  his- 
toric city  in  the  lurid  light  of  Hebrew  denunciations,  and 
to  regard  its  destruction  as  evidence  at  once  of  prophetic 
inspiration  and  of  the  wrath  of  the  God  of  the  Bible 
against  national  iniquity.  The  absorption  or  passing  away 
of  States  is  not  a  penalty  for  their  sins,  any  more  than  their 
expansion  is  the  reward  of  their  virtues.  Without  dispar- 
aging the  part  played  by  moral  forces  in  the  movement 
of  civilization,  we  must  regard  historical  conditions  as 
quite  too  complicated  to  be  reduced  to  a  mere  formula 
of  ethical  retribution.  A  Hebrew  who  ascribed  the  over- 
throw of  Jerusalem  to  the  corruption  of  Jahveh-worship, 
might  as  well  have  pretended  that  the  extension  of  Neb- 
uchadnezzar's sway  was  due  to  the  virtues  of  his  people ; 
and  he  would  then  have  had,  in  consistency,  to  demon- 
strate that  these  same  virtuous  Babylonians-  had  been 
transformed  in  half  a  century  into  criminals  fit  only  for 
the  destroyer !  This  logical  continuity  was  wanting  to 
the  Hebrew  mind,  which  ascribed  the  success  or  failure 
of  the  chosen  nation  to  the  terms  on  which  they  stood 
with  their  God,  while  it  failed  to  accord  the  same  condi- 

1  Jost  :  Gesch.  d.  Jitdent.,  iv.  305.     Also  Milman's  History  "f  tlie  Jews,  chap.  xxL 

2  Josephus  :  Antiquities  of  the  yews,xi.  g,  §  3. 


298  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

tions  to  the  heathenism  that  lay  outside  of  his  law.  The 
simple  fact  was  that  the  petty  tribe  of  Judah  could  not 
resist  the  conquerors  of  the  world.  Science  has  taught 
us  that  the  limits  of  a  nation's  existence  and  growth  are 
determined  by  conditions  of  climate,  position,  and  race; 
by  its  relative  strength  and  sagacity;  by  the  currents  of 
civilization,  opening  or  closing  paths  to  power;  and  by 
the  fortunes  of  war.  Probably  no  great  people  was  ever 
so  utterly  demoralized  as  to  owe  its  destruction  to  war 
alone.  The  Roman  Empire  was  enervated  by  self-indul- 
gence. But  its  conquerors  from  the  northern  ivildernesses 
were  not  models  of  virtue ;  and  the  Rome  that  could  not 
withstand  their  blows  could  at  least  live  an  after-life  in  the 
conquest  of  their  brutality  by  her  culture  and  her  law. 
Surely  it  was  not  owing  to  the  vices  of  Rome  that  horde 
after  horde  of  barbarians  pressed  like  waves  on  one  another 
till  they  overflowed  Europe  with  a  physical  force  that  no 
moral  energy  could  have  withstood.  The  consequences 
of  slavery  were  certainly  sapping  the  unity  of  the  empire ; 
but  so  overgrown  a  dominion  must  have  fallen  to  pieces 
by  lack  of  central  authority,  and  by  the  restlessness  of  the 
tribes  it  sought  to  hold,  even  if  its  provincial  administra- 
tion had  been  far  better  than  it  was.  Like  all  great  cities, 
Babylon  doubtless  had  her  share  of  luxury,  covetousness, 
and  crime  j  perhaps  the  pictures  drawn  by  Hebrew  prophet 
and  Latin  historian  are  within  the  truth ;  but  to  say  that 
for  this  reason  her  glory  was  turned  to  "  heaps  "  is  to 
forget  all  the  elements  of  the  situation  save  one.  It  is 
to  ignore  the  immeasurable  part  she  has  borne  in  human 
history,  both  before  and  after  her  visible  downfall.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  her  vices  did  not  prevent  her  from 
being,  at  that  very  moment,  famous  throughout  Asia  for 
the  valor  and  energy  of  her  campaigns ;  that  a  less  skilful 
and  fortunate  foe  than  Cyrus  would  probably  have  failed 
to  force  her  enormous  defences,  which  were  only  carried 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  299 

by  a  stratagem  played  on  the  effeminacy  not  of  the  peo- 
ple, but  of  the  court.  With  all  their  excesses,  the  Baby- 
lonians had  won  repute  for  honesty  and  self-possession ;  ^ 
and  the  earnestness  of  their  religious  faith  and  public  spirit 
is  shown  by  their  prodigious  works  and  by  the  inscriptions 
of  their  kings.  That  a  city  which  held  from  an  unknown 
antiquity  down  to  the  last  moment  of  its  existence  the 
rank  of  mistress  in  commerce  and  culture, — a  metropolis 
to  which  all  the  great  roads  of  Asia  converged,  and  from 
which  the  wealth  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris  flowed  down 
through  the  great  Persian  Gulf  to  the  ocean  highway  of 
the  ancient  world ;  "  the  glory  of  kingdoms,  the  beauty 
of  the  Chaldees'  excellency;"  a  city  that  could  build  walls 
fifty  miles  in  circumference,  and  terraced  gardens  on  a 
similar  scale,  upheld  by  columns  and  watered  by  hydraulic 
engines,  and  river-walls  and  piers  to  match  them ;  that 
combined  every  known  form  of  industrial  achievement  and 
productive  craft;  the  confluence  of  all  races,  the  home  of 
all  beliefs,  —  that  such  a  city  became  "heaps"  because 
of  its  moral  and  religious  rottenness  is  simply  incredible, 
and  would,  if  true,  make  it  absurd  to  expect  anything 
from  the  highest  capacities  of  mankind.  Sodoms  and 
Gomorrahs  on  such  a  scale  are  preposterous.  The  de- 
nouncers of  Babylon  were  rebuked  in  after  days  by  the 
legend  of  Jahveh's  own  promise  to  Abraham,  that  ten 
righteous  men  were  enough  to  save  a  city;  ^  and  by 
his  plea  with  Jonah,  "  Thou  hast  had  pity  on  the  gourd 
which  came  up  in  a  night  and  perished  in  a  night;  and 
should  not  I  spare  Nineveh,  that  great  city,  wherein  are 
more  than  sixscore  thousand  persons  that  cannot  discern 
between  their  right  hand  and  their  left  hand?" 

Whatever  its  morals,  Babylon  would  doubtless  have  con- 
tinued for  ages  to  be  the  centre  of  Asiatic  civilization,  had 

1  Rawlinson  :  Atici'eni  Monarchies,  ii.  50S. 
*  Genesis,  xviii.  32. 


300  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

not  Alexander's  plans  for  its  restoration  been  cut  short  by 
death ;  had  not  the  Persians,  at  a  later  time,  in  their  fear 
of  invasion  by  sea,  broken  the  connection  between  the 
Tigris  and  the  Persian  Gulf;  had  not,  still  later,  the  dis- 
covery of  an  ocean  passage  to  India  destroyed  that  land 
traffic  of  which  Babylon  was  the  entrepot,  and  which  our 
own  days  are  bringing  afresh  into  its  ancient  track.  The 
vices  of  Belshazzar's  semi-mythic  court  had  less  to  do  with 
Babylon's  desolation  than  the  removal  of  the  Achaemen- 
idan  seat  of  empire  to  Susa,  and  the  change  from  Chaldean 
culture  to  Persian  military  ambition  in  Western  Asia,  which 
required  a  new  metropolis  and  a  new  basis  of  nationality. 
Still  more  conclusive  against  the  Bible-theory  is  the  actual 
record  of  Babylon's  influence  on  universal  history,  —  on 
the  one  hand  direct  and  visible,  on  the  other  indirect  and 
invisible ;  of  Babylon  after  the  flesh,  and  Babylon  in  the 
spirit.  What  if  her  undisputed  mastery  of  the  Asiatic 
world  lasted  less  than  a  century?  It  was  long  enough 
to  gather  the  scattered  lights  of  past  ages  into  one  flame, 
and  transmit  to  the  next  master  of  nerve-power  in  this 
process  of  historic  growth  what  he  would  never  have  had 
the  philosophy  to  concentrate,  nor  the  patience  to  search 
out;  long  enough  to  mingle  the  physical  stamina  and 
crude  capacity  of  a  hundred  heterogeneous  tribes  with 
the  best  organic  life  of  wealth  and  culture  that  had  then 
been  attained,  —  and  thus  to  make  Greece,  Judea,  Arabia, 
and  through  them  Europe  and  America,  her  unceasing 
debtors. 

Babylon  became  "  heaps ;  "  but  when  a  thousand  years 
have  passed  over  those  "  heaps,"  antiquity  itself  arises  out 
of  them,  and  holds  forth  the  lost  fragments  of  history  that 
prove  humanity  an  unbroken  evolution,  a  movement  to  uni- 
versal ends.  When  Ker  Porter's  troop  first  approached 
the  mound  of  Birs-Nimrud,  they  saw  its  desolate  summit 
in  possession  of  three  magnificent  lions,  who  moved  majes- 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  30I 

tically  away  at  their  approach,  as  if  to  reprove  those  nurs- 
lings of  the  ages  for  forgetting  that  Babylon,  though  a 
shadow,  was  still  a  'throne  for  kings. ^ 

It  has  hardly  been  imagined  to  what  extent  Persian  civil- 
ization was  the  product  of  Babylonian  elements.     A  loose 
congeries  of  nations,  apparently  with  nothing  in  common 
but  the  tendency  to  rebellion  and  separation,  were  trans- 
mitted by  Nabonidus  to  Cyrus,  whose  hands  were  so  full 
of  conquests  that  he   did  little  towards  shaping  political 
order  out  of  their  fruits.     But  he  received  more  than  this 
chaos  of  tendencies.     We  have  traced  through  the  Iranian 
past  an  energetic  germ  of  unity,  in  the  pressure  of  ideal 
motive  into  immediate  act,  which  I  have  characterized  as 
nerve-power.     The  main  spring  of  this  energy  of  purpose 
could  be  found  only  in  personal  Will.    This  was  its  earliest 
ideal  in  the  East,  as  it  is  its  latest  inspiration  in  Western 
society  and  faith.     Its   advent  on    an  ethnic  scale  was  in 
that  Iranian  exaltation  of  royal  personages,  as  actual  or 
expectant  masters  of  the  world  through  force  of  will,  of 
which  it  is  a  popular  error  to  suppose  that  Cyrus  and  his 
successors  were  the   founders.     It  was    Iranian,  before  it 
was  Persian.     First  noted  by  the  Greeks  in  the  hosts  pre- 
cipitated on  Europe  by  the  nod  of  the  king,  it  was  yet,  as 
Yv'e  have   seen,   the   motive-force  of  those  great  empires 
which  had  preceded  his.     The  leader  of  a  troop  of  moun- 
taineers, Cyrus  proved, — like  the  Assyrian,  the  Mede,  the 
Babylonian  before  him,  only  with  far  greater  emphasis, — 
that  personal  quality  is  master  of  mere  human  mass.     The 
immense   power  that  belonged  to  this  conviction  was  al- 
ready a  tradition  of  these  nations,  ready  to  pass  from  hand 
to  hand  along  the  line  of  conquerors.     So  the   spirit  of 

^  Babylon,  as  the  traveller  sees  it  from  the  Birs-Nimrud  to-day,  is  no  desert.  The  date 
groves,  palms,  and  mulberry  trees,  the  beautiful  gardens,  magnificent  crops,  and  far-sffread 
irrigation,  make  the  scene  as  lovely  as  possible,  and  serve  as  a  benediction  of  Nature  on  a 
mighty  historic  mission  long  finished  and  fulfilled.  (For  description,  see  Geary's  Travels 
in  Asiatic  Turkey,  chap.  xii.J 


302  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Nineveh  and  Babylon  moved  in  the  arm  of  Cyrus  when  it 
waved  the  dispersed  Hebrews  into  national  life,  as  when  it 
chastised  the  river  Gyndes  for  drowning  a  sacred  horse  ;  in 
the  rage  of  Xerxes  casting  fetters  into  the  Hellespont;  in 
the  self-invocation  of  every  Achaemenidan  on  his  stone  tab- 
lets, as  sole  "  King  of  kings;  king  by  grace  of  Ormuzd, 
of  this  wide  earth,  afar  and  near."  And  at  last  Alexander 
himself,  pupil  of  Greek  liberty,  conquers  Persian  Babylon 
only  to  assume  the  adored  dress  of  Darius,  to  prescribe 
prostration  at  his  own  feet,  and  demand  at  Susa,  even  of 
the  Greeks,  that  they  should  worship  him  as  their  god. 

The  Persian  monotheist  did  but  intensify  the  personal 
monarchism  of  the  older  worship  when  he  substituted  one 
sovereign  will  for  the  many  gods  in  human  form  of  the 
Semitic  and  Turanian  pantheon,  whom  he  smote  into  the 
dust.  His  symbol  of  Ornmzd,  —  a  man  flying  in  a  winged 
circle  over  the  king's  head,  —  belonged  to  Asshur,  the  god 
of  Assyria,  before  him.  Here  was  a  fit  type  of  that  nerve- 
energy  and  resistless  will  by  which  the  Persians  carried  to 
a  higher  point  the  personal  ideal  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon. 
So  the  winged  human-headed  bulls  of  these  cities,  of  simi- 
lar purport,  and  the  monsters  that  had  typified  terrible 
powers  of  evil  purpose,  did  but  receive  from  the  new  dual- 
ism of  spiritual  forces  a  more  practical  and  realistic  form 
of  the  same  meaning.  The  old  Magian  cultus  of  the  ele- 
ments, slowly  built  up  by  Cushite,  Turanian,  and  Semite 
combined,  was  also  transmitted  to  the  Persians,  who  ac- 
cepted its  worship  of  fire,  its  divining  rods,  and  perhaps 
its  command  to  destroy  noxious  animals,  and  who  prac- 
tised at  times,  if  we  may  believe  Herodotus,  its  dreadful 
rite  of  human  sacrifice.  Even  the  Babylonian  Venus, 
Anaitis,^  found  admission  at  a  later  period  into  the  reli- 
gion of  these  scourgers  of  idolatry,  even  among  the  suc- 

1  According  to  Hang,  who  refers  to  Windischmann  {Essays,  etc.,  p.  43),  Anaitis  is  in  the 
old  Yashts  of  the  Avesta. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  303 

cessors  of  that  Cambyses  who  had  stabbed  the  Egyptian 
Apis  and  overturned  his  shrine.  They  took  their  writing 
from  the  Assyrian  cuneiform.  Babylon  furnished  their 
system  of  coinage  ;  Egypt  and' Media, their  dress;  and  into 
their  worship  of  Ormuzd  they  absorbed  without  change  the 
Semitic  gods  of  their  subject  States.^ 

Spiegel  has  traced  many  of  the  gods  of  the  Zend-Avesta 
directly  to  older  Semitic  originals,^  and  it  is  but  reasonable 
to  believe  that  the  civilization  of  western  Iran,  which  He- 
rodotus entitled  Persian,  was  in  fact  the  resultant  of  the 
manifold  traditions  and  institutions  deposited  in  succession 
on  the  soil.  But  Persia  brought  also  her  own  gift,  her 
distincti\^e  function.  As  to  what  it  was,  we  can  judge 
better  after  a  brief  survey  of  what  we  know  as  to  the 
origin  and  history  of  her  people.  On  this  matter  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  until  recently  the  principal  guide  as 
to  the  races  of  Western  Asia,  give  very  little  information. 
The  ram  and  the  butting  goat  of  the  book  of  Daniel  con- 
vey no  idea  of  the  difference  of  the  Persian  and  Macedo- 
nian empires ;  nor  do  other  Bibles  throw  much  light  on 
the  origin  of  the  tribe  which  C}tus  raised  to  the  throne 
of  Asia.  Cuneiform  inscriptions,  as  early  as  the  ninth 
century  before  Christ,  ■ —  if  we  are  not  deceived  by  a  re- 
semblance of  names,  as  Schrader  thinks  we  are,  —  have 
preserved  the  important  fact  that  the  "  country  of  Par'sua  " 
(Persia)  contained  a  very  great  number  of  independent 
chiefs  who  submitted  to  the  Assyrians.^  This  is  about 
all  we  can  learn  from  the  stone-records,  and  the  lively 
Greeks  yield  nothing  but  mythic  names.  The  early  le- 
gends of  the  Zend-Avesta,  like  those  of  the  Hebrew  Genesis, 
may  cover  the  religious  antagonism  of  nomadic  and  settled 
tribes,  and  the  primeval  warfare  of  their  gods  of  night  and 

1  Spiegel:    Siudien  uber  d.   Zend-Avesta     {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.   Morgenl.   Gesellsch., 
ix.  17S).    Duncker:   Gesc/iic/tU  des  A//eriAums,  hd.  ii.  626,  641.     Herodotus,  i.  135. 
^  Eran.  Alterth.,  bd   ii 
8  Black  obelisk  Inscription  of  Shalmaneser  II.,  and  Inscription  of  Shamas  Rimmon. 


304  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

day ;  but,  however  ancient,  these  transformed  traditions 
and  names  throw  no  hght  on  the  special  facts  of  early 
Persian  history.  On  the  origin  of  the  monarchy  formed 
by  union  of  the  cognate  tribes  we  have  nothing  but  the 
name  of  Achaemenes,  who  is  given  in  the  inscription  of 
Darius  at  Behistun,  as  the  eponymous  chief  of  his  dynasty ; 
though  Darius  speaks  of  himself  as  the  ninth  Achaemenidan 
king,  which  implies  that  there  were  five  of  the  race  before 
Achaemenes,  the  line  having  probably  been  interrupted  by 
the  conquest  of  Persia  by  the  Medes.^  Achaemenes  there- 
fore, if  a  real  person,  was  not  the  founder  of  the  monarchy, 
and  we  find  no  record  as  to  who  was.  The  Persian  was 
more  interested  in  recording  how  his  "  spear  reached  afar, 
seeking  war  far  from  his  land,"  than  in  remembering  his 
tribal  origin,  which  was  probably  humble  enough.  We 
do  not  even  know  whether,  previous  to  Cyrus,  his  country 
was  a  satrapy  of  Media,  or  a  kingdom  paying  tribute, 
though  that  it  was  the  former  is  by  far  the  more  prob- 
able. Herodotus  relates  the  Median  conquest,  and  brings 
Cyrus,  through  his  mother,  into  the  royal  family,  not  of 
Persia,  but  of  Media.^ 

Who,  then,  were  the  Persians?  The  only  reply  is,  —  a 
torrent  which  descended  from  its  mountain  home,  and 
swept  all  Western  Asia  into  its  current  almost  at  one 
bound,  but  left  no  record  by  which  we  can  trace  it  to  its 
springs.  The  typical  race  of  Iran,  the  Persians,  have 
given  their  name  to  its  history  at  every  phase ;  yet  we 
do  not  even  know  whether  this  name  comes  from  that 
of  their  principal  tribe,  or  is  the  Greek  form  of  the 
"  Parsu  "  or  "  Bartsu  "  of  the  inscriptions.  Of  the  Greek 
historians,  our  earliest  informant,  Herodotus,  lived  but  a 
century  after  Cyrus ;  yet  his  account  of  that  historic  per- 
son  is,  by  his  own  statement,  but  one   of  three  ways    of 

1  See  Oppert's  translation  of  the  Behistun  Inscription,  and  his  note.  Records  of  the  Past, 
vii.  87  2  Herodotus  vs.  Xenophon.     Herodotus,  i.   n2. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  305 

telling  the  story,  either  of  which  he  was  at  liberty  to  se- 
lect, and  is  evidently  to  a  great  degree  mythical.  His 
authorities  are  Median  and  Babylonian,  and  he  knows  so 
little  of  the  old  Persian  religion  that  he  does  not  even  men- 
tion Ormuzd  or  the  two  principles  of  the  Avesta-faith,  but 
describes  a  kind  of  element-cult  instead,  which  is  perhaps 
Magism,  —  a  product  of  Turanian,  Semitic,  and  Median  be- 
liefs. Nevertheless,  he  is  the  best  existing  authority,  now 
that  we  know  how  to  study  his  honest  work.  Ctcsias,  who 
wrote  a  century  later,  was  a  physician  at  the  Persian  court 
at  Susa,  and  knew  the  traditions  of  the  monarchy ;  but  his 
reputation  for  honesty  is  very  bad,  and  his  credulity  is  be- 
yond example.  Xenophon,  on  the  other  hand,  has  given 
in  his  "  Cyropaedia "  a  splendid  philosophical  romance. 
Neither  of  these,  nor  any  other  author,  can  enlighten  the 
darkness  of  Persian  origins.  Even  the  old  heroic  legend 
of  Firdusi,  while  it  makes  the  local  chiefs  its  theme,  and 
describes  the  feudal  liberties  of  the  various  States  of  a 
great  confederacy,  throws  no  special  light  on  the  Per- 
sians before  Cyrus. 

But  Herodotus'  straightforward  picture  of  the  Persians 
of  Cyrus'  time  bears  every  mark  of  truth.  It  has  never 
been  contradicted;  and  it  thoroughly  explains  their  mar- 
vellous career.  Only  this  makes  us  pause,  —  that  the  Per- 
sians whom  he  must  have  seen,  the  actual  rulers  of 
Western  Asia,  were  obviously  very  different  from  the 
Persians  of  his  picture.  Did  he  really  see  at  Babylon 
many  of  the  conquering  race?  Was  his  account  of  them 
a  tradition  in  the  memories  of  the  conquered  people,  not 
yet  effaced  by  time?  Or  how  otherwise  could  he  have 
penetrated  through  the  luxurious  and  barbarous  degene- 
racy of  the  Persians  of  his  day,  —  of  which  he  was  fully 
aware,  since  he  refers  it  to  the  influence  of  Media,  —  to 
the  ideal  he  gives  us  of  a  hardy  mountain  tribe,  of  rare 
modesty,  dignity,  and  self-discipline,  a  national  personality 

20 


306  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

SO  compact  and  resolute  that  it  wrought  on  the  feebler 
morale  of  the  older  races  with  the  power  of  fate?  The 
startling  contrast  to  all  this,  revealed  in  Plutarch's  Life  of 
Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  the  contemporary  of  Herodotus, 
renders  it  a  puzzle  to  comprehend  how  the  old  ideal  Per- 
sians could  have  been  discerned  except  through  traditional 
survival  in  the  minds  of  their  subjects.  On  the  other 
hand,  such  a  reputation  speaks  forcibly  for  the  truth  of  the 
picture.  And  there  are  good  grounds  in  the  character  of 
the  historian  why  we  should  separate  the  psychological 
part  of  it  from  the  mythological,  and  accord  to  the  one  a 
credence  we  must  refuse  to  the  other. 

That  the  Persians  of  Cyrus  were  the  ideal  of  all  the 
Greek  historians  does  not  prove  that  the  picture  itself  was 
purely  ideal.  Nothing  but  the  force  of  truth  seems  likely 
to  have  extorted  such  tributes  from  a  people  who  habitu- 
ally regarded  other  races  as  barbarians,  and  who  must 
have  been  specially  jealous  of  the  rapid  rise  to  empire  of 
a  rude  mountain  tribe,  whose  arms  were  reaching  down  to 
the  shores  of  the  ^gean.  The  mingled  contempt  and  fear 
felt  by  the  Ionian  cities  toward  this  Iranian  horde  advanc- 
ing upon  them  over  the  ruins  of  Nineveh  is  illustrated  by 
the  advice  given  to  Crcesus  by  his  courtiers,  not  to  waste 
his  time  and  labor  in  subjugating  these  poverty-stricken 
and  worthless  barbarians,  who,  once  in  Lydia,  might  do 
mischief^  But  a  stronger  witness  to  the  truth  of  Hero- 
dotus' tribute  is  found  in  certain  vestiges  of  those  hardy 
and  heroic  manners  surviving  in  the  well-known  institu- 
tions of  the  later  Achaemenide  empire.  Plutarch  tells  us 
that  the  kings  of  Persia  at  that  period  still  ate  figs  and 
drank  milk  at  their  coronation,  in  memory  of  the  ancestral 
customs  of  their  race.^  Xenophon,  who  may  be  trusted 
when  he  speaks  of  the  Persians  of  his  own  day,  says  they 
still  retained  the  robust  educational  principles  and  general 

^  Herodotus,!.  71.  2  /,y^  of  Artaxerxes. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  307 

institutions  which  he  describes  as  those  of  Cyrus'  time,  but 
carried  them  out  in  a  very  perverted  way ;  and  he  notices 
the  continuance  of  many  ancient  customs,  such  as  bringing 
only  small-sized  bottles  to  their  feasts  and  making  only 
one  meal  a  day,  which  were  managed  so  as  to  defeat  their 
original  purpose.  He  evidently  follows  the  general  tradi- 
tion when  he  holds  the  luxury  and  cruelty  of  the  court  of 
Persia  as  all  the  worse  for  the  heroic  manners  from  which 
it  had  fallen  away.^  The  rugged  tribes  devoted  to  their 
chiefs,  led  by  Gyrus  from  their  herds  and  hunting-grounds 
to  startle  the  pampered  Lydians,  with  their  spare  diet  and 
clothing  of  skins,  living  on  what  they  could  get,  strangers 
to  wine  and  wassail,  schooled  in  manly  exercises,  cleanly 
even  to  superstition,  so  loyal  to  age  and  filial  duties  that 
parricide  was  inconceivable  to  them,  hating  falsehood  as 
something  atrocious,  may  well  be  needed  to  explain  cer- 
tain subsequent  traits  which  Herodotus  has  recorded  of 
the  Persians  of  his  own  time,^ — their  pride  of  personal  in- 
dependence, that  held  the  owing  of  a  debt  the  next  worse 
thing  to  telling  a  he,  and  despised  the  markets  of  Greek 
cities  as  schools  of  trickery;  ^  their  scorn  of  talking  about 
things  that  ought  not  to  be  done ;  their  care  to  wean  their 
affections  from  over-dependence  upon  keeping  their  chil- 
dren under  their  own  sight;  the  high  honors  they  paid  to 
their  birthdays,  and  their  esteem  for  another  nation  in  pro- 
portion to  its  relationship  to  themselves;  their  fondness 
for  social  grades  and  regulated  manners  ;  their  feudal  dig- 
nities, the  chiefs  giving  counsel  to  the  king,  even  while 
thoroughly  submissive  to  his  person,  just  as  Gyrus  himself 
had  been  in  these  conferences  but  as  primus  inter  pares, 
and  laid  before  the  Persian  nobles  his  plan  of  rebellion 
against  the  Mede ;  the  strong  instinct  of  national  impor- 
tance and  destiny,  which  grew  naturally  out  of  this  personal 

1  Cyropcedia,  viii.  i8.  2  Herodotus,  i.  138,  139. 

*  Ibid.,  i.  153. 


308  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

pride  and  force  of  will,  and  which  made  every  man  a  part 
of  the  public  purpose,  working  and  praying  for  the  whole 
nation,  and  particularly  for  the  king's  welfare,  esteeming 
prowess  even  beyond  progeny;  above  all,  their  stirring 
ambition  to  lose  themselves  in  the  great  world-current, 
owing  partly  to  magnetic  sympathy  and  passion  for  per- 
sonal contact,  and  partly  to  the  sense  of  guidance  by  a 
victorious  star,  so  that  they  were  "  readiest  of  all  nations 
to  accept  foreign  customs,"  and  became  apt  pupils  of 
Median  excess.^ 

It  would  seem  that  nothing  but  the  palpable  per- 
sistence of  those  qualities  to  which  had  been  traced  the 
victorious  career  of  the  early  Persians  could  have  caused 
the  Greek  writers  to  pay  such  tributes  as  they  did  to  the 
later  civilization  of  the  empire,  in  spite  of  its  equally  pal- 
pable depravity.  It  was  no  doubt  only  in  the  line  of 
Xenophon's  fine  fiction  to  represent  this  people  as  teach- 
ing; their  children  virtues  as  those  of  other  nations  were 
taught  letters ;  ^  but  Herodotus,  Plutarch,  Strabo,  Ctesias, 
Curtius,  Ammianus,  Josephus,  all  of  whom  professed  to 
write  genuine  history,  point  us  likewise  to  their  laws 
against  ingratitude,  against  capital  punishment  for  a  first 
offence  or  without  trial,  against  harsh  treatment  of  house- 
holds ;  ^  to  the  custom  of  setting  the  services  of  a  slave 
against  his  offences  in  deciding  on  his  punishment ;  to  that 
of  sometimes  substituting  the  dress  of  a  culprit  for  his 
person  in  inflicting  the  penalty ;  ^  to  that  of  deliberating 
on  public  matters  over  their  cups,  but  deciding  only  when 
sober  ;^  to  their  signal  valor  at  Plataea  and  Mycale ;  to 
their  habitual  reward  of  brave  and  noble  conduct,  in  both 
sexes  alike;  to  the  interpretation  of  law  by  appointed 
judges ;  ^  to  their  belief  that  nothing  was  so  servile  as  lux- 

1  Herodotus,  i.  132-136.  *  Cyropisdia,  i.  2. 

3  Herodotus,  i.  137.  ^  Brisson:  De  Regno  Persarztm,  p.  593. 

6  Herodotus,  i.  133.  6  Brisson,  pp.  191,  192. 


BABYLON,    CYRUS,    PERSIA.  309 

ury,  nothing  so  royal  as  toil ;  to  their  religious  respect  for 
promises,^  —  most  of  which  had  doubtless  such  practical 
validity  as  an  absolute  monarchy  might  allow.'^^  But  these 
writers  have  not  failed  to  notice  how  the  intense  loyalty  of 
the  elder  time  had  degenerated  into  servility  so  absolute 
that  the  king  expected  to  be  thanked  by  the  subject  for  the 
punishment  he  inflicted,  and  injustice  itself  was  scored  by 
its  victim  as  a  benefit;  ^  a  servility  that  amounted  to  wor- 
ship, and  accepted  death  as  the  penalty  for  proposing 
anything  which  should  displease  the  king."^  They  have 
faithfully  recorded  such  atrocities  as  burying  men  alive 
in  honor  of  the  elements;  flaying  judges  for  bribery; 
mutilation  and  stoning;  acts  of  the  cruellest  caprice; 
and  the  shameless  crimes  of  a  court  life,  where  monsters 
of  the  harem,  male  and  female,  ruled  with  shocking  facility 
the  weakest  and  the  wickedest  of  tyrants. 

It  may  help  to  reconcile  these  puzzling  contrasts  of 
Persian  character  if  we  regard  the  later  Achaemenidae  as 
simply  showing  what  results  imperial  self-idolatry  had 
produced  even  in  the  line  which  had  borne  a  Cyrus  and 
a  Darius,  and  which  might,  but  for  the  fate  of  war,  have 
found  in  the  younger  Cyrus  a  restorer  of  its  ancient  glory. 
Nor  is  it  fair  to  judge  the  people  of  Persia  by  the  vices  of 
a  court  possessed  by  a  fury  like  Parysatis,  or  a  beast  like 
Ochus.  They  retained  the  energy  to  hold  their  immense 
empire  till  another  world-conqueror  appeared  in  Alexan- 
der; and  they  preserved  their  hold  on  the  imaginative  and 
ideal  interest  of  the  Greek  republics,  whose  whole  political 
history  also  was  swayed  by  the  wonderful  resources  of 
"  the  great  king."  A  glance  at  their  psychological  quali- 
ties will  perhaps  indicate  how  an  excess  of  nervous  energy, 
unbalanced  by  contemplation   or  by  associated  industry, 

1  Brisson,  p.  187. 

-  Brisson,  p.  4SS,  from  Vlutzrch.' s  A  /exander.   Brisson,  p.  596,  from  Josephus  and  Xenophon, 

3  Brisson,  pp.  48,  49,  from  Stobseus'  Sermojies,  xii. 

*  Brisson,  p.  49,  from  Varro,  xii. 


3IO  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

consumed  itself  in  its  own  fires,  till  the  central  bases  of 
authority  gave  way. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  Persians,  who  ulti- 
mately mastered  and  absorbed  all  the  tribes  from  Bactria 
to  Semitic  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  may  be  taken  as  the 
typical  Iranian  race.  Shown  in  their  early  monuments,  as 
well  as  in  their  living  representatives,  the  Tajiks  and  the 
Guebres,  to  have  possessed  an  athletic  and  elegant  phy- 
sique and  highly  impressible  senses,  these  Persians,  —  the 
Asiatic  Greeks,  —  described  as  having  oval  faces,  raised 
features,  well-arched  eyebrows,  and  large  dark  eyes,  now 
soft  as  the  gazelle's,  now  flashing  with  quick  insight,  were 
the  antipodes  of  those  stunted,  square-faced,  heavy  and 
short-limbed  Mongolian  tribes,  with  which,  under  the  name 
of  Turan,  they  have  waged  incessant  war.  They  were  ex- 
tremely receptive  of  moods,  biasses,  passions ;  the  aptest 
learners,  as  they  were  the  boldest  adventurers  of  the  East; 
not  patient  to  study,  not  skilled  to  invent,  but  swift  to 
seize,  appropriate,  and  distribute;  terrible  breakers-up  of 
old  religious  spells ;  Promethean  conductors  of  monopo- 
lized fire  out  into  world-wide  use ;  mediators  between  the 
sealed  thought  of  the  East  and  the  stirring  life  of  the 
West;  and,  with  all  their  absolutism,  the  heralds  of  lib- 
erty. They  dissolved  the  stern  old  material  civilizations 
of  Cushite  and  Turanian  origin,  and  made  them  flow  to 
fertilize  history,  as  they  had  already  irrigated  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  plains.  What  magnetic  attractions ;  what  passion 
for  vast  conquests ;  what  quickness  to  learn  the  arts  of  sen- 
suality and  display  !  Persian  magnificence  lasts  to  the  very 
end;  from  Achaemenidan  to  Seljuk  Turk,  from  Darius  to 
Alp-Arslan,  the  boundless  ambition,  the  prodigality  and 
pomp,  the  sweep  of  self-deification  went  on,  with  every 
successive  dynasty  that  touched  this  soil,  Parthian,  Sas- 
sanide,  Mongol,  still  thrilling  with  the  old  nerve-currents 
of  this  race;   for  Khosru,  for  Timur,    the    star  of  empire 


BABYLON,    CYRUS,    PERSIA.  31I 

forever  beckoned.  Herodotus  makes  Xerxes  say  to  his  no- 
bles, "  The  Persians  have  never  been  quiet  since  the  con- 
quests of  Cyrus ;  a  deity  is  our  guide,  and  ever  assures  us 
of  triumph."  "  In  olden  times,"  says  ^schylus,  "  a  divine 
destiny  compelled  the  Persians  to  demolish  cities,  and  to 
brave  with  the  frail  tackling  of  their  host-bearing  ships  the 
stormy  ocean  fields." 

Here  was  a  new  fact  in  the  Oriental  world,  —  a  race  that 
believed  alike  in  the  actual  and  the  ideal,  holding  firmly  to 
both  terms,  following  infinite  longings  like  children,  and 
mastering  finite  means  like  gods ;  no  Hindu  mysticism 
ignoring  the  seen ;  no  Chinese  matter-of-fact  slipping 
away  from  the  unseen.  Every  sculptured  rock  and  every 
formula  of  prayer  attests  a  religious  earnestness  not  to  be 
stiffened  into  ritual,  or  hardened  into  stone.  So  quick  a 
sense  of  the  ideal  and  so  real  an  aspiration  towards  it 
could  only  be  satisfied  by  constantly  recognizing  the 
higher  personality  of  each  individual  as  a  real  presence 
{Fi'avashi)  hovering  above  his  actual  form,  as  protector  and 
guide.  The  Highest  God  has  his  Fravasln,  and  commands 
Zoroaster  to  praise  it.^  Not  less  has  every  creature,  for 
none  can  exist  without  its  ideal,  —  the  typical  form  to  which 
it  aspires,  and  through  which  it  has  life  and  strength.^ 
These  Fravashis  were  the  better  life  of  the  universe,  the 
blessedness  of  souls,  invisible  and  serene ;  and  with  simple 
devoutness  the  Persian  carved  and  painted  them  on  his 
public  works,  and  felt  their  mighty  stress  in  the  ardor  of 
his  practical  will.  Not  less  significant  is  his  substitution 
of  the  ascending  line  in  architecture  for  the  horizontal 
style  of  Assyrian  art. 

This  psychological  sketch  will  be  seen  to  illustrate  suf- 
ficiently our  position  that  the  Persian  mind  was  not  the 
pure  brain,  not  the  passive  muscle,  but  the  flame-conductor 
between  them,  —  in  other  words,  nerve;   and  as  India  and 

1  Spiegel:  Vendidad,  xix.  46.  -  Ksfw^i,  xvil,  43;  xxiii. ;  liv.  i. 


312  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

China,  in  all  they  did,  showed  an  overplus  of  these  two 
mental  elements  respectively,  so  Persia  had  this  third  or 
mediative  element  in  excess. 

We  must  not  fail  to  note  that  all  the  Iranian  races  were 
more  or  less  of  the  same  type.  Those  splendid  empires 
of  Babylonia,  Assyria,  Media,  and  Persia,  each  in  turn 
gathering  these  races  into  a  single  impulse  or  a  suc- 
cession of  impulses,  to  be  dissolved  as  swiftly  as  the  great 
battery  could  well  be  discharged,  blazing  with  perpetual 
jets  of  conquest  and  revolt,  we  may  well,  I  think,  call 
flashes  of  nerve-power.  Spasmodic,  irresistible,  the  first 
rush  of  this  living  lightning  that  man  had  felt  within  him, 
they  spent  themselves  on  the  passionate  effort  to  turn  the 
human  world  into  the  play  of  their  magnificent  dreams. 
But  the  genius  of  the  Persians  Hfted  this  element  to  its 
ideal  form.  Well  might  they  take  the  sun  for  their  em- 
blem, and  call  their  kings  by  its  name.^  Well  might  the 
flashing  globe  be  hoisted  on  the  royal  tent,  and  the  golden 
eagle  on  the  standards,  when  their  glorious  Mithra  arose 
above  the  eastern  mountains,  giving  the  sign  for  the  march 
of  those  vast  armies  resplendent  with  all  the  circumstance 
of  courts  and  cities,  sweeping  the  tribes  info  their  torrent, 
and  pouring  them  on  in  heat  ungovernable  till  they  broke 
in  quivering  fragments  on  the  balanced  solidity  of  Greek 
genius.  "  The  impetuous  lord  of  many-peopled  Asia," 
sings  yEsch}-lus  again,  "  urges  his  godlike  armament 
against   every   land."  - 

But  the  ruin  of  the  Persian  was  not  the  Greek  phalanx 
only,  or  even  chiefly.'^  Like  the  Hercules  of  the  solar 
myth,  seen  on  his  gorgeous  funeral  pyre  in  the  western 
sky,  the  Persian  perished  in  his  own  fires.  Cyrus  indeed, 
the  great,  mild,  generous  conqueror,  father  of  his  people, 

^  Plutarch:  Life  of  Artaxerxes.  -  Perses. 

s  The  Greeks  really  had  little  or  no  strategy;  still  less  discipline.  The  accounts  of 
tremendous  losses  by  Persians  in  battle  are  probably  exaggerations.  See  Mahafiy  :  Rambles 
in  Greece,  p.  194. 


BABYLON,    CYRUS,    PERSIA 

idol  of  Greek  philosophy  and  romance,  of  Plato  and  Xeno- 
phon  alike,  in  his  short  reign  of  thirty  years  (558-529 
B.  C.)  made  the  little  Persian  satrapy  or  kingdom  mas- 
ter of  Asia  from  the  Jaxartes  to  the  Phoenician  coasts ; 
and,  victor  in  all  he  undertook,  he  lay  down  at  last,  say 
most  of  his  biographers,  amid  purple  and  gold,  in  his 
green  paradise,  under  the  truest  and  loftiest  of  all  royal 
epitaphs,  —  "  Here  lies  Cyrus,  king  of  kings."  ^  Only 
death  satirized  his  ambition.  But  Cambyses,  master  of 
nations,  must  needs  master  Nature  too,  and  so  led  his  hosts 
against  the  sands  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  and  the  oasis 
of  Ammon ;  and  being  discomfited,  he  came  back  an  epi- 
leptic madman,  to  vent  his  rage  on  the  priests  of  Apis  and 
their  sacred  calf,^  to  violate  temples  and  tombs,  outrage  his 
household,  defy  the  traditions  of  his  ancestral  faith,  bury 
his  subjects  alive,  and  die  of  fury  on  the  news  of  a  revo- 
lution, leaving  no  trace  behind  him  in  the  Nile.  And 
then  Darius,  the  great  organizer,  and  as  humane  as  he  was 
wise  and  thrifty,  so  beloved  of  Egypt  for  his  friendliness 
to  her  people  and  her  gods  that  they  gave  him  alone  the 
worship  giv^en  their  native  kings,  yet  ventures  not  only  to 
bridge  the  Bosphorus,  but  to  cast  a  heterogeneous  host  of 
near  a  million  men  upon  the  Thracian  wilderness  to  fight 
with  famine  and  fire  more  than  with  human  foes,  escaping 
thence  indeed  through  his  wonderful  personal  resource, 
and  effecting  something  beyond  astonishing  a  zone  of  un- 
explored barbarians,  since  centuries  elapsed  before  Persia 
suffered  again  from  Scythian  hordes.  Then  Xerxes, 
"  yoking  the  ocean,  equalling  the  gods,"  ^  hurls  a  similar 
swarm  upon  Greece,  set  on  by  dreams  and  visions  against 

1  So  says  the  monument,  which  is  apparently  genuine.  Herodotus  has  preserved  the 
tradition  that  he  died  in  a  campaign  against  the  barbarians  of  Scythia,  and  that  his  body 
was  barbarously  treated,     i.  214. 

2  But  see  Brugsch  Bey  about  these  stories  (Egypt  tinder  the  Pharaohs,  chap.  xix. ), 
especially  that  o£  Apis.  Cambyses  was  as  full  of  the  idea  of  universal  dominion  as  Cyrus. 
But  Wiedemann  affirms  their  truth  {Gesch.  d.  Aegypt.,  p.  230). 

s  Aeschylus :  Pence. 


314  POLITICAL  FORCES. 

all  good  advice ;  and  after  praying  to  be  permitted  to  sub- 
jugate Europe,  and  answering  prayers  of  Greek  refugees 
in  the  manner  of  a  god,  fares  worse  than  the  rest.  The 
splendid  bubble  of  European  and  African  conquest  which 
his  father  had  put  to  his  lips  burst  on  their  eager  touch. 

Persian  failures  were  mainly  due  to  the  vast  scale  upon 
which  enterprises  were  projected  and  prepared.  Ten 
thousand  could  have  penetrated  the  deserts  better  than  a 
million.  A  small  army  of  picked  troops  might  have  made 
front  in  Greece  after  Salamis,  but  the  huge  horde  took 
fright  at  its  own  unwieldiness,  and  the  "  king  of  kings " 
was  the  victim  of  a  panic ;  and  though  Mardonius  had 
still  a  great  host,  the  prestige  was  gone,  and  his  army, 
like  a  swarm  of  locusts,  became  dead  heaps  on  the  land 
and  in  the  sea.  The  unity  and  discipline  of  Xenophon's 
famous  Ten  Thousand  made  them  more  than  a  match 
for  the  unmanageable  levies  of  Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  and 
their  retreat  succeeded  simply  because  the  Persians  had 
no  organization,  and  no  plan  for  cutting  it  off.  Then  the 
subject  States  revolted  everywhere,  and  the  throne  of  the 
Acha^menides  crumbled  away. 

This  empire  militant  was  the  overflow  of  unregulated 
redundant  force,  hurled  forth  in  gushes  of  heady  drift,  and 
as  reckless  of  waste  as  a  strong  boy  in  the  heat  of  play. 
It  was  a  rare  combination  of  magnificence  with  industry, 
of  energy  and  impressibility.  For  this  thirsty  oxygen 
rushed  into  the  world  of  sense,  with  keen  relish  for  all  its 
savors,  and  plucked  ideal  raptures  from  all.  The  earth 
was  nard  and  roses,  let  it  come  in  what  pungency  it  would. 
This  royalty  must  represent  the  universe.  It  appropriated 
the  best  of  all  things;  called  its  builders  out  of  Phoenicia 
and  Egypt,  and  its  physicians  from  Greece.^  To  the 
splendid  court  of  the  Achaemenidae  all  beings  and  climes 
must  be  tributary,  all  tributes  without  stint ;   their  harems 

1  Herodotus,  iii.  130;  vii.  25,  34.     Diodorus,  i.  46. 


*  BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  315 

the  rifling  of  continents,  watched  by  unsexed  guards,  the 
last  refinement  of  jealousy  and  the  self-irony  of  lust;  their 
tables  spread  for  fifteen  thousand  daily,  though  the  king 
himself  dined  alone,  and  often  frugally;  their  water  brought 
in  silver  from  the  Choaspes,  their  salt  from  the  Libyan 
desert,  their  wine  from  Syria,  and  their  wheat  from  yEolia; 
a  thousand  pounds  of  incense  came  yearly  from  Arabia; 
from  Armenia  tens  of  thousands  of  horses  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  sheep;  from  Assyria  five  hundred  eunuch- 
boys  to  serve  at  feasts ;  where,  too,  they  had  large  towns, 
all  whose  revenues  went  for  breeding  dogs,  and  royal 
stables  "on  an  enormous  scale;  and  the  daily  tribute  to 
the  satrap  amounted  to  a  bushel  of  silver.^  Megacreon 
of  Abdera  in  a  sally  of  wit  advised  his  fellow-citizens  to  go 
to  the  temples  and  thank  the  gods  that  Xerxes  dined  but 
once  a  day. 

The  provincial  satraps  repeated  all  this  on  a  smaller 
scale,  though  with  the  king's  spies  beside  them,  official 
"  eyes  and  ears,"  to  report  their  wealth  and  what  became 
of  it.  Then  there  were  the  nobles,  clothed  in  purple,  with 
painted  eyebrows  and  false  hair  and  stilted  heels,  covered 
with  jewels  and  perfumes,  protected  by  gloves  and  parasols 
against  cold  and  heat ;  so  that  Herodotus  found  a  reason 
for  the  special  softness  of  their  skulls.^  The  summer  and 
winter  palaces  rose  on  the  heights  of  Susa,  Ecbatana,  Per- 
sepolis,  story  above  story,  of  wondrously  jointed,  massive 
stones,  light  and  graceful,  open  like  the  Greek  temple  to 
air  and  sky,  on  gigantic  platforms  set  with  forests  of  lofty 
fluted  pillars,  not  like  the  Median,  of  cypress  and  cedar, 
but  of  marble,  and  soaring  through  them  more  than  sixty 
feet,  with  capitals  of  bulls  or  griffins  resting  on  the  lotos 
leaf,  the  ideal  forms  of  ancient  art.^     Dreamy  and  delicious 

1  Heeren  :  Asiatic  Nations,  i.  89,  159,  260,  et  seq.     Herodotus,  i.  188,  192.     Duncker 
from  Ctesias,  ii.  610.     Gibbon,  xxiii.,  xxiv. 

^  Duncker,  ii.  626.  627,  from  Herodotus.     Herodotus,  iii.  12. 
^  Rawlinson  :  Ancient  Monarchies,  iii.  304. 


3l6  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

with  paradises,  terraces,  and  hanging  gardens  on  a  colossal 
scale,  Persia  may  well  have  wielded,  even  at  that  early  day, 
the  magical  spells  which  were  in  after  times  to  be  woven 
about  the  world  by  her  fountains,  nightingales,  roses,  and 
wine.-^ 

Yet  it  is  obvious  that  results  so  prodigious  were  not 
achieved  by  an  enervated  race.  This  luxurious  people 
obeyed  the  sturdy  rules  of  Zoroaster.  These  world-absorb- 
ing kings,  who  had  on  their  tables  the  first  fruits  of  every 
land,  were  themselves  under  an  ancient  law  not  to  eat  or 
drink  anything  but  native  products.^  They  were  irrigating 
the  plains  of  Babylonia  with  all  the  old  energy  which  had 
enabled  their  Semitic  predecessors  to  draw  three  harvests 
a  year  from  the  fertile  alluvion ;  ^  and  a  third  of  their 
revenue  is  said  to  have  come  from  this  satrapy  alone."* 
"  No  spot  on  the  globe,  Egypt  perhaps  excepted,  displays 
such  masonry  as  the  walls  of  Persepolis."  ^  The  Persians 
rejected  the  sun-dried  brick  of  Babylonian  architecture, 
and  the  thin  slab-facings  of  Assyrian,  and  built  platform 
and  pile  of  solid  stone.  It  was  not  a  frivolous  people  that 
lifted  those  graceful  pillar-stems  which  twenty-four  cen- 
turies have  not  stirred.  Great  roads,  beset  with  post-sta- 
tions, and  traversed  by  government  couriers,  "  swifter, 
according  to  some,"  says  Xenophon,  "  than  the  crane 
flies,"  ^  carried  safely  a  vast  and  busy  intercourse,  reach- 
ing from  the  steppes  of  Tartary  to  the  shores  of  Greece. 
Over  all  these  regions  the  genius  of  Darius  organized 
under  a  single  system,  political  and  financial,  the  preg- 
nant intermixture  of  races  brought  about  by  Assyrian 
wars  and  deportations.  Nor  did  the  innate  preference 
of  his  people  for  agriculture  prevent  him  from  attempt- 
ing to  open  canal  communication  between   the  Nile   and 


*  See  Ebers'  novel,  An  Egyptian  Princess.  ^  Athenseus,  bk.  xiv, 

^  Xenophon  :  CEconomicus.  *  Herodotus,  i.  192. 

5  Heeren,  i.  151.  ^  Herodotus,  viii.  gS. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  317 

the  Red  Sea,  only  failing  at  last  from  some  discovery  as 
to  the  depth  of  level  between  the  waters,  or  some  other 
cause;  and  his  travelling  court  and  camp  was  itself  the 
best  market  in  the  world.  But  for  these  constructive  ener- 
gies of  the  Persian  kings,  Alexander  would  have  found  no 
foothold  for  the  lasting  marriage  of  Europe  with  Asia, 
whose  forerunners  had  crossed  the  floating  bridge  flung 
by  Darius  across  the  waters  of  the  Bosphorus.  The  flour- 
ishing condition  of  Egypt  when  visited  by  Herodotus  is 
ample  witness  to  the  excellence  of  Persian  rule,^  though 
the  barbarous  rage  of  Ochus  against  her  gods,  after  the 
reconquest  of  Egypt,  rivalled  the  worst  excesses  of  Cam- 
byses  in  his  madness. 

The  Persian  instructed  his  children  to  ride,  to  shoot,  and 
to  speak  the  truth.^  He  rose  with  the  sun,  was  used  to 
bread-and-water  diet  at  home  and  acorns  and  Avild  fruits 
on  the  hunt.  When  he  was  seen  on  foot,  he  was  at  work ; 
when  not  at  work,  the  noble  steed  was  his  idol  and  compan- 
ion. He  really  scorned  those  who  scorned  toil.  When  the 
younger  Cyrus  led  Lysander  through  his  pleasure-grounds 
at  Sardis,  and  told  him  he  had  planned  and  planted  them 
with  his  own  hands,  the  aristocratic  Spartan  k>oked  incred- 
ulously on  his  golden  chains  and  gorgeous  robes.  "  I 
swear  to  you  as  a  servant  of  Mithra,"  exclaimed  the  Prince, 
"  that  I  never  taste  food  till  on  my  brows  is  the  sweat  of 
toil."  2  Strabo  says,  from  Onomacritus,  that  the  tomb  of 
Darius  bore  the  inscription:  "  Among  the  hunters  I  took 
the  palm  ;  what  I  would  do,  that  I  could."  ^  Artaxerxes 
wore  upon  his  person  the  worth  of  twelve  thousand  tal- 
ents, yet  shared  the  hardships  of  his  army  on  the  march, 
carrying  quiver  and  shield,  leading  the  way  up  the  steepest 
places,  and  lightening  the  hearts  of  his  soldiers  by  footing 
it  twenty-five  miles  a  day.     The   common   people   had  a 

1  Wiedemann  :  Gesck.  d.  Aegypt.,  pp.  243,  239-  ^  Herodotus,  i.  136. 

2  Xenophon  :  CEconomicus,  p.  6.  *  Strabo,  bk.  xv. 


3l8  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

religious  respect  for  cultivating  the  earth  and  for  preserv- 
ing its  signs  of  productive  power. ^  They  were  loath  to 
cut  down  ancient  trees  merely  for  fuel ;  but  Artaxerxes 
solved  their  scruples  by  himself  laying  the  axe  to  the  finest 
one  in  his  paradise,  and  letting  the  whole  go  freely  to 
make  night  fires  for  his  shivering  men.^  Their  worship  of 
Ormuzd  made  them  watch  and  work  with  religious  zeal, 
and  obey  the  laws  of  purity  and  health  as  the  first  of 
duties.  Their  hatred  of  Ahriman  made  them  wage  life- 
long warfare  against  the  barrenness  and  the  noxious  crea- 
tures that  constituted  his  realm.  Excess  of  loyalty  to 
the  idea  of  personal  sway,  not  baseness,  explains  their 
amazing  endurance  under  the  cruelties  of  roj'al  caprice. 
Adorers  of  the  Flame,  they  shared  the  spirit  of  their  mad- 
dest kings,  and  were  as  ready  to  throw  away  their  lives  on 
an  impossibility  as  the  kings  were  to  command  it.  In  war 
they  were,  beyond  all  the  races  they  led  forth,  the  terror 
even  of  the  Greeks.  Heraclides  of  Pontus  based  on  their 
example  his  theory  that  luxury  exalted  men  above  little- 
ness and  fear.^ 

What  has  been  said  of  the  old  Iranian  races  is  illustrated 
in  their  sculpture.  Of  the  wonderful  vitality  and  vigor 
of  the  Assyrian  hunting  and  battle  scenes,  I  have  already 
spoken.  They  are  as  realistic  and  practical  as  the  Egyp- 
tian paintings  of  a  similar  kind,  but  have  a  poetic  ardor 
of  which  that  meditative  race  had  no  conception.  The 
details  of  real  life  are  wrought  in  a  glow  of  spontaneity, 
by  flashes  of  nerve-energy.  The  aim  is  not  so  much  to 
render  the   exact   image  of  the  action   as  to   convey  the 

1  The  agriculturalist  was  in  honor  ;  he  is  mentioned  in  the  A  vesta  as  the  third  class,  after 
priest  and  soldier,  and  before  tradesmen.  Ya^na,  xix.  i8.  In  the  Hindu  system  there  is  a 
trading  but  no  farming  caste,  unless  the  Sudra,  or  lowest,  may  be  so  considered.  Moreover, 
the  order  of  the  Persian  classes,  wliich  are  not  castes,  is  not  material,  and  implies  no  subordi- 
nation. 

2  Plutarch's  Lives  (Langhome),  viii.  184. 

3  Athenasus,  xii.  Also  Julian's  tribute,  in  his  Ciestirs,  to  the  valor  and  politeness  of 
the  Persians  (Gibbon). 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  319 

significance  of  it  in  art.     There  is  no  literalism  about  it; 
and  it  even  contains  hints  of  unconscious  symbolism. 

In  some  respects,  Persian  sculpture  falls  behind  Assy- 
rian. There  is  equal  stiffness  of  outlines  and  failure  of 
perspective,  with  certainly  less  elaboration  of  detail.  But 
the  ideal  aspiration  overflows  all  defects,  and  shows  itself, 
both  by  choice  of  subjects  and  mode  of  treatment,  to  be 
the  supreme  gift  of  the  Persian.  Instead  of  common  and 
domestic  life,  here  are  heroic  combats  of  men  with  beasts, 
triumphant  marches  or  processions  bearing  tributes,  kings 
at  worship  or  upon  thrones;  and  always  the  literal  fact 
melts  into  the  symbol,  the  human  meaning  beyond  and 
above  it.  The  fighting  bulls  and  lions  are  not  brutes,  but 
massive  human  strength  and  energy  of  will.  You  do  not 
see  this  or  that  king  fulfilling  his  functions ;  you  see  roy- 
alty, war,  worship,  in  their  significance  for  sense  and  soul.^ 
There  stands  —  Darius, it  may  be,  the  "king  of  kings,"  with 
plain  fillet  on  his  brow,  short  dress  and  naked  arms,  and  a 
poise  of  limb  that  seems  to  make  living  force  an  attribute 
of  repose ;  with  one  hand  he  grasps  the  horn  of  a  semi- 
human  monster,  with  the  other  drives  the  dagger  home. 
There  again,  with  equal  majesty,  he  masters  the  man-like 
lion  or  the  wild  ass.  There  his  human  god  is  hovering 
above  him  in  winged  circle,  and  his  right  foot  rests  upon 
a  prostrate  man.  Nine  kings  stand  before  him,  low  of 
stature,  with  bare  heads  and  bound  hands;  and  this  the 
inscription:  "When  the  lands  rebelled  against  me,  I  fought 
nineteen  battles  and  took  captive  nine  kings  :  it  was  through 
the  grace  of  Ormuzd  that  I  did  it.  Thou  who  shalt  be  king 
hereafter,  beware  of  sin,  and  punish  it.  So  shall  thy  realm 
be  invincible."  ^ 

We  shall  better  understand  what  force  there  is  in  this 
term  nerve,  as  applied  to  the  Iranian  races  (Lydians,  Baby- 
lonians, Assyrians,  Medes,  Persians),  when  we  have  fully 

1  Kugler  :  Gesch.  d.  Baukunst^  i.  73-75,  94.  '  Records  of  tlie  Past,  i.  126,  127. 


320  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

considered  the  fact  that,  whether  Semite  or  Aryan,  they 
were  all  worshippers  of  the  Flame.  What  indeed  but  Fire 
could  symbolize  that  ambition  which  no  enterprise  was 
vast  enough  to  match,  that  sensuous  susceptibility  that 
turned  everything  into  food  for  passionate  desire.  Yet 
the  nobler  elements  of  the  moral  ideal,  —  magnanimity, 
ardor,  devotion  to  the  best,  —  are  also  equally  natural 
fruits  of  that  "  purity  in  thought,  word,  and  deed,"  which 
Zoroaster  taught  his  followers  was  the  meaning  of  the 
creative  Fire.  A  devouring  flame  is  like  the  lusty  youth 
of  human  aspiration,  as  these  races  made  manifest:  un- 
disciplined, capable  of  ideal  good  and  ideal  evil,  their 
darkness  and  their  light  were  two  warring  powers  for  the 
conquest  of  the  world.  The  lassitude  and  exhaustion  of 
their  mighty  efforts,  the  despotic  license  and  caprice  that 
constructed  world-empires,  the  swift  disintegration  of  ill- 
organized  power;  the  gigantic  sweep  of  vision  and  desire, 
the  impulse  to  universality,  the  sense  of  movement  never  to 
pause  nor  turn  back,  —  what  word  shall  express  the  mean- 
ing and  function  of  all  this  in  the  development  of  man? 

Frequent  as  its  analogue  may  be  in  the  life  of  individ- 
uals, the  phenomenon  will  never  again  be  seen  in  the  his- 
tory of  nations.  Psychologically,  as  well  as  geographically, 
Iran  was  the  transition  from  Oriental  to  Western  civiliza- 
tion. Never  again  can  the  psychical  brain,  muscle,  nerve 
of  the  human  races  be  so  separated  that  in  each  civilization 
one  element  shall  be  in  overwhelming  excess  of  the  others, 
as  these  studies  have  shown  them  to  have  been  in  the 
Hindu,  the  Chinese,  and  the  Persian  civilizations  previous 
to  the  maturer  fusion  of  these  forces  in  the  development 
of  Europe,  which  has  in  fact  been  in  this  respect  the 
flowering  of  the  mediative  Iranian  type  of  mind.  The 
intercourse  of  races,  the  fusion  of  temperaments  and  be- 
liefs, the  scientific  knowledge  and  rise  of  universal  laws, 
has  insured  a  more  balanced  activity  of  the  human  facul- 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  32 1 

ites  in  every  civilized  people  than  was  possible  under  the 
older  isolating  conditions.  Yet  we  have  also  seen  that 
the  vital  germs  of  all  that  we  now  hold  to  be  best  were 
vigorous  enough  to  prove,  even  in  these  fragmentary  ethnic 
types,  that  the  moral  and  spiritual  nature  needed  no  super- 
natural grafting  nor  change  of  law.  What  was  needed  is 
equally  plain.  In  place  of  the  pure  thought  of  the  Hindu 
and  the  plodding  work  of  the  Chinese,  wc  have  now  a 
third  type,  which  conducts  the  cerebral  into  muscular 
energy,  and  makes  both  effective.  The  Iranian  mind  was 
thus  the  first  mediator  on  an  ethnic  scale  between  thought 
and  work,  ideal  and  real,  mind  and  its  material,  and  there- 
fore the  harbinger  of  progress.  We  may  say  that  the 
function  of  Persia,  as  its  leading  representative,  was  to  be 
herald  of  the  claims  of  the  infinite  to  mould  the  finite, 
of  the  ideal  to  become  real;  but  herald  only  because  its 
special  quality  always  was  in  excess.  What  India  and 
China  represented  is  not  therefore  superseded.  Without 
due  balance  from  brain  and  muscle,  the  ncrvc-fire  must 
consume  itself  And  so  we  who  inherit  in  special  the  gift 
of  Iran  are  working  out  those  of  India  and  China  too,  but 
under  freest  conditions;  which  must  create  a  fourth  type 
of  mind,  including  more  than  brain,  muscle,  and  nerve, 
because  it  is  these  in  the  proper  unity  of  their  relations. 

To  arrive  at  the  full  meaning  of  our  relation  to  the  Ira- 
nians, we  must  translate  the  physiological  symbol  into 
philosophical  terms,  which  represent  the  self-affirmation 
of  the  ideal  in  its  cruder  stage ;  namely,  as  has  been  said, 
the  exaltation,  or  worship,  of  personal  Will.  Deficient  in 
the  cerebral  and  muscular  types  of  mind,  this  factor  con- 
joins the  two  in  the  form  of  a  concentrated  energy  of  aim. 
Will,  the  true  force  of  personality,  is  thus  the  supreme 
ideal  of  those  races  whose  life  is  not  in  thought  as  thought, 
nor  in  work  as  work,  but  in  the  act  of  converting  the  one 
into  the  other ;   that  is,  in  action  itself  as  action.     The  his- 

21 


322  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

tory  of  this  ideal  is  written  in  the  faiths  and  cultures  whose 
cradle  is  Western  Asia,  and  whose  maturity  constitutes 
modern  civilization.  We  live  amid  its  closing  epochs, 
full  of  the  foregleams  of  a  higher  and  better  worship  than 
that  of  personal  Will ;  and  the  study  of  its  opening  phases, 
in  the  Iranian  empires,  so  typical  of  what  has  succeeded 
them,  will  greatly  help  us  to  understand  where  we  are. 

The  self-deification  of  Iranian  monarchs  was  simply  a 
political  expression  of  the  faith  of  their  peoples  in  the 
ideal  of  personal  Will.  However  rapidly  leaving  behind 
them  the  extremes  of  what  is  called  "  personal  govern- 
ment," Europe  and  America  still  embody  this  ideal  in  their 
anthropomorphic  religious  beliefs.  They  deify  not  only 
the  higher  forms  of  human  virtue,  but  also  human  qualities 
fully  in  keeping  with  Oriental  autocracy  in  its  worst  forms. 
Assyrian  or  Persian  royal  barbarities  pale  before  the  sys- 
tematic cruelty  ascribed  to  the  God  of  Christian  creeds, 
and  defended  in  his  name.  The  worship  of  the  Achaemc- 
nidan  king  was  thus  in  its  evil  as  well  as  its  good  the  nat- 
ural germ  of  the  worship  of  a  Christ.  A  personal  Divine 
Will  is  at  the  root  of  both  forms  of  incarnation,  however 
different  in  many,  moral  and  spiritual  respects  may  be  the 
Zoroastrian  and  the  Christian  God.  These  specially  reli- 
gious bearings  of  the  subject  will  hereafter  come  under 
consideration.  At  present  we  must  show  how  thoroughly 
the  ancient  Persians  represented  the  nerve-type,  the  author- 
ity of  personal  Will. 

The  testimony  of  Greek  and  native  writers  makes  it 
highly  probable  that  the  old  Persians  inherited  the  social 
organization  which  recent  researches  have  shown  to  lie  at 
the  base  of  Indo-European  as  well  as  Sclavonic  and  Mon- 
golian society,  —  that  of  the  Village  Community,  where  the 
family  household  was  the  social  unit,  expanded  by  adop- 
tion and  other  fictions  into  clans  bound  together  by  tra- 
ditional usages  and  more  or  less  hereditary  functions.     But 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  323 

however  this  may  have  been,  we  find  them  advanced  to  a 
higher  stage  of  individuahsm  for  which  the  mere  village 
community  afforded  no  place.  While  many  of  the  tribes 
were  free  nomads,  the  most  appear  to  have  been  agricul- 
tural ;  and  society  had  developed  into  a  congeries  of  clans, 
which  the  Avesta  describes  as  under  the  "  chieftainship  of 
heads  of  families,  of  villages,  of  tribes,  and  of  provinces, 
with  Zoroaster  for  the  fifth,"  ^  and  as  divided  into  four 
classes,  "  priests,  soldiers,  farmers,  and  artisans,"  among 
whom  there  seems  to  have  been  no  distinction,  at  least 
as  to  choice  of  spiritual  guides,  which  was  "  the  duty  of 
every  righteous  man."^ 

These  chiefs  (^Peldcvdndii)  had  become  nobles  in  a  kind 
of  feudal  constitution,  wherein  the  king  was  limited  by 
the  free  traditions  of  certain  heroic  families,  or  individ- 
uals, who  were  often  closely  related  to  the  royal  house, 
and  had  scarcely  inferior  following;  led  the  armies  of 
the  kingdom,  could  act  the  offended  Achilles,  if  they 
pleased,  with  great  effect,  and  were,  if  they  chose  to  be 
so,  the  real  pillars  of  the  throne.  They  are  the  heroes  of 
the  Persian  epic,'^  and  their  allegiance  appears  to  have 
been  a  traditional  loyalty  rather  than  any  sense  of  inferi- 
ority.* They  regard  the  king,  as  the  Homeric  heroes  re- 
gard Agamemnon,  with  conditional  and  provisional  respect, 
simply  as  meeting  their  necessity  for  gathering  around  a 
central  Will.  This,  it  will  be  perceived,  is  obviously  such 
an  putgrowth  of  the  tribal  patriarchalism  which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  all  ancient  society,  as  would  naturally  become  a 
people  in  whom  the  worship  of  will  was  a  growing  instinct. 
In  nothing  does  this  instinct  more  strongly  appear  than  in 
their  intense  feeling  of  the  dignity  of  their  own  peVsons, 
and  of  their  divine  function  or  commission  as  a  people  to 

*  K(Z{«3,  xix.  17,  18. 

*  See  also  Spiegel:  Era)i  Alierth.,  bk.  v.  chap.  i.  ;    Herodotus,   i.   125.   loi  ;    Spiegel, 
i.  555  ;  Hnug  :    Essays,  etc.,  p.  iSS. 

3  Mauoshcihr,  Sam,  Zal,  Rustem.  •*  Spiegel:  Erdn  Alterth.,  i.  555,  556. 


324  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

incarnate  a  kind  of  personal  sovereignty.  They  were  thor- 
oughly aristocratic,  therefore ;  the  worship  of  will  is  essen- 
tially so,  because  it  rests  on  an  inherent  right  of  command, 
and  would  not  be  will  if  it  had  not  subject  powers.  For 
the  Persian  noble,  his  own  dignity  was  a  religious  charge. 
His  education,  so  full  of  generous  discipline  and  incentives 
to  public  service,  cut  him  off  from  the  masses,  who,  as 
Herodotus  distinctly  tells  us,  had  not  the  means  nor  leisure 
for  such  culture,  free  and  open  as  it  was.  For  his  king  he 
must  be  ready  to  die,  yet  his  own  self-respect  makes  him 
the  king's  counsellor;  and  neither  Cyrus  nor  Darius  does 
aught  of  moment  without  consulting  his  peers. ^  The 
Greeks  with  one  accord  put  into  their  mouths,  often 
doubtless  with  truth,  at  least  to  custom,  wise  maxims  and 
brave  advice.  A  conspiracy  of  seven  nobles  overturns  the 
usurper  who  pretended  to  the  name  of  Smcrdis,  as  Cyrus 
and  his  leagued  nobles  had  revolted  against  the  Mede. 
By  their  united  councils,  according  to  Herodotus,  every 
form  of  government  was  canvassed,  the  monarchical  de- 
liberately selected,  and  Darius  chosen  as  king  by  an  appeal 
to  signs  from  heaven.  They  were  called  KhsJuicta  {Shd/i), 
the  same  as  the  king;  dressed  as  he  did,  coined  money,^ 
held  courts.  He  was  only  pddishdh,  chief  of  the  chiefs; 
or  SJidJidii-ShdJi,  king  of  the  kings  of  Iran,  —  and  under 
them  were  chiefs  of  lower  order.^ 

Observe  the  dignity  to  which  these  high-born  Persian 
wills  were  trained.  Their  education  was  not  in  reading 
and  writing,  which  are  democratic,  but  in  manners,  —  how 

1  Gobineau's  fascinating  picture  of  the  free  life  of  the  Iranian  feudatories,  whom  Cyrus 
changed  to  subjects,  contains  perhaps  a  good  measure  of  truth.  But  its  main  sources  are  not 
the  Greek  writers,  but  later  traditions,  Persian  and  Mussulman;  and  the  Avesta  throws  but 
little  light  on  the  subject. 

2  "  The  right  of  coining  money  was  a  right  inherent  in  every  community  in  the  Persian 
empire,  great  or  small.  Local  sovereigns  and  satraps  exercised  it  during  the  whole  period 
of  that  empire."  (Waddington,  quoted  in  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  J\lorgenl.  Gesdlsch.,  xxi. 
442.)  Tlie  Arsacide  coins,  investigated  by  Levy  in  this  article,  and  shown  to  be  the  earliest 
Pehlevi  literature,  prove  this. 

^  Gobiueau  :  HUtoire  des  Perses,  i.  467. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  325 

to  bear  themselves  towards  each  other.  They  were  so 
clothed  that  no  naked  part  of  the  body  appeared,  to  offend 
another's  eye ;  they  kept  silence  at  meals ;  they  guarded 
their  emotions,  allowed  themselves  no  outbreak  of  surprise 
or  delight;  did  not  spit  or  blow  the  nose  before  others; 
at  meeting  they  kissed,  but  spoke  not,  —  a  Spartan  self- 
restraint  ;    a  Spanish  hauteur  and  distance. 

But  better  than  this  was  their  theory,  at  least,  of  moral 
self-respect.  To  lie  was  cowardice ;  the  secret  falsehood 
that  made  one  ashamed  to  look  in  his  neighbor's  eye  was 
the  unpardonable  sin.  After  lying,  the  greatest  of  sins  was 
to  owe  another,  and  so  make  oneself  his  slave. ^  The  un- 
spoken hint  of  honor  in  the  pressure  of  the  hand  was  the 
most  binding  of  pledges.  Artaxerxes,  according  to  Ctesias, 
was  persuaded  by  Megabyzus  to  hold  to  his  promise  of 
pardon  to  a  rebel,  who  was  discovered  after  capture  to  have 
murdered  the  king's  brother.^  Laws  against  ingratitude 
had  their  basis  in  the  idea  of  falsehood  implied  by  that 
vice.  This  respect  for  truth  and  this  horror  of  lying  as 
contamination  are  here  very  largely  incidents  of  pride,  and 
associate  the  beginnings  of  personal  worship  with  the  sense 
of  honor  and  the  law  of  duty.  The  cultivation  of  them  had 
become  in  the  Persian  nobles  a  tradition  of  their  personal 
dignity.  In  the  history  of  personality  as  an  ideal  principle 
their  prevalence  in  the  early  civilizations  is  of  great  signifi- 
cance, and  will  be  more  fully  considered  hereafter.  Though 
found  at  the  threshold  of  all  those  ethnic  faiths  and  forms 
which  conspired  to  the  production  of  our  own,  they  are 
perhaps  nowhere  so  emphasized  as  in  Persian  ethics. 
Thucydides  says  of  this  people,  that  with  them  it  was 
held  better  to  give  than  to  receive.  Their  schools,  ac- 
cording to  Xenophon,  were  placed  aloof  from  the  noises 
of  trade,  that  the  eager  passions  of  those  who  were  hag- 
gling with  each  other  might  not  disturb  their  culture  of 

1  Plutarch:  Artaxerxes.  ^  Ctesias,  34-37. 


326  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

justice  and  self-control.^  He  doubtless  reports  a  traditional 
ideaj  at  least,  when  he  says  that  in  his  day  the  young  nobles 
were  brought  up  at  the  court,  that  they  might  not  see  any- 
thing immodest.^  Cyrus  spurns  the  Greek  cities  on  the 
score  of  their  great  markets ;  ^  and  Strabo  even  says  of 
educated  Persians,  that  they  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
buying  and  selling.*  This  would  be  contrary  to  Zoroas- 
trian  precept  if  it  meant  indolence,  and  served  to  distin- 
guish them  from  the  masses,  who  most  certainly  did  labor, 
and  pay  respect  to  whatever  trading  it  involved.  The  Per- 
sian cities  did  not  show  any  lack  either  of  toil  or  traffic. 
It  was  natural  enough  for  the  national  ideal  of  personal 
dignity  to  have  its  extreme  representatives  in  a  class  who 
made  pursuit  of  this  ideal  their  exclusive  business,  and  a 
function  guarded  from  all  suspicion  or  suggestion  of  self- 
seeking.  "  The  Persians,"  says  a  careful  student  of  their 
manners,  "strove  for  the  ideal,  —  the  great,  noble,  manly, 
true;  yet  forgot  not  the  practical  world." ^  This  is  in 
accordance  with  the  views  already  stated ;  contempt  for 
traffic  is  one  thing,  and  contempt  for  toil  is  another.  The 
Persian  noble  was  a  laborer,  as  his  faith  enjoined ;  but  in 
his  day  the  connection  of  labor  with  the  art  of  "  doing 
business  "  was  not  so  palpable  as  it  now  is,  while  its  reli- 
gious meaning  lay  in  its  direct  association  with  the  earth,  in 
the  toils  of  production,  not  of  distribution.  The  Persians 
were  made  for  soldiers ;  their  ideal  was  of  the  heroic  type, 
and  the  arts  they  found  congenial  were  those  which  fitted 
them  to  master  the  world  and  prepare  the  way  for  vital  civ- 
ilizations. Such  arts  could  culminate  only  in  the  culture 
of  such  personal  qualities  as  self-reliance,  self-assertion,  and 
absolutism  of  will.  In  their  noblest  form,  these  qualities 
became  a  lofty  magnanimity,  which  knew  how  "  to  spare 

'  Cyropeedia,  i.  2.  ^  A  nabasis,  i.  9. 

*  Herodotus,  i.  153.  *  Strabo  :  De  Situ  Orb.  xv. 

^  Rapp  {Zeiisckr.  d.  Deuisch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xx.  128). 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  327 

fallen  enemies,"  to  reject  the  death  penalty  for  a  single 
offence,  and  to  forbid  even  kings  to  treat  their  slaves  with 
harshness.^ 

This  self-respect,  in  so  many  ways  characteristic  of  the 
Persians,  was  to  a  great  degree  a  form  of  pride.  Here,  for 
the  first  time  in  human  history,  we  find  the  sense  of  a  really 
historic  function.  The  confluence  and  conflict  of  Asiatic 
races  had  necessitated  the  appearance  of  a  select  tribe 
capable  of  commanding  these  vast  materials,  whose  fer- 
ment was  now  heading  towards  a  definite  world-result. 
The  force  must  be  in  personal  Will,  not  in  mass  nor  even 
in  organization,  —  in  will,  conscious  of  right  to  rule,  and  in- 
tensified both  by  self-indulgence  and  self-respect.  In  the 
Persian  genius  for  sway  begins  that  worship  of  personality 
which  has  been  the  shaping  force  for  good  and  ill  of 
European  civilization. 

Its  absolutism  may  be  illustrated  by  the  treatment  of 
woman.  In  Persia,  far  more  than  in  India  or  China,  she  is 
subject  to  the  will  of  man.  Here  the  harem  reaches  its 
full  development,  and  the  eunuchs,  or  keepers  of  women, 
are  installed  around  it.  Here  seclusion  was  but  little  mod- 
ified by  custom  or  by  circumstance.  In  the  inscriptions 
and  sculptures  woman  is  wholly  ignored.  One  would  not 
know  there  was  any  sex  but  the  male.  What  a  record 
of  slavery  is  in  that  deportation  by  Darius  of  fifty  thou- 
sand women  to  populate  Babylon,  drawn  like  tributes  of 
food  or  cattle  from  the  several  provinces  of  the  empire !  ^ 
or  in  the  custom  of  taking  concubines  with  the  army  on 
distant  marches,  in  great  numbers,  and  with  luxurious  at- 
tendance, and  leaving  wives  at  home  under  close  super- 
vision !  ^  or  in  that  story  of  the  concubine,  dressed  in 
splendid  robes,  who  came  to  the  Greek  victors  after  Plataea, 

^  Herodotus,  i.  137,  138  ;  ix.  109.     Gobineau,  i.  403. 

*  Herodotus,  iii.  159. 

*  See  authorities  in  Rawlinson,  Ancient  Monarchies.,  iii-  238.     Brisson,  p.  549. 


328  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

and  besought  them  to  deliver  her  from  the  Persian  lord 
who  had  carried  her  off  by  violence  and  held  her  as  a 
slave  !  ^  The  Persian  could  marry  his  nearest  kindred,^  and 
the  law  imposed  on  him  no  such  strict  commandment  of 
chastity  as  the  law  of  Manu  enforced  on  the  Hindu  ;  still 
less  did  it  resemble  the  sexual  asceticism  of  the  Buddhist. 
The  will  of  the  Persian  was  his  law ;  and  the  story  of  the 
seven  nobles  sent  to  the  king  of  ]\Iacedonia  to  demand 
earth  and  water,  and  who  were  all  assassinated  on  account 
of  their  indecent  behavior  at  a  banquet  towards  the  wives 
of  their  hosts,  sounds  all  the  more  probable  for  being 
related  by  Herodotus  of  the  Persians.^  The  demand  of 
these  ruffians  that  the  Macedonian  women,  contrary  to  the 
custom  of  the  land,  should  be  brought  out  to  sit  with  them 
at  table,  shows  that  in  their  own  country  even  the  rule  of 
seclusion  yielded  to  arbitrary  will.  The  Biblical  romance 
of  Esther,  to  the  same  effect,  tells  us  of  the  queen  of  Aha- 
suerus,  that  the  king  commanded  her  to  appear  before  the 
crowd  at  a  feast,  and  that  she  refused  to  obey.  Artaxerxes 
was  glad  to  have  his  queen  Statira  ride  in  an  open  chariot, 
that  the  country  w'omen  might  salute  her;  at  the  same 
time  no  male  must  approach  or  pass  her,  upon  penalty 
of  death.* 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  woman  must  have  found  her 
account  in  the  national  respect  for  personality  itself.  A 
son  could  not  sit  in  his  mother's  presence  without  permis- 
sion ;  and  if  a  king,  he  occupied  at  table  a  place  lower  than 
hers.  A  law  dating  from  Cyrus  decreed  that  when  the 
king  entered  a  city,  every  woman  in  it  should  receive  a 
piece  of  gold ;  and  this  was  done  in  honor  of  the  women 
who  by  their  reproaches  turned  back  his  fleeing  army  in 
the  Median  war.^  Cyrus,  always  the  national  ideal,  had 
but  one  wife,  and  at  her  death  commanded  that  the  whole 

'  Herodotus,  ix.  76.  ^  Duncker,  ii.  419.  ^  Herodotus,  v.  iS-20. 

*  Plutarch:  Artaxerxes,  ^  Plutarch  on  the  virtues  of  women. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  329 

nation  should  go  into  mourning.^  His  chivalrous  treat- 
ment of  women  is  a  leading  feature  of  Xenophon's  portrait, 
and  far  surpasses  anything  of  the  kind  in  Greek  manners. 
The  education  of  the  Persians  in  childhood  belonged  to  the 
mother;  and  the  crimes  of  Parysatis  and  Amestris  prove 
that  their  customs  permitted  the  queen,  as  wife  and  as 
mother,  an  almost  absolute  power  in  public  and  private 
affairs.  In  the  later  times  of  the  empire  women  were 
made  priestesses  of  Anaitis,  or  of  the  sun,  and  dedicated  to 
chastity.  The  honor  paid  by  Cyrus  to  women,  their  names 
given  in  the  army-lists  of  Xerxes,  and  the  constant  refer- 
ence to  them  as  important  political  and  social  forces 
throughout  the  histories  of  the  Achaemenide  kings,  are 
evidences  of  no  slight  recognition  of  female  capacities 
and  rights.^ 

In  political  as  in  domestic  life,  the  ultimate  appeal  was 
to  arbitrary  Will.  The  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,^ 
that  could  not  be  changed,  was  nothing  else  than  the  rigor 
of  the  king's  decree  for  the  time  being.  Personal  govern- 
ment, as  developed  in  modern  times,  except  in  its  theolog- 
ical form,  is  either  limited  by  recognized  laws  and  customs, 
as  even  the  autocracy  of  the  Czar ;  or  checked  by  inter- 
national relations,  as  that  of  the  Sultan  ;  or  obliged  to  make 
appeal  in  some  real  or  pretended  way  to  the  popular  voice, 
as  that  of  the  French  emperor.  In  China  it  is  controlled 
by  an  immemorial  ritual ;  in  India,  by  an  equally  imme- 
morial religious  tradition.  But  the  later  Persian  autocrat 
had  the  personal  government  of  an  omnipotent  Will. 
There  was  no  precept  of  the  Persian  national  religion 
which  he  did  not  violate  whenever  he  pleased ;  no  foreign 
custom  he  did  not  adopt  or  reject  as  he  preferred.  It  is 
entirely  impossible  to  reconcile  the  Zoroastrian  law  with 
the  history  of  any  Achsemenide  king.     Cyrus  punishes  the 

'  Herodotus,  ii.  i.  . 

2  Herodotus,  vii.  61  ;  Ctesias, /««/?«.     Plutarch:  Ariaxerxes.     Justin,  x.  2. 

'■^  Daniel,  vi    15. 


330  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

(sacred)  water  of  the  Gyndes  for  drowning  his  horse,  and 
Cambyses  violates  tombs  and  burns  bodies.  Cyrus  is  de- 
terred from  burning  Croesus  not  by  rehgious  scruples,  but 
by  sympathy  and  respect.  Xerxes  treats  the  Hellespont 
with  contempt.  There  is  no  record  of  the  Avesta  ritual 
being  performed  by  these  kings,  and  their  Magi  were  quite 
other  than  the  Avestan  Athrava.  They  gave  the  Greeks 
the  impression  which  a  sublime  self-idolatry  is  wont  to 
make  on  nations,  of  a  divine  right  to  rule ;  so  that  even 
Xenophon  wrote  his  "Institutions  of  Cyrus"  in  order  to 
show  how  the  difficult  problem  of  personal  government 
and  popular  consent  might  be  solved,  and  the  world  be 
ruled  by  one  person  whose  character  should  cause  all  men 
to  desire  to  be  governed  by  his  opinions  and  will. 

Our  Greek  authorities  make  the  rise  (Cyrus),  organiza- 
tion (Darius),  and  extension  (Xerxes)  of  the  empire  pure 
products  of  individual  Will.  Only  the  royal  personality 
holds  together  these  loose  principalities  and  tribes,  its 
"eyes  and  ears"  being  omnipresent;  and  the  satraps,  Tis- 
saphernesandPharnabazus,  by  merely  aping  its  desires  and 
doings  in  their  own  spheres,  are  able  to  direct  the  fortunes 
of  the  free  Greek  States.  It  is  the  king's  wisdom  that 
conquers  nations,  as  with  Cyrus  ;  the  king's  folly  that  loses 
battles,  as  with  Darius  at  Issus ;  his  iconoclastic  rage  that 
tramples  old  religions  under  foot,  as  with  Cambyses  in 
Egypt ;  ^  his  person  whom  the  enemy  in  battle  makes  the 
objective  point,  as  when  Cyrus  the  Younger  made  directly 
for  Artaxerxes,  and  Alexander  for  the  tent  of  Darius. 
Only  one  sin  is  known  to  the  cuneiform  records  of  nations 
subdued  and  punished,  —  "They  rebelled  against  me,  the 
king  of  kings,  and  deserved  their  fate  at  my  hands."  No 
sense  of  presumption  in  all  this,  no  suspicion  of  wrong- 
doing, more  than  in  the  Hebrew  Jahveh  when  he  lifts  up  and 

1  But  see  rirugsch  Bey's  Egyft  under  the  Pharaohs,  cliap.  xix.,  where  the  stories  of 
Cambyses'  rage  against  Apis,  etc  ,  are  denied,  from  the  monuments. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  33 1 

casts  down  at  his  will.  "  I  was  not  wicked,"  writes  Darius, 
proudly,  "  nor  a  tyrant,  nor  a  liar;  neither  I,  nor  any  of  my 
race.  I  have  obeyed  the  laws  ;  and  the  rights  and  customs 
I  have  not  violated."  ^ 

We  must  not  suppose  that  any  Persian  regarded  this 
supremacy  as  an  arbitrary  Will  imposed  from  without. 
The  Hebrews  were  not  the  only  "  chosen  nation."  Every 
Persian  shared  the  "  manifest  destiny  "  of  his  king.  The 
king  was  the  ideal.  The  fire  was  extinguished  at  his  death. 
This  was  a  nation  of  kings,  of  gods.  They  alone,  of  all 
subjects,  paid  no  tribute  to  the  throne.  They  were  not 
ground  into  powder,  like  Assyrian  or  Babylonian  multi- 
tudes at  toil.  Their  chiefs  associated  with  the  king,  rea- 
soned and  joked  with  him,  gave  him  counsel,  heard  his 
schemes  with  approval  or  doubt.^  But  the  rights  of  his 
will  they  did  not  doubt.  Even  in  Herodotus'  story  that 
Cyrus  persuaded  them  to  join  him  in  rebellion  against  the 
Medes  by  setting  them  at  hard  work  one  day  and  feasting 
them  the  next,  to  show  them  the  difference  between  sub- 
jection and  freedom,  the  prince  acts  as  one  who  knows  that 
he  has  authority  to  enforce  their  consent.  Herodotus  him- 
self seems  to  have  no  other  conception  of  him  than  as  one 
divinely  made  for  ruling  men.^  The  boys  at  school  elect 
him  king.  Astyages  sees  by  his  manners  that  he  is  a  king 
in  the  disguise  of  a  herdsman's  child.  He  revolts  against 
Media  with  no  other  visible  authority  to  seize  the  empire 
than  a  spurious  letter  appointing  him.  general  of  the  Persian 
levies.  His  studious  regard  for  feudal  rights  and  personal 
feelings  is  made  by  Xenophon  to  appear,  as  we  have  already 
said,  as  a  conscious  policy  of  conceding  liberties  and  lav- 
ishing favors  that  men  might  feel  free  in  an  obedience  that 
flowed  naturally  from   gratitude  and  love.     And  in  after 

1  Behistun,  iv.  13. 

^  The   old   heroic   legends   of  the   native   Iranian  chronicles,   preserved   in  Firdusi   and 
Hamza,  make  the  relation  of  the  king  to  his  chiefs  the  same  as  we  find  it  in  Herodotus. 
^  Herodotus,  v.  121. 


332  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

days,  when  the  taste  of  power  had  become  sweet  to  the 
pampered  lords  of  Persia,  the  "king  of  kings"  takes  care 
to  protect  his  supremacy  by  putting  the  provinces  under 
governors  of  native  birth. ^  Alexander  pursued  the  same 
policy,  and  thereby  offended  Greek  and  Macedonian  pride 
of  race  and  desire  of  exclusive  power. 

Historically,  then,  the  beginning  of  respect  for  personal- 
ity is  in  aristocratic  institutions ;  not  in  honor  to  an  ideal 
self,  in  which  all  may  prospectively  share,  but  in  a  kind  of 
worship  for  powers  of  will,  great  enough  to  distinguish 
some  persons  above  all  others.  In  India,  the  ideal  is  in  a 
religious  law,  embodied  in  a  hereditary  priesthood.  In 
China,  it  is  a  labor-power  embodied  in  a  homogeneous 
multitude.  In  Persia,  it  has  become  a  strictly  personal  Will 
embodied  in  an  individual,  a  class,  a  tribe,  who  are  capable 
of  showing  its  power.  The  early  Persians  chose  their 
bravest  for  king,  and  they  never  forgot  the  connection  be- 
tween authority  and  personal  energy.  Darius  was  himself, 
like  Cyrus,  the  choice  of  a  body  of  revolting  chiefs. 
Although  absolute  over  his  satraps,  he  was  satirized  by 
his  nobles.  "  Cyrus  ruled  as  a  father,  Cambyses  as  a  mas- 
ter, Darius  as  a  trader."  ^  Yet  the  administrative  force  of 
this  politic  ruler  was  what  made  Persia  an  empire ;  and 
while  his  nobles  were  free  to  criticise,  they  failed  not  to 
recognize  the  mighty  constructive  will  that  was  felt  alike  at 
the  centre  and  circumference  of  his  dominions,  restraining, 
balancing,  harmonizing  powers,  and  reconciling  the  intel- 
lectual, social,  and  even  religious  differences  of  the  tribes. 
The  mildest  of  conquerors,  the  mediator  of  nations,  ex- 
plorer of  the  continents,  opener  of  the  ways  from  sea  to 
sea,^  Darius  stands,  perhaps,  the  strongest  justification  in 
history  for  the  worship  of  personal  Will.'^     The  weakness 

'  Goblneau,  ii.  43.  -  Herodotus,  iii.  89.  ^  Ibid.,  iii.  135. 

*  It  is  the  report  of  Diodorus  that  Darius  was  the  only  king  who  had  been  deified  by  the 
Egyptians  in  his  lifetime,  and  that  they  rendered  him  after  his  death  the  same  honors  which 
they  were  wont  to  pay  to  their  ancient  kings.     Diodorus,  i.  95. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  333 

of  his  successors  could  not  stand  the  ideal  test  that  Per- 
sian freedom  still  knew  how  to  apply ;  and  real  power 
passed  gradually  from  their  hands  into  those  of  overbear- 
ing court  favorites  and  satraps  of  energy  and  skill,  and  even 
of  Greek  generals  and  refugees. 

There  is  thus  a  very  positive  sense  in  which  we  can 
speak  of  Persian  freedom.  Not  a  democratic  sense  of  the 
word,  but  one  that  meant  rights  and  powers,  and  even 
anticipated  very  important  elements  in  Greek  liberty,  — 
which  was  always  more  or  less  an  appeal  by  the  masses 
to  personal  government  by  the  strongest  will,  and  on  the 
part  of  the  more  thoughtful  minds,  such  as  the  Socratic 
school,  a  protest  against  crude  democracy  as  usurping  the 
political  rights  of  the  best  and  highest  wills.  Not  more 
pronounced  was  the  Greek  consciousness  of  manifest  na- 
tional destiny  than  that  Persian  sense  of  a  great  historic 
function  which  every  Persian  noble  shared  with  his  king. 
It  ran  in  their  blood,  as  in  his,  to  make  the  world  their 
footstool.  The  proudest  autocrat  could  not  disregard  this 
community  of  faith  and  feeling,  nor  fail  to  consult  it. 
Xerxes,  on  the  whole,  despite  a  few  terrible  acts  of  power, 
the  most  forgiving  of  kings,  persuading  his  lords  to  make 
war  on  Greece,  says :  "  I  only  pursue  the  path  appointed 
me.  From  the  beginning  we  Persians  have  never  been  at 
rest:  a  deity  impels  us.  I  need  not  recount  the  conquests 
of  my  predecessors.  Sufficient  to  say,  I  am  resolved  to  in- 
vade Greece  and  punish  Athens.  But  that  I  may  not  seem 
to  act  arbitrarily,  I  commit  the  matter  to  your  reflection, 
allowing  every  one  to  speak  with  freedom."^  Influenced 
by  certain  chiefs  to  give  up  the  plan,  he  is  again  brought 
to  his  first  resolution  by  supernatural  visions,  which  call 
him  to  fulfil  his  destiny,  and  march  to  universal  sway.^ 

We  have  here  the  explanation  o-f  the  remarkable  fact 
that  the  "  Great  King  "  was  in  many  ways  an  ideal,  politi- 

1  Herodotus,  vii.  8.  ^  Ibid.,  vii.  19. 


334  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

cal  and  ethical  as  well  as  religious,  to  the  Greek  republics. 
The  germs  of  liberty  in  Persian  life  were  quite  sufficient  to 
overcome  their  reluctance  to  accept  what  would  seem  to 
be  directly  contrary  to  the  individualism  of  these  warring 
democracies.  Not  only  were  the  literary  representatives 
of  a  citizenship  that  refused  to  prostrate  itself  before  a 
throne  so  fascinated  by  the  "  Great  Barbarian  "  that  his 
institutions  are  the  material  of  their  Utopias,  but  the  party 
and  personal  strifes  of  Greek  States  are  constantly  referred 
to  him  for  settlement,  and  their  exiles  compete  for  his  fav- 
orable interference.  This  was  not  so  much  a  tribute  to  his 
wisdom  or  humanity  (although  the  ethical  contrast  of  king 
and  politician  is  usually  by  no  means  to  the  credit  of  the 
latter)  as  it  was  a  recognition  of  the  necessity  on  the  part 
of  a  swarm  of  bitter  partisans  to  take  refuge  from  political 
chaos  in  the  grandeur  of  one  omnipotent  Will.  The  Greek 
republics  were  nowhere  based  on  a  universal  principle;  the 
liberty  they  pursued  was  the  liberty  to  will  and  to  do ;  and 
here  was  its  ideal  embodied,  not  in  the  personal  centre  of 
the  State  alone,  but  in  the  prestige  and  pride  of  the  chiefs 
of  families  and  clans.  The  majestic  proportions  of  this 
development  of  personal  power;  its  day  of  judgment  for 
the  weak  empires  of  the  East;  its  splendid  illustration 
of  capacit}'  in  Cyrus  and  Darius,  and  of  magnificence  in 
Xerxes ;  the  colossal  growth  that  pointed  back  to  sturdy 
simplicity  and  self-control,  and  the  consciousness  of  im- 
mense educational  obligations  in  art  and  science,  —  com- 
bined to  produce  an  effect  on  Greek  imagination  it  would 
not  be  going  too  far  to  call  religious.  Xenophon,  who  had 
led  his  Ten  Thousand  on  the  most  perilous  march  in  all 
antiquity,  and  who  had  fully  learned  the  superiority  of  the 
Greeks  as  soldiers  to  Persian  levies  and  leaders,  was  not 
a  man  to  be  dazzled  or  awed  by  a  mere  Eastern  despot, 
least  of  all  by  an  Artaxerxes  in  the  last  stages  of  Persian 
decline.      Yet  it  is  Xenophon  who  has   paid   the   highest 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  335 

possible  tribute  to  Persian  institutions.  And  Plato  him- 
self  is  scarcely  behind  him  in  the  praises  of  these  institu- 
tions, and  especially  of  the  training  of  the  kings,  which  he 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Socrates,  who  contrasts  them  with 
the  moral  and  religious  crudeness  of  Greek  disciplines.^ 
No  deity  could  compare  with  Destiny  for  Hellenic  rever- 
ence. And  the  infection  of  the  Persian's  confidence  in  his 
star  greatly  helped  to  bring  about  the  extraordinary  fact, 
that  Cyrus  the  barbarian  became  the  politico-religious  ideal 
of  the  cultivated  Greek. 

This  religious  prestige,  which  gathered  about  Cyrus 
from  the  first  moment  of  his  appearance  on  the  historic 
field,  so  rapidly  covered  his  name  with  mythic  honors,  that 
but  few  definite  facts  can  be  discerned  through  their  haze. 
The  coming  of  a  great  man  seems  to  dwarf  history  and 
open  the  gates  of  imagination  for  the  common  mind. 
Nature  melts  at  his  coming  into  poetry  and  legend,  and 
the  world  inherits  a  new  meaning  from  the  soul  of  man 
with  which  it  is  slow  to  part.  As  late  as  the  second  cen- 
tury of  Christianity,  Pausanias  interrupts  his  praise  of  An- 
toninus to  say  that  in  his  opinion  Cyrus  was  after  all  the 
"  father  of  mankind." 

Greek  testimony  leaves  us  in  doubt  whether  Cyrus  was 
Persian  or  Mede ;  while  a  third  theory  made  him  both, 
giving  rise  to  the  story  that  an  oracle  had  warned  Asty- 
ages  against  the  coming  of  a  mule  to  the  throne.^  This 
notion  of  a  mixed  origin  impressed  itself  on  the  Persian 
heroic  legend,  as  appears  in  the  later  Shah-Nameh,  where 
he  is  the  son  of  an  Iranian  father  and  a  Turanian  mother; 
and  the  Mahometan  prose  historians  follow  the  tradi- 
tion.^ His  name  has  stood  for  the  communion  of  races 
and  religions,  the  pride  of  each  making  him  its  conquest 
and    its    crown.      Both    the   Hebrew    and  the   Mussulman 

^  First  Alcibiades,  36,  37.  -  Description  of  Greece,  viii.  43. 

2  Mirkhond. 


336  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

tradition  claim  him  as  their  convert.  A  Mahometan  poem 
of  the  twelfth  century,  working  up  earlier  beliefs,  derives 
him  from  a  female  demon  (dlv),  gives  him  a  hideous  coun- 
tenance and  immense  strength,  in  other  words,  makes  him 
a  barbarian ;  rescues  him  from  exposure  in  the  forests,  and 
educates  him  in  Iran,  where  he  recurs  to  barbarian  faith 
and  habits,  but  recovers  himself,  conquers  Turan,  becomes 
the  saviour  of  his  people  and  the  master  of  the  world. ^ 
Then  falling  from  grace,  and  exalting  himself  as  God,  he 
is  punished  by  rebellion,  and  converted  to  the  true  faith 
and  ethics  by  meeting  a  hermit  in  the  forest,  who  humbles 
his  pride  and  teaches  him  the  wisdom  and  might  of  Allah. 
This,  as  the  reader  will  observe,  follows  the  usual  dealing 
of  Semitic  religions  with  the  names  of  great  heathens  whom 
they  could  not  but  respect.  But  it  is  also  the  ordinary 
type  of  the  old  Iranian  legend,  as  in  Yima.  In  the  same 
way  the  older  Shah-Nameh  transports  him  and  his  paladins 
to  practise  devotions  among  the  holy  mountains  of  Elburz, 
making  the  old  Iranian  feudalism  end  in  mystical  piety. 
And  Mirkhond,  who  collected  the  Islamized  traditions  of 
old  Persian  kings  (fifteenth  century),  describes  Kai-Khosrij, 
by  that  time  probably  identified  with  Cyrus,  as  the  bene- 
factor of  laborers  and  the  saviour  of  his  country,  and 
makes  him  at  last  a  Sufi,  who  prays  for  release  from  self 
and  absorption  into  God,  —  "convinced,"  after  a  hundred 
years  of  success  in  all  his  desires,  that  "  this  world  is  but 
a  mirage,  and  we  the  thirsty  travellers  "  !  ^ 

The  infancy  and  growth  of  Cyrus,  as  treated  by  the  my- 
thologists,  are  of  messianic  type.  The  similarity  of  the 
mythic  forms  by  which  national  religions  express  the  sense 
of  gratitude  to  an  appointed  deliverer,  and  of  the  bitter 
resistance  he  meets  from  the  evil  he  comes  to  overthrow, 
is  fully  illustrated  in  the  cycle  of  legends  of  Herodotus, 

1  Kuschnamch,  or  History  of  Cyrus.     See  Gobineau  :  HUioire  des  Perses. 
*  Shea:  Kings  of  Persia,  p.  260. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  337 

in  the  dream  of  Mandane  prefiguring  her  son's  glory,  the 
dream  of  Astyages  that  his  throne  was  in  peril  from  his 
own  grandson ;  in  his  consulting  the  Magi,  and  command- 
ing the  death  of  the  child  ;  in  the  escape  of  Cyrus  through 
the  power  of  Destiny ;  in  the  king's  merciless  revenge  on 
his  counsellors  and  agents,  and  his  discovery  of  the  boy's 
identity  by  the  innate  royalty  of  his  behavior  among  his 
playfellows  and  before  the  great  men.  These  legends,  and 
those  of  his  maturer  life,  of  which  Xenophon's  romance  is 
also  a  variation,  must  have  been  very  largely  of  Persian 
rather  than  Greek  origin.  Their  extension  shows  how 
widely  spread  was  the  recognition  of  a  vast  and  bene- 
ficent change  wrought  by  Cyrus  in  the  west  of  Asia. 
They  are  of  great  value  as  indicating  the  far  higher  civil- 
ization introduced  by  the  Persians  in  place  of  the  Median. 
Nothing  can  be  more  striking  than  the  contrast  between 
their  picture  of  Median  despotism  and  barbarism,  and  that 
which  Xenophon  has  ventured  to  draw  of  the  splendid 
humanity  and  statesmanly  policy  of  Cyrus.  It  points 
strongly  to  a  difference  of  race,  and  gives  color  to  Oppert's 
recent  theory  in  explanation  of  the  different  lists  of  kings 
in  Herodotus  and  Ctesias,  —  that  Median  civilization  was 
Turanian. 

The  same  ideal  prestige  ascribed  to  Cyrus  that  choice 
wisdom  of  apologue,  parable,  and  proverb  which  Hebrew 
admiration  ascribed  to  Solomon,  and  Christian  to  Jesus. 
His  symbolical  appeal  to  the  Persian  nobles  already  men- 
tioned ;  animal  legends,  such  as  the  letter  sent  to  them 
sewed  up  in  a  hare's  belly,  and  the  suckling  of  Cyrus  by 
a  dog  (an  etymological  myth)  ;  his  parable  of  the  piper 
and  the  foolish  fishes,^  told  to  the  chiefs  who  had  only 
submitted  to  him  when  compelled ;  and  the  maxims  of 
political  and  moral  wisdom  which  are  ascribed  to  him  by 
the   Greeks,  —  that  those  who  would   not    do    good   for 

'  Herodotus,  i.  141. 
22 


23^  POLITICAL   FORCES, 

themselves  should  be  obliged  to  do  good  for  others,  that 
no  one  ought  to  govern  who  was  not  better  than  those  he 
governed,  and  that  the  Persians  should  not  change  their 
rocky  and  rude  country,  because  the  seeds  of  plants  and 
the  lives  of  men  resemble  the  soil  they  inhabit ;  ^  above 
all,  his  relation  with  Croesus,  of  which  we  are  about  to 
speak  more  fully,  —  all  show  the  drift  of  gnomic  and 
oracular  repute  to  this  favorite  of  the  gods. 

As  the  hero  of  philosophical  romance,  Cyrus  receives 
in  Xenophon's  "  Cyropasdia  "  the  finest  personal  tribute  of 
the  kind  now  mentioned  in  all  antiquity.  Here  he  acts 
the  part  of  an  ethical  and  political  saviour,  coming  into 
the  world  with  authority  and  insight  to  rectify  all  wrong. 
He  is  the  incarnation  of  "  sweetness  and  light."  He 
shows  this  absolute  function  in  rebuking  Median  luxury 
and  intemperance,  even  as  a  boy;  in  con\-eying  reproof 
and  instruction  to  his  chiefs  by  elaborate  logic,  practical 
illustrations,  aphorisms,  and  even  cheerful  raillery  and 
ready  wit,  and  to  soldiers,  courtiers,  sages,  not  only  in  a 
constant  didactic  tone,  like  the  Socrates  of  Plato  or  the 
Jesus  of  the  Gospels,  but  in  a  minute  pedagogy,  as  if  au- 
thorized to  create  anew  in  every  detail  the  administration 
of  society  and  law.  He  is  more  than  teacher ;  he  is  the 
centre  of  teachers,  who  lay  at  his  feet  all  the  experience  of 
man,  that  in  him  it  may  be  lifted  to  universal  ends.  All 
that  the  Socratic  Xenophon  has  imbibed  from  the  best 
society  of  the  ancient  world  is  not  too  much  to  be  worked 
up  into  the  mere  outfit  for  this  inspired  guide  of  mankind, 
not  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  virtues  only,  but  in 
the  most  difficult  functions  of  political  and  military  life. 
At  the  feet  of  his  father,  Cambyses,  he  listens  respectfully 
to  maxims  of  faith  and  conduct  Avhich  have  never  been 
surpassed,  —  that  the  gods  act  according  to  laws;  that  we 
should  pray  only  after  striving  to  render  ourselves  such  as 

1  Plutarch :  Apophthegms  of  Ki?igs. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  339 

we  ought  and  hope  to  be,  holding  it  impious  to  ask  tlie 
gods  for  gifts  we  do  not  struggle  to  earn ;  that  there  is  no 
way  of  appearing  wise  so  certain  as  to  be  wise ;  that  the 
commander's  care  of  his  army  should  be  of  a  nobler  sort 
than  merely  to  keep  physicians  to  cure  their  diseases,  even 
the  wisdom  to  prevent  their  falling  sick ;  that  by  perfect 
sympathy  he  should  win  their  confidence  and  love,  —  to 
which  ends  hosts  of  practical  maxims  are  supplied.^  How 
humbly  he  accepts  the  paternal  admonition  never  to  use 
the  Persians  for  his  own  interest  alone  !  How  respectfully 
he  listens  to  the  Lydian  king,  till  the  day  of  his  falling  into 
his  own  power  the  wisest  and  greatest  of  earthly  kings,^  ever 
consulting  his  prudence  and  tact,  and  moved  to  tenderness 
by  his  sufferings ;  learning  from  his  downfall  the  instability 
of  success ;  requiting  his  noble  confession  of  insufficiency 
to  contend  against  the  greater  one  whom  Destiny  had  pro- 
vided by  the  generous  restoration  of  his  family  and  goods  !  ^ 
How  he  caps  these  lessons  of  human  pride  and  failure  with 
the  royal  philosophy,  that  happiest  is  the  man  who  can 
earn  most  through  justice,  and  use  most  with  honor  !  *  By 
what  choice  disciples  he  is  surrounded  !  Tigranes  thrills 
his  soul  by  describing  the  sage  (a  reminiscence  of  Socrates) 
who  forgives  his  king  for  condemning  him  to  death  "  since 
he  knows  not  what  he  does."  ^  Chrysantas  delights  to  dis- 
cern in  him  the  proofs  that  a  good  prince  can  be  a  good 
father  of  his  people,  and  only  adds  to  his  master's  ethics  of 
rational  obedience  that  reason  which  his  own  modesty  had 
not  emphasized, — :the  right  of  one  to  claim  it  whose  fit- 
ness to  lead  men  to  their  own  best  good  was  past  all 
doubt.*^  Gobryas  praises  his  simple  and  hardy  habits;  and 
having  committed  a  beautiful  daughter  to  his  care,  is  re- 
warded by  his  assurance  that  to  enjoy  such  confidence  is 
a  more  precious  treasure  in  his  sight  than  all  the  wealth 

1  Xenophnn :   Cyropcrdia,  i.  6.  ^  Ibid.,  viii.  2.  ^  Ibid.,  vii.  2. 

*  Ibid.,  viii.  2.  ^  Ibid.,  iii   i.  "  Ibid.,  viii.  i. 


340  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

of  Babylon.^  Pheraulas,  whose  courage  to  withstand  the 
temptations  of  riches,  and  to  exchange  their  burdens  for 
independence  with  poverty,  finds  an  appreciative  king.^ 
And  both  father  and  mother  warn  him  to  govern,  unhke  the 
Median  kings,  by  obeying  the  laws,  and  never  to  imagine 
that  one  man  ought  to  possess  more  than  all  others.^ 
He  believes  that  even  the  worst  men  will  think  it  a  ser- 
vice to  themselves  that  the  best  should  have  the  leading  of 
them.*  He  holds  everything  noble  or  beautiful  possessed 
by  his  subjects  to  be  an  ornament  to  himself  He  rejects 
great  presents,  even  those  of  gratitude,  saying,  "  You  shall 
not  make  me  such  a  man  as  will  run  up  and  down,  barter- 
ing my  services  for  money."  He  "  lays  up  resources  by 
means  of  his  conduct."'^  He  treats  women  with  noble 
delicacy  and  deep  respect,*"  and  his  advice  to  young  men 
on  matters  of  lov^e  are  mingled  with  genial  humor.  He 
opens  battle  with  prayer:  "They  who  fear  the  gods  in 
peril,  are  all  the  less  afraid  of  men." "  He  creates  not 
only  a  perfect  commissariat  and  perfect  discipline,  but  an 
esprit  de  corps.  He  disparages  excited  appeals  to  sol- 
diers, as  compared  with  the  systematic  culture  of  valor 
and  virtue.  He  conducts  war  with  unheard-of  mildness, 
dismissing  prisoners,  forgiving  foes,  slaying  only  those  in 
arms,  leaving  the  nations  free  from  exactions  and  service. 
He  frees  slaves  and  makes  them  soldiers.^  He  pities 
heroic  men  in  defeat  and  fighting  hopelessly,  and  even 
draws  oft"  his  conquering  army  to  preserve  their  lives.^ 
He  treats  his  allies  with  great  delicacy,  deferring  the  din- 
ner-hour for  himself  and  his  army  till  their  arrival,  as  well 
as  all  partition  of  booty,  and  doing  nothing  without  regard 
to  their  feelings.     He  wins  all  hearts  not  only  by  nobility 

'  Xenophon;  Cyropoedia,  v.  2,  3.  2  ibid.,   viii.  3. 

'  Ibid.,  i.  3;  viii.  5.  <  Ibid.,ii.  2. 

''  Ibid.,  iii.  12.  6  See  dying  address  to  his  sons. 

'  Xenophon  :   Cyroptzdia,  iii.  3.  8  ibid.,  iv.  4,  6. 

8  Ibid.,  vii.  I. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  341 

and  kindness,  but  also  by  tact,  overcoming  in  this  way  the 
jealousy  of  Cyaxares  the  Median  king,  whom  he  super- 
sedes in  the  love  of  the  army,  and  who  finds  himself  re- 
duced to  a  cipher  by  the  man  he  has  made  general  of  his 
troops.^  He  takes  up  the  cause  of  laboring  men,  sees  that 
the  agricultural  populations  are  well  cared  for,  and  praises 
the  lot  of  those  who  live  by  honest  toil.  He  enforces  di- 
vision of  labor.  He  lays  down  wise  principles  of  production 
and  distribution,  and  living  use  of  capital,  and  prescribes 
due  order  in  all  administration,  makes  litigants  go  to  ref- 
erees, raises  the'  best  to  power  without  distinction  of  rank, 
sends  judges  through  his  States  to  rectify  disorders,  and 
opens  postal  roads  and  stations  for  swift  couriers.  He 
honors  the  fine  arts,  and  spares  Sardis  on  their  account. 
For  himself,  he  is  better  pleased  to  give  than  to  receive, 
and  leads  others  by  force  of  example  to  virtue.  He  is 
husband  of  one  wife,  and  thoroughly  loyal  to  his  vows. 
He  excels  not  so  much  in  military  conduct  as  in  love  of 
man,  and  dies  grateful  for  a  life  of  perfect  success,  ex- 
horting his  children  to  love  each  other,  to  believe  in  im- 
mortality, and  next  to  the  gods  to  seek  the  good  of  all 
mankind.  He  enjoins  that  no  splendor  be  seen  about  his 
remains,  which  must  be  as  speedily  as  possible  returned  to 
earth. 

This  noble  ideal  is  marred  by  the  limitations  of  its  framer 
and  the  conditions  of  the  age.  Xenophon's  Cyrus,  assum- 
ing the  necessity  of  willing  obedience  to  a  good-willing 
power  from  those  who  have  been  used  to  servitude  or  must 
be  held  to  it,  attempts  to  reconcile  these  conditions  by  a 
training  which  presumes  them  all,  and  treats  the  subjects  of 
it  with  the  tenderness  of  a  father  for  his  children,  while  de- 
priving them  of  the  right  of  bearing  arms  and  disqualifying 
them  from  even  desiring  the  means  of  freedom.^     This  is 

*  Xenophon  :    Cyropcedia,  v.  4,  5  ;  vii.  4 ;    viii.  3. 
2  Ibid.,  viii.  1-8. 


342  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

a  piece  of  Xenophon's  Spartan  prejudices,  quickened  to  a 
sense  of  the  duties  involved  in  it  for  one  of  such  humanity 
as  Cyrus.  It  was  probably  in  accordance  with  the  observed 
customs  of  the  Persians  of  his  day,  that  Xenophon,  for  the 
same  purpose  of  securing  authority  to  the  world-rulers, 
makes  Cyrus  advise  his  countrymen  to  wear  high  shoes  to 
appear  taller  than  they  were,  and  to  paint  their  faces  to 
give  them  beauty  and  dignity.^  His  statement  that  the 
"adoration"  he  reports  Cyrus  to  have  received  for  the  first 
time  from  the  Persians  on  his  state-procession  from  the 
palace  in  Babylon,  as  the  spontaneous  tribute  of  his  peo- 
ple, should  have  been  allowed  him  by  the  cultured  Greeks 
(they  certainly  refused  it  to  the  later  Achaemcnidan  kings), 
is  only  to  be  explained  by  his  sense  of  a  special  divine 
authority  in  Cyrus  to  receive  the  world's  worship  as  the 
"  Star  in  the  East"  of  a  religious  faith.  How  natural  it  was 
to  form  this  personal  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Persian 
custom  appears  in  the  later  deification  of  Jesus,  even  in  his 
infancy,  when  Christianity  had  become  a  religious  power, 
and  needed  verification  of  its  claims  in  the  history  of  its 
founder.  The  personal  character  of  Xenophon's  admira- 
tion of  Persian  royalty  is  shared  by  Plato,  who  makes  his 
Athenian  guest  in  "  The  Laws  "  praise  Cyrus  and  his  men 
for  moderation  in  the  exercise  of  power,  sharing  their  free- 
dom with  others,  and  leading  them  to  equality;  the  mag- 
nanimous king  "granting  liberty  of  speech  to  all  who  were 
able  to  advise,"  so  that  "  progress  was  effected  through 
freedom,  friendship,  and  communion  of  intellect."  Plato's 
criticism  of  Cyrus  is  confined  to  ascribing  the  decay  of  the 
State  to  the  custom  introduced  by  him  of  intrusting  the 
education  of  princes  to  women,  whose  petting  made  them 
vicious,  —  as  in  the  case  of  Cyrus'  own  children.^ 

We  shall  do  justice  to  the  significance  of  these  Greek 
tributes  when  we  consider  that  they  are  traceable  directly 

^  Xenophon  :   Cyro/icedia^  vi;i.  1-3.  ^  Laws,  bk.  iii. 


PABVLON,    CYRUS,   PERSIA.  343 

to  the  very  highest  moral  and  intellectual  authority  in 
ancient  history.  The  teaching  of  Socrates  produced  two 
fruits  in  philosophical  romance,  —  the  Atlantis  of  Plato, 
and  the  "Cyropaedia"  of  Xenophon.  The  description 
of  the  early  inhabitants  of  the  great  Atlantic  Island, — 
of  the  rise  of  their  vast  empire  through  their  frugality 
and  sobriety,  their  gentleness  and  wisdom,  their  piety 
and  humanity,  and  their  willing  obedience  to  divine  kings; 
of  their  gradual  corruption  through  luxury,  and  of  the  valor 
with  which  the  Athenians  met  their  immense  invading  hosts, 
till  both  nations  were  destroyed  by  earthquake  and  flood 
ten  thousand  years  before,  —  can  have  been  suggested 
only  by  the  history  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Great 
Empire  of  tlie  East,  and  its  relations  with  Athens  in 
recent  times. ^  It  grew  confessedly  out  of  the  same  desire 
to  illustrate  the  ideal  Socratic  State,  with  Xenophon's  "  Cy- 
ropsedia ;  "  although  in  this  case  not  Persia,  but  a  primeval 
Athens  is  the  central  figure,  while  the  perfection  of  Atlan- 
tis also  is,  like  Persian  virtues,  concentrated  in  her  earliest 
royalty.  Xenophon  wrote  his  "  Cyropaedia"  to  illustrate  the 
philosophical  principle  of  free  government,  as  consisting  in 
the  willing  obedience  of  men  to  what  they  recognized  as 
just  and  humane,  as  he  wrote  his  "  Hiero  the  Despot"  to 
show  the  converse  of  the  same  principle, — that  unwill- 
ing obedience  is  slavery  and  ruin.  In  his  praise  of  the 
aristocratic  side  of  Cyrus'  institutes,  we  see  the  Socratic 
dislike  of  extreme  democracy  as  it  existed  in  Greece. 
Cyrus  is  himself  a  pure  disciple  of  Socrates  in  his  con- 
stant presumption  that  all  men  desired  to  do  right  and  to 
be  rightly  governed,  in  his  identification  of  politics  with 
ethics,  in  his  cardinal  principles  of  temperance,  justice, 
courage,  and  love,  in  respecting  the  religions  of  all  nations ; 
and  while  not  hesitating  to  join  in  their  rites,  yet  dispens- 
ing with  diviners,  and  obeying  the  inward  voice,  making 

'  Jowett's  Translation  of  Timeeus,  19;   Critias,  109-120. 


344  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

humbleness  and  noble  endeavor  his  true  prayer,  because 
the  gods  could  act  only  by  laws,  never  by  caprice.^  His 
doctrine  of  forgiveness,  and  his  death,  looking  forward  to  a 
future  life,  are  both  Socratic.  It  is  true  that  Socrates  would 
not  have  approved  the  suicide  of  Panthea  upon  the  death 
of  her  husband ;  but  this  event  is  but  an  incident  of  the 
most  tender  and  touching  story  of  mutual  love,  honor,  and 
fidelity  between  the  sexes  in  all  ancient  fiction,  and  is  so 
related  as  to  show  Cyrus  in  the  noblest  light.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  no  tribute  so  exalted  was  ever  paid  to  any  people, 
when  the  position  and  character  of  those  who  paid  it  are 
fully  weighed,  as  those  of  Plato  and  Xenophon  to  the  foun- 
ders of  the  Persian  State.  It  becomes  the  more  striking 
when  we  consider  that  the  tribute  of  the  latter  especially 
was  almost  wholly  to  fcrso/uil g-over/imeu^,  in  a  high  sense  of 
.  the  word,  as  a  righteous  resort  from  the  excesses  of  Greek 
democracy  or  ochlocracy.  And  here  we  must  note  Xeno- 
phon's  purpose  to  present  the  practical  as  well  as  philo- 
sophical ideal  of  sovereignty.  He  was  in  most  respects  one 
of  the  clearest  heads  in  all  antiquity  on  matters  of  political 
and  military  science.  And  we  may  well  ask  what  a  name 
must  C}'rus  have  left  behind  him,  when  we  find  such  a  man 
ascribing  to  him  almost  every  great  economical  principle 
or  measure  by  which  later  monarchies  ha\'e  combined  their 
own  preservation  with  the  prosperity  of  their  subjects ! 
At  the  same  time,  the  condition  of  the  ancient  world  was 
thoroughly  recognized,  from  the  best  Greek  experience,  as 
needing  above  all  things  the  remedy  of  personal  govern- 
ment righteously  applied.  From  this  should  issue  a  sys- 
tematic moral  training  in  ideals  suitable  to  free  men, 
combined,  as  in  the  Spartan  discipline,  with  contempt  for 
the  mere  pursuit  of  wealth.  The  king  must  carry  the 
force  of  personal  example  into  immediate  contact  with  his 
subjects.     Hence  every  one  must  come  to  the  palace  to 

1  Xenophon:   Cyyopcedia,  i.  6. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  345 

prove  his  loyalty,  the  rich  must  not  live  away  from  the 
capital,  a  standing  army  must  take  the  place  of  uncertain 
feudal  services,^  the  best  people  must  dine  at  the  king's 
table,  administration  must  be  watched  by  secret  police,  the 
civil  and  military  powers  be  vested  in  distinct  persons,^  and 
offices  be  rightly  and  gifts  generously  bestowed.  The  king 
must  be  the  moral  ideal,^  and  rule  by  incessant  toil  and 
vigilant  foresight,  as  one  personally  responsible  for  the 
welfare  of  his  people,  with  a  "  thirst  for  doing  good,"  and 
for  winning  obedience  through  love.^ 

We  have  thus  presented  Xenophon's  ideal  Cyrus  in  full, 
not  because  of  its  historical  truth,  which  is  probably  much 
inferior  to  the  story  of  Herodotus,  nor  as  unaware  that  this 
is  the  wisdom  of  Greece  rather  than  of  Persia ;  but  because 
the  power  of  Cyrus'  name  to  draw  it  out  from  such  a 
source,  is  mark  of  a  position  in  the  ancient  world  which 
deserves  the  most  profound  regard. 

To  the  Greek  mind,  to  the  simplicity  of  Herodotus  no 
less  than  to  the  philosophy  and  ethics  of  the  Socratic 
school,  Cyrus  was  the  child  of  Destiny,  as  he  wa^  of  Provi- 
dential purpose  to  the  Hebrew, — to  the  one  as  a  grand 
personal  force  transforming  human  society  and  politics;  to 
the  other  as  the  instrument  of  Jahveh  to  restore  and  exalt 
his  chosen  race.  The  story  of  Crcesus  is  constructed  in 
the  interest  of  this  belief.  In  his  relations  with  the  king  of 
Lydia,  this  Son  of  Destiny,  raised  from  the  depths  of  the 
far  East,  at  once  recognizes  the  existing  moral  and  intel- 
lectual achievements  of  mankind,  and  proves  his  own 
superiority  to  the  will  of  the  gods  of  Asia  and  of  Greece. 
In  this  view  I  think  I  can  hardly  be  mistaken.  Croesus 
for  the  Greeks,  especially  the  lonians,  is  king  of  the  typical 
tribe  in  Asiatic  civilization,  and  conqueror  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced Ionian  cities  of  Asia  Minor.     The  Lydians  had  the 

^  Xenophon  :  Cyropcedia,  ii.  i.  *  Ibid.,  viii.  6. 

=  Ibid.,  i.  6.  *  Ibid.,  V.  i. 


346  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

prestige  of  political  wisdom  and  social  resource ;  they  were 
the  first  employers  of  gold  and  silver  coin,  the  first  retailers 
of  goods ;  they  had  the  wit  to  invent  games,  as  diversion 
from  suffering  in  a  long  and  grievous  famine.^  Croesus' 
resources  were  fabulous,  his  conquests  vast,  his  wisdom 
proverbial  alike  for  shrewdness  and  breadth.  His  capital 
was  the  resort  of  Greek  sages,  the  mother  and  nurse  of 
Greek  literature.  So  great  was  his  interest  in  Hellenic 
culture,  that  he  sent  splendid  gifts  to  the  temples,  con- 
sulted the  oracles,  testing  their  knowledge,  and  followed 
the  guidance  of  Apollo  in  making  war  on  Persia.  He  was 
the  common  ally  and  honored  friend  of  Babylon,  Egypt, 
Greece.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  contempt  of  his  wise 
men  for  the  rude  hosts  of  Iran.  On  the  funeral  pyre  he 
calls  upon  Solon,  as  the  one  sage  who  could  comprehend 
his  downfall  and  despair.  In  the  Greek  worship  of  Cyrus, 
Croesus  holds  a  place  similar  to  that  of  the  Magi  in  the 
Christian  legend  of  the  destined  Christ.  It  was  this  great 
historical  figure  that  naturally  expressed  the  failure  of  all 
existing  wisdom,  power,  and  even  faith,  before  the  advent 
of  the  new  Sun  rising  in  the  East,  —  an  event  which  might 
well  stir  the  Greek  world  to  serious  thought.  Conquered 
by  Cyrus  and  cast  on  the  funeral  pile  (probably,  as  Hero- 
dotus intimates,^  and  as  may  be  inferred  from  Xenophon, 
without  intention  to  carry  out  the  barbarity,  since  it  was 
wholly  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  Cyrus  to  do  so),  he  ac- 
knowledges this  decree  of  Destiny,  —  reproaching  the 
Pythian  oracle  with  urging  him  on  by  delusions  to  war 
against  one  whom  none  can  withstand.  Apollo  can  send 
rain  to  put  out  the  fires;  but  even  he  cannot  turn  back 
the  destiny  of  Cyrus  to  supersede  both  Lydian  and  Greek. 
Permitted  to  send  a  message  to  the  Delphian  god  to  ask  if 
he  is  not  ashamed  of  his  doings,  and  if  the  gods  of  Greece 

^  Herodotus,  i.  94. 

2  Ibid.,  i.  86,  88.     See  Rawlinson,  note  A.  to  Herodotus,  bk.  i. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  347 

were  usually  ungrateful,  Croesus  receives  for  answer  that  it 
was  not  in  Apollo  to  contravene  the  decrees  of  Fate.  The 
Greek  Prometheus  is  illumined  by  suffering  to  foresee  the 
coming  of  Destiny  to  release  him,  and  overthrow  the  exist- 
ino-  gods  in  the  interest  of  man.  Here  it  is  not  a  defiant 
Titan  that  throws  himself  on  the  deliverance  to  come,  but 
a  conquered  religion,  confessing  its  day  to  be  passed  in 
presence  of  the  actual  destined  deliverer.  Is  it  fanciful  to 
find  this  hinted  in  the  smile  with  which  Cyrus  grants  to 
Crcesus  permission  to  reproach  the  oracle  instead  of  re- 
buking him,  as  a  loyal  Greek  would  have  done,  for  the  _ 
impiety  of  the  thought? 

Moreover,  it  is  in  recognizing  what  is  noble  in  the  older 
beliefs  and  their  confessors,  that  the  new  becomes  noble 
and  free.  Whether  intending  or  not  to  burn  Croesus, 
Cyrus  is  moved  to  tenderness  by  the  self-humiliation  of' 
the  noble  victim  and  his  piety  in  view  of  death,  reflecting 
that  he  also  is  a  man,  and  must  meet  the  changes  of  for- 
tune and  the  retribution  of  just  laws.  The  man  of  Destiny 
must  respect  morality,  and  learn  its  sovereignty  over  all 
human  things.  The  supernatural  must  be  under  the  same 
rule.  The  miracle  of  rain  which  protects  Croesus,  helps 
also  to  convince  Cyrus  that  his  captive  deserves  human  as 
w^ell  as  Divine  care.^  The  wisdom  of  the  past  fails  not  to 
serve  the  noble  purposes  of  the  new  epoch  and  the  higher 
fate.  Cyrus  consults  Croesus  in  important  matters,  listens 
to  his  maxims  practical  and  prudential,  his  reflections  on 
the  instability  of  things.  None  the  less  is  it  always  as 
master  of  the  occasion  that  he  listens  and  accepts  them. 
The  central  force  of  the  teaching  is  in  his  own  personal 
character  and  will. 

The  ideal  personality  of  Cyrus,  thus  depicted  by  the  im- 
agination of  the  ages  which  followed  his  career,  points,  as 
few  historical  ideals  do,  to  an  actual  force  in  some  degree 

1  Herodotus,  i.  87. 


348  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

correspondent  to  its  supposed  efifect.     As  founder  of  the 
great    empire    which    directed    Greek  history,  even  when 
wasted  on  the  field,  and  as  restorer  of  the  Jews  to  their 
native  land,  carrying  with  them  the  faith  and  culture  which 
have  made  them  so  large  a  factor  in  modern  civilization,  he 
is  in  many  important  respects  the  most  impressive  figure 
of  ancient  times,  and  a  root  whence  the  world's  progress 
springs.     Mr.   Grote   says   that   "  while    the   conquests    of 
Cyrus  contributed  to  assimilate  the  distinct  types  of  civil- 
ization  in   Western   Asia,  —  not  by   elevating  the  worse, 
but  by  degrading  the  better,  —  upon  the  native  Persians 
themselves   they    operated    as   an   extraordinary   stimulus, 
provoking  alike   their  pride,  ambition,  cupidity,  and  war- 
like propensities."  ^     This  judgment  seems  to  me  to  over- 
look both   the  historical  conditions   and  the  character   of 
the  great  Persian's  work.     I  must  regard  it  as  a  very  im- 
perfect estimate  of  the  influence  of  that  large  relation  to 
the  ancient  world  to  which  Cyrus  introduced  his  people; 
but  it  is  still  more  unjust  to  Cyrus  himself.     He  was  not  a 
reconstructor  of  nations  only,  but  a  reformer  of  the  bar- 
barous methods  of  Asiatic  warfare.     All  traditions  picture 
him  as  of  singular  humanity  in  the  treatment  of  conquered 
nations.     Most  constructions  of  this  kind  in  later  ages  pass 
over  the  other  Achaemenides,  —  not  only  the  feeble  Darius 
Codomannus,  the  sensual  Artaxerxes  II.,  the  cruel  Ochus, 
the  voluptuous  Xerxes,  but  Darius  the  great  organizer,  and 
Cambyses  the  iconoclast,  —  pass  over  the  immense  influence 
on  foreign  States  exercised  by  the  gifts  and  gold  of  Arta- 
xerxes I.,  to  rest  on  the  person  of  Cyrus.     Down  to  the 
latest  days   of  Persian  nationality,  as  we  have   seen,  this 
precedence  lasts,  in  the  poets  and  historians  of  Islam.    In 
Cyrus  only  they  find   the   "  father  "   of  nations ;    he  only 
thinks  himself  adorned  in  adorning  others ;   he  only  strives 
to  heal  discord,  to  reward  noble  conduct,  to  win  the  hearts 

1  Grote :  History  of  Greece,  iv.  216. 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  349 

of  men  by  generous  appreciation  of  merit,  by  forgiveness 
of  injuries,  by  tender  consideration  of  the  weaknesses  and 
wants  of  others.  He  is  as  pure  in  life  as  he  is  powerful  in 
arms ;  has  the  majesty  of  human  omnipotence  with  none 
of  its  caprice ;  would  fain  unite  autocracy  of  power  with 
democracy  of  spirit;  is  at  once  ideal  ruler  and  ideal  man. 
It  is  scarcely  rational  to  suppose  that  all  this  testimony  to 
one  so  conspicuous  in  history  as  the  creator  of  the  Persian' 
empire,  so  known  to  Babylon,  Egypt,  and  Greece,  can  be 
without  historical  guarantees ;  that  a  repute  which  all  the 
admitted  degeneracy  of  the  Persian  kings  and  people  since 
his  day  could  not  cover  up  from  the  sharpest  eyes  and 
finest  minds  of  that  Athenian  people,  to  whom  the  name 
of  barbarian  was  an  offence,  can  be  a  baseless  fiction. 

As  we  have  already  said,  that  but  for  the  preparatory 
work  of  the  "  great  kings  "  Alexander  would  not  have 
found  Asia  open  to  his  unifying  march ;  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  common  empire,  and  the  demand  for  a 
common  political  administration  did  far  more  than  the 
little  troop  of  fifty  thousand  with  which  he  penetrated 
Asia,  to  effect  the  conquest  of  the  multitudinous  tribes, — 
so  we  may  now  add  that  the  powerful  initiation  of  these 
influences  must  be  ascribed  to  "  Cyrus  the  Great."  As  it 
is  greater  to  create  than  to  organize,  he  eclipses  even  Da- 
rius, without  whom  the  empire  would  have  perished  in  a 
day.  A  single  sentence  will  perhaps  express  the  direct 
bearing  of  his  life  upon  the  Alexandrine  campaigns.  No 
mere  helplessness  of  a  disorganized  State,  no  weakness  of 
Oriental  nerve,  no  absence  of  leaders,  no  over-confidence 
of  Darius  II.,  did  so  much  to  effect  their  amazing  success 
as  the  previous  preparation  of  the  people  of  Asia  to  accept 
the  personal  government  of  one  who  deserved  to  hold 
sway ;  the  sense  of  community  in  an  expectation  of  world- 
purpose  and  destiny  with  which  Cyrus  and  his  conquering 
Persians  had  at  once  inspired  the  East.      Erom  his  day 


350  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Iran  meant  no  more  a  vast  desert  of  warring  hordes,  but 
the  Persia  of  the  Great  King,  the  chosen  Solar  Fire  of 
the  World.  The  savage  warfare  of  Iran  and  Turan  gave 
place  to  an  empire  making  firm  stand  against  incursions 
from  the  Northern  wilds.  The  feudal  chiefs  of  Iran  were 
subordinated  to  the  throne,  without  loss  of  freedom  or 
self-respect;  and  the  conquest  of  Ionia  opened  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  East  and  of  the  West  to  each  other.  From  his 
constructive  conquests  dates  not  the  first  but  the  most 
radical  intermixture  of  races,  whence  grew  the  breadth  of 
European  experience.  He  raised  the  barrier  to  the  North- 
ern swarms  whose  mastery  of  Persia  would  have  swept  back 
Aryan  civilization,  delayed  for  centuries  Aryan  immigra- 
tion into  Europe  and  the  Germanic  conquests  with  their 
vast  results  to  freedom  and  science,  and  so  altered  the 
whole  course  of  history.  Rome  herself,  broadened  by  her 
Parthian  and  Sassanide  wars,  and  stirred  by  Persian  passion 
out  of  her  narrow  and  hard  materialism,  showed  in  the 
humanities  of  her  later  legislation  that  she  had  felt  the 
pressure  of  Cyrus'  heroic  hand.  Hebrew  psalmody,  He- 
brew law,  the  piety  of  Jahvism,  as  the  mother  of  Christian 
trust  and  love,  born  and  nurtured  in  the  exile,  reached  its 
height  in  the  exaltation  of  Cyrus,  the  "  Righteous  One 
whom  Jahveh  loveth,"  the  "  Messiah,"  the  "  Anointed  Sa- 
viour of  the  World."  No  other  messiah  has  the  Hebrew 
found  but  this  one,  for  whom  the  girdle  of  the  loins  of 
kings  was  loosed,  that  he  might  open  the  prison  gates; 
at  whose  touch  the  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  were 
made  glad,  a  highway  was  opened  for  the  ransomed  of 
Jahveh,  and  the  deserts  of  Judea  rejoiced  and  blossomed 
as  the  rose.  To  be  the  inspirer  of  the  later  Isaiah  was  to 
hold  a  place  second  to  none  in  the  sources  of  Hebrew  and 
Christian  faith.  His  capture  of  Babylon  broke  the  pride 
of  Semitic  polytheism.  His  restoration  of  the  Jews  effaced 
at  a  word  the  hostilities  of  races  and  creeds,  and  gave  the 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,    PERSIA.  351 

first  Strong  impulse  to  universal  religion,  to  the  brother- 
hood of  nations  and  of  times.  The  victories  of  Cyrus 
were  indeed  the  sunrise  in  the  east.  The  turning  of  the 
river  that  rolled  through  Babylon  was  the  original  of  that 
wonderful  picture  of  a  great  Deliverer  which  Christian- 
ity has  made  Jesus  claim  as  meant  for  himself,^  —  the 
turning-point  of  ancient  history.  The  same  hand  which 
smote  down  the  old  gods  of  Asia,  set  up  the  coming  God 
of  Europe.  To  the  feet  of  this  great  Master  of  Nations 
converge  the  lines  of  religious  movement  as  we  trace  them 
backward  from  their  widest  expansion  in  modern  times. 
And  while  studying  the  manifold  bearings  of  his  life  on 
succeeding  ages,  I  am  scarcely  surprised  that  a  brilliant 
French  historian,  whose  ingenious  conclusions  concerning 
the  Persians,  however  imperfectly  sustained  in  some  re- 
spects, are  highly  worthy  of  consideration,  should  say 
emphatically  that  "  there  is  nothing  else  of  so  intense  an 
interest  in  all  human  history;  "^  and  that  without  him 
"  the  Europe  of  to-day  never  would  have  existed." 

We  pause  before  this  magnificent  landmark  of  progress. 
Let  us  reflect  that  we  see  the  forerunner  and  type  of  that 
principle  which,  for  good  and  for  evil,  has  controlled  the 
great  religions  of  modern  times.  A  man  stands  in  the 
place  of  God.  It  is  not  meant  that  the  man  is  here  held 
to  be  God,  though  this  is  the  tendency;  and  both  in  earlier 
and  later  Iranian  phases  of  monarchy  the  monarch  often 
assumes  the  name  and  worship  of  the  god.  The  Persian 
did  not  zvorship  his  king,  certainly  not  in  the  days  of  Cyrus. 
He  was  forbidden  by  his  religious  law  even  to  make  images 
of  Ormuzd,  an  invisible  god.  He  made  only  symbolic 
signs  of  deity  hovering  over  the  king.  But  these  were 
signs  of  personal  Will,  the  essence  of  sovereignty  alike 
in  God  and  king.  Though  the  king  was  not  God  to  the 
Persian,  then,  he  was  the  image  of  God,  —  an  image  if  not 

'  Isaiah,  Ixi.  i  ;  Luke,  iv.  16-21.  ^  Gobineau  :  Histoire  des  Perscs,  i.  511. 


352  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

made  with  hands,  yet  representing  in  human  form  the  au- 
thority of  that  Will  of  whose  human  and  divine  elements 
—  choice  of  chiefs,  and  commandment  of  God  —  he  was 
the  combined  result.  Later  times  and  religions  show  how 
naturally  the  personal  God  himself  becomes  identified 
with  the  man  specially  made  in  his  image.  Though  for 
the  Persian  the  reality  of  Ormuzd  soars  over  the  head  of 
the  Achasmenide,  yet  a  man  stands  in  the  place  of  God.  It 
is  the  form  of  a  Person  that  we  discern  dimly  through  the 
shadows  of  the  past,  and  the  ancient  world  is  at  his  feet. 
It  is  the  sovereignty  of  a  will.  But  this  will  worships ; 
it  recognizes  moral  laws,  and  obeys  the  spirit  of  love ; 
it  desires  to  command  a  willing  obedience,  to  win  the 
hearts  of  men,  to  reconcile  and  succor  them ;  it  knows  that 
its  rights  involve  duties ;  it  treats  the  tribes  of  a  continent 
as  one  race,  which  needs  and  wishes  to  be  governed,  but 
has  the  right  to  be  governed  well.  And  we  thus  discern 
the  justification  in  its  own  day  and  for  those  conditions  in 
which  it  was  born  —  for  the  true  birthday  was  in  the  Persia 
of  the  great  Cyrus  —  of  the  principle  of  Personal  Govern- 
ment;  a  principle  which  more  than  two  thousand  years  of 
political  and  religious  history  were  to  develop  and  work 
through,  until  it  now  finds  its  value  in  having  prepared 
the  way  for  a  higher  stage  of  progress  no  longer  to  be 
delayed. 

Such  is  the  Cyropaedia  of  real  history,  holding  in  its 
bosom  an  end  and  purpose  beyond  the  "  great  kings,"  an- 
cient and  modern,  beyond  the  Messiahs,  the  Prophets  of 
Jahveh  and  of  Allah,  the  authoritative  Incarnations,  the 
theological  types  of  Personal  Government,  of  whom  it  is 
made  up,  and  whose  sway,  both  ideal  and  actual,  but  fore- 
shadows a  real  unity  of  man  with  God  above  and  beneath 
these  limitations  by  exclusive  types  of  personal  Will.  It  is 
in  Cyrus  that  we  see  its  fine  foreshadowing  in  its  largest 
prophetic  aspect.     Not  the  "  bright  altars  "  of  a  Hebrew 


BABYLON,   CYRUS,   PERSIA.  353 

Jahvch,  but  the  altarless  presence  and  fane  of  a  human 
potentate  standing  for  justice  and  mercy,  are  "  thronged 
with  prostrate  kings." 

"  See  barbarous  nations  at  thy  gates  attend, 
Walk  in  thy  light,  and  in  thy  temple  bend  !  " 


23 


II. 

ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT. 

•■\T  7HEN  Alexander  of  Macedon  destroyed  the  Achae- 
^  '  menidan  dynasty  at  a  blow,  he  not  only  assumed  the 
style  and  embraced  the  system  of  the  native  rulers,  but 
became  at  once  the  national  ideal.  Greece  denounced 
him  as  the  destroyer  of  her  liberties,  the  arrogant  restorer 
of  her  twenty  thousand  political  convicts  from  exile.-' 
Persia,  on  the  contrary,  hailed  him  as  her  deliverer  from 
national  disintegration  and  dynastic  decay.  Plutarch  re- 
lates that  Darius  himself  exchanged  his  contempt  of  the 
stripling  who  sought  to  snatch  his  crown,  for  a  recogni- 
tion which  went  so  far  as  to  pray  that  if  it  went  ill  with 
himself,  the  gods  would  "suffer  none  but  Alexander  to  pos- 
sess the  throne  of  Cyrus ;  "  and  adds :  "  So  true  is  it,  that 
virtue  is  the  victor  still."  ^  Only  an  overmastering  per- 
sonality could  hold  the  numerous  principalities  of  Iran 
under  a  common  sway;  and  this  inflexible  requirement  of 
their  nature  and  traditions  could  find  nothing  but  its  own 
irony  in  the  later  Acha;menidan  kings.  But  when  this 
young  hero,  fresh  from  the  conquest  of  Greece  and  Egypt, 
threw  himself  single-handed,  with  the  assurance  of  a  god 
and  as  a  retributive  fate,  upon  the  vast  empire  of  the  "  king 
of  kings,"  the  thunder  of  his  tread,  the  most  rapid  and  re- 
sistless in  the  history  of  war,  awoke  the  old  Iranian  loyalty 
to  personal  Will,  with  its  glorious  traditions ;  and  the 
prestige  of  Cyrus  and  of  Rustem,  of  the  historical  and  the 
mythological  ideals  alike,  gathered  about  his  head.  A 
million  spears  were  grounded  at  the  lifting  of  his  arm. 
The  Gordian   knot  flies  apart  at  the  touch  of  his  sword; 

^  Grote,  x;i.  306.  -  Fortune  or  I'irtiie  of  Alexander,  ii.  6,  7. 


358  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

he  needs  not  untie  it  to  prove  himself  the  master  for  whom 
its  mystery  waits.  From  his  first  defiance  of  Darius,  de- 
scribed in  the  legend^  as  a  refusal  of  the  accustomed  tribute 
of  golden  eggs,  because  "  the  vital  bird  of  him  who  sent 
the  eggs  has  deserted  the  cage  of  the  body,"  or  as  the 
return  of  a  bitter  herb  for  the  bat  and  ball  sent  by  that 
monarch  to  satirize  his  youth,^  through  the  successive  cap- 
ture of  Babylon,  Susa,  Persepolis,  Ecbatana,  the  subjuga- 
tion of  eastern  Iran,  the  Bactrian  and  Southern  campaigns, 
to  the  coronation  and  apotheosis  at  Babylon, —  every  step 
in  that  marvellous  march  was  almost  as  much  an  ovation 
as  a  struggle.  The  magnificent  record  of  heroic  toils  and 
pains  which  his  Greek  eulogist  brings  to  prove  him  inde- 
pendent of  the  favors  of  fortune,^  has  its  counterpart  in  the 
ardor  of  submission,  as  to  an  expected  one,  which  greeted 
his  coming  as  soon  as  the  quality  of  the  man  was  felt.'* 
The  L}-dian  confederacy  welcomed  him.  Babylon  and 
Susa  threw  open  their  gates  to  receive  him.  Tribe  after 
tribe  gave  in  their  adhesion.  "After  the  battle  of  Arbela," 
says  Plutarch,  "  Alexander  was  acknowledged  king  of  all 
Asia."^  This  expectancy  is  indeed  an  element  needed  to 
explain  the  unparalleled  success  of  a  handful  of  Macedo- 
nian soldiers.  No  great  effects  in  political  or  religious 
reconstructions  are  explicable  without  such  conditions 
precedent.  The  first  resistance  was  made  by  Darius  with 
vast  resources.  But  after  the  first  blows  the  empire  could 
never  be  rallied,  and  there  remained  only  outbreaks  of  in- 
dividual States,  jealous  of  their  local  liberties.  The  power 
of  Alexander's  prestige  was  made  cumulative  by  events ; 
and  the  fact  is  worth  emphasizing,  that  no  great  rebellion 
of  conquered  tribes  occurred  in  his  campaigns,  save  that 

'  Shea  :  Mirkhond,  pp.  361,  362.  ^  Ibid. 

5  Plutarch:  Fortutie  or  Virtue  0/  Alexatider,  ii.  8-13. 

*  Arrian  :  Expedition  of  Alexander,  iii.  17,  23,  28;  iv.  i,  15.     Curtius,  v.  i,  2.     Arrian, 
i.  25  ;  ii.  13. 

5  Arrian, /iajj/wi.     Plutarch:  Life  of  Alexander. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT. 

of  the  Bactrians,  which  was  caused  by  the  propagation  of 
a  false  story  that  Alexander  intended  to  seize  and  put  to 
death  all  the  leading  men.^ 

When  the  Iranian  tribes  saw  the  one  general  who  could 
have  resisted  him,  Memnon  of  Rhodes,  die  before  striking 
a  blow ;  when  they  saw  their  king  Darius  ignobly  seeking 
safety  in  flight  from  the  field  of  Issus,  and  the  conqueror 
enhancing  a  noble  behavior  towards  his  captive  family  by 
punishing  his  assassins  ;  when  they  saw  the  conqueror  rush 
like  a  tempest  across  Central  Asia  to  destroy  the  Bactrian 
rival  who  had  thought  to  rise  to  empire  by  the  murder  of 
his  king;  when  satrap  after  satrap  tried  his  hand  at  re- 
bellion in  vain  ;  when  every  hour  proved  the  tremendous 
capabilities  of  a  will  which  suppressed  the  conspiracies 
of  generals,  shamed  away  the  reluctance  of  soldiers,  and 
broke  into  ungovernable  wrath  at  the  very  suspicion  of 
disloyalty  in  a  friend ;  when  he  dared  to  offend  his  own 
followers  by  committing  the  satrapies  to  native  chiefs ; 
when  he  left  the  States  their  own  institutions  and  free- 
dom of  worship ;  when  he  took  counsel  of  the  Chaldean 
Magi,  rebuilt  the  fallen  shrines  of  Babylon,  restored  the 
abandoned  tomb  of  Cyrus,  and  espoused  the  daughters  of 
native  kings,  —  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  national  dislike 
of  an  invader  should  be  absorbed  in  admiration  for  one, 
even  though  a  Greek  in  speech,  and  plainly  purposing 
to  play  the  part  of  a  god,  on  whom  rested  so  visibly  the 
tokens  of  the  right  to  rule.  No  wonder  native  volunteers 
crowded  forward  to  garrison  his  conquered  towns.  No 
wonder  that  when  his  army  refused  to  follow  him  farther, 
he  found  such  a  host  of  native  youth  rise  ready  to  his  hand 
that  the  legions  were  roused  to  new  zeal,  and  his  march  to 
India  showed  miscellaneous  hordes  of  Persians  trained  in 
the  disciplines  of  the  Greek.^     No  wonder   cities   sprang 

^  Williams:  Ltye  of  A /exander(¥ ami\y  L\hr:iry^.     Arrian,  iv.  i. 
^  Spiegel:  Eran.  Alterth.,  ii.  562. 


360  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

up  as  by  magic  on  navigable  streams  and  in  the  desert,  as 
if  a  new  birth  had  come  over  the  whole  land.  No  wonder 
that  the  sympathies  of  races  could  be  fertilized  by  inter- 
marriage on  the  largest  scale,  beginning  with  his  own  ex- 
ample and  followed  by  eighty  of  his  chiefs.  No  wonder  that 
the  hordes  of  the  ancient  monarchy  found  free  circulation 
to  revive  enterprise  and  trade,  and  that  this  intercourse  of 
races  opened  with  electric  speed  into  the  nobler  commerce 
of  ideas  and  faiths.  But  these  effects,  which  seemed  su- 
pernatural to  historians  and  philosophers  for  many  ages 
after  his  day,  were  as  largely  due  to  the  supreme  command 
always  exercised  over  Iranian  thought  and  conduct  by 
idealizations  of  personal  Will,  as  to  the  actual  qualities  of 
Alexander's  genius.  It  is  plain  that  these  qualities  would 
have  had  but  little  power  to  move  the  world,  but  for  the 
immense  leverage  afforded  by  the  other. 

The  pupil  of  Aristotle,  the  reader  of  Homer  by  day  and 
night,  the  preserver  of  Pindar's  house  from  the  sacking  of 
Thebes;  whose  camp^  was  a  lyceum  of  philosophy  and 
science,  a  school  of  historians  and  poets  as  well  as  of  gen- 
erals; the  enthusiast  for  a  civilization  that  should  embrace 
and  unify  the  world,  aspiring  to  teach  humanities  to  the 
rudest  tribes,  and  Greek  order  and  law  to  the  jealous  feudal 
lords  of  Asia,  and  "  by  mixing  lives,  manners,  customs, 
wedlocks,  as  in  a  festival  goblet,  to  make  e\  ery  one  take  the 
whole  habitable  world  for  a  country,  of  which  his  camp 
and  army  should  be  the  metropolis,"  —  this  man,  without 
looking  too  closely  at  the  strange  mixture  of  dispositions 
and  motives,  or  at  the  uncertainty  of  tradition  which  besets 
a  true  estimate  of  Alexander's  life,  was  indeed  the  higher 
ideal  for  which  Nineveh,  Babylon,  Mede,  and  Persian  had 
educated  the  races  of  Iran,  Again  the  native  genius  finds 
its  living  symbol ;   nerve-fire   condensed   into   personality, 

^  Pyrrho  the  sceptic,  Anaxarchus.  disciple  of  Democritus,  Callistbenes,  Ptolemy,  Perdiccas, 
accompanied  him.     Diogenes  Laeriius,  ix.     Also  Zeller's  Sioics. 


ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT.  361 

darting  like  the  lightning  east  and  west,  and  filling  the 
world  with  its  flames.  For  him  the  elements  are  made ; 
his  foot  plays  all  the  pedals  of  the  world's  music ;  history- 
is  but  the  echo  of  his  march.  The  continents  are  dead 
and  silent  everywhere,  save  where  he  moves  and  sum- 
mons them  to  renovated  life. 

Alexander  is  not  European  after  all.  He  belongs  to 
Iran.  Of  the  thirteen  years  of  his  reign,  eleven  are  spent 
on  the  soil  of  Asia.  Once  leaving  Macedon  for  the  East, 
he  never  returns.  Greece  emigrates  in  him ;  her  gods 
follow  the  star  of  a  master  which  may  have  risen  in  the 
West,  but  which  stays  proudly  in  the  Eastern  sky,  and  the 
Magi  are  not  his  guests  but  his  hosts.  Greek  Dionysus 
found  a  home  in  Eastern  Asia,  and  men  saw  in  the  de- 
bauches in  which  the  conqueror  stained  his  hand  with  the 
blood  of  friends  the  god's  revenge  for  his  neglected 
worship,  or  for  the  woes  of  his  beloved  Thebes.  A  new 
Hercules  frees  Prometheus  on  a  new  Caucasus  at  the 
opposite  boundary  of  Iran,  and  his  name  is  Alexander  of 
Macedon. 

It  was  not  without  more  positive  grounds  than  these  that 
Iranian  tradition  adopted  the  invader  into  the  line  of  native 
kings. ^  For  this  was  in  ethnic  truth  the  Agamemnon  of 
the  East  returning  to  claim  his  ancestral  domain  as  well  as 
to  punish  the  Achasmenides  for  invading  Greece.  He  is 
Iranian  not  only  by  the  scene  of  his  triumphs,  but  by  his 
Aryan  descent,  and  even  by  the  Orientalism  of  his  govern- 
ment, manners,  and  dress,  and  by  the  ungovernable  pas- 
sions which  the  situation  developed  in  him,  over  which 
even  his  Greek  panegyrist  can  only  mourn.^  This  per- 
sonality has  the  true  Iranian  dimensions,  is  the  true  type 
of  inward  Iranian  Dualism  and  moral  struggle.  The  fierce 
war  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  rages  here  on  a  scale  which 

'  Firdusi :  Shah-Natneh.    Hamza  of  Ispatian  ;  El  Masudi  ;  Tabnri. 
2  Arrian,  iv.  S. 


362  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

involves  the  fate  of  civilization.  So  the  native  legend 
adopts  him,  and  he  becomes  for  it,  as  afterward  for  the 
Mahometan  chroniclers,  the  legitimate  son  of  Darab  (Da- 
rius) by  a  daughter  of  Philip  of  Macedon,  and  the  half- 
brother  of  Darius  Ochus,  who  is  Darab's  son  by  another 
wife.^  He  is  the  Iskander  of  the  Shah-Nameh,^  brought 
up  at  his  father  Philip's  court,  unconscious,  like  Cyrus,  of 
his  royal  rights,  and  succeeds  to  a  tributary  throne  only  to 
throw  off  allegiance,  and  by  defeat  of  Dara  to  reach  his 
ancestral  crown.  The  historical  groundwork  of  the  con- 
quest is  worked  up  into  a  tale  of  mutual  tenderness  and 
trust  between  the  brother  kings.  Iskander  weeps  over  the 
dying  Dara,  receives  his  blessing,  promises  to  avenge  his 
murder,  to  marry  his  daughter,  and  to  spread  the  faith  of 
Zoroaster.  The  empire  receives  him  with  joy,  and  there 
follows  an  epoch  of  order,  prosperity,  and  glory ;  while  the 
true  successor  of  Kaianian  kings  makes  Egypt  and  India 
his  tributaries,  and  attended  by  prodigies  and  omens  visits 
all  the  sacred  shrines  of  Iran,  and  restores  the  supremacy 
it  had  once  enjoyed.  The  legend  knows  nothing  of  the 
enormities  which  historians  have  ascribed  to  that  march 
from  Tyre  to  the  heart  of  India,  the  massacres  in  Phoeni- 
cian cities,  the  deportations,  the  burning  of  Pcrsepolis,  and 
the  slaughter  on  the  sacred  soil  of  Bactria.  But  they  had 
not  been  forgotten;  nay, in  some  of  the  religious  traditions, 
they  have  been  greatly  exaggerated.  It  was  this  very  in- 
terfusion of  terribly  destructive  elements  with  far  more  con- 
spicuous ones  that  were  truly  creative  and  humane,  which 
made  his  history  attractive  to  a  race  whose  very  conscious- 
ness turned  on  the  struggle  of  good  and  evil  powers  for 


'  The  Sluih-Xameh,  the  heroic  epos  of  Persian  legends  and  traditions  covering  the  whole 
life  of  Iran  down  to  Alexander,  gathered  and  compiled  at  the  court  of  Ghuznin,  was  finally 
wrouglit  up  by  Firdusi,  in  the  eleventh  centur>-. 

2  Even  Spiegel,  who  singularly  enough  thinks  the  Iranians  did  not  like  Alexander,  can- 
not find  any  ground  for  believing  this  tradition  to  have  a  foreign  origin.  Eran.  Alterth., 
ii.  599. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  363 

possession  of  the  heroic  will.  These  traditions  endowed 
Iskander  with  the  symbolic  gifts  of  this  personal  ideal,  its 
spells  for  commanding  Nature,  its  talismans  to  bind  de- 
monic powers.  They  gave  him  the  physical  strength  to 
slay  monsters,  to  repeat  the  labors  of  Hercules  and  his 
prototype  the  sun,  the  intuition  to  foresee  his  destiny,  the 
piety  to  recognize  the  insignificance  of  kingdoms  com- 
pared with  the  service  of  God  and   man. 

Nor  does  it  appear  that  Firdusi,  the  restorer  of  the 
Iranian  legendary  history,  added  any  more  of  Islamitic 
coloring  to  the  traditional  fame  of  Iskander  than  he  gave 
to  those  earlier  heroes  of  the  national  legend,  whose  type, 
thoroughly  the  same  as  Iskander's,  has  evidently  preserved 
its  original  features  even  under  his  Mussulman  hands.  As 
it  was  the  fitness  of  Alexander  to  fill  this  old  type  of  ideal 
personality  that  attracted  the  national  genius,  so  only  in 
him  could  it  rise  to  the  height  of  its  historical  function. 
To  all  ordinary  personal  forces  that  genius  refused  to  re- 
spond. The  succession  he  bequeathed  "  to  the  strongest" 
did  not  command  its  allegiance.  The  brief  career  of  the 
Seleucidae,  lasting  little  more  than  half  a  century,  only 
irritated  the  people  by  using  the  powers  he  had  gained  to 
suppress  their  religious  faith  and  the  local  self-government 
by  which  he  had  won  their  hearts.  Though  the  dynasty 
was  not  without  energy  as  a  whole,  though  Seleucus  I. 
had  great  gifts  and  swayed  an  empire  almost  as  large  as 
that  of  Alexander  himself,  and  though  Antiochus  Epipha- 
nes  achieved  a  fame  as  wide  as  it  was  odious  (the  Ahri- 
man  of  Jew  and  Gentile),  these  heirs  {diadochoi')  of 
Alexander's  emipire  were  a  blank  for  Persian  imagination, 
and  furnished  it  no  ideal  food.  The  Seleucidae  on  the 
Tigris  and  the  Orontes,  and  the  Parthian  and  Graeco- 
Bactrian  dynasties  which  ruled  respectively  the  western 
and  eastern  provinces  that  seceded  from  their  empire,  were 
dropped  from  the  national  chronology.     It  wholly  passed 


364  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

over  the  five  and  a  half  centuries  between  the  death  of 
Alexander  and  the  advent  of  the  Sassanide  Ardeshir,  who 
in  the  very  spirit  of  the  old  heroic  legend  restored  Iranian 
freedom  and  faith. 

It  was  the  glory  of  Iran  to  feed  the  imagination  of  those 
races  which  were  making  history  with  colossal  types  of 
heroic  Will.  By  no  mytho-poetic  accident  did  her  great 
Caspian  headland  front  Europe  with  that  eternal  symbol 
of  Prometheus,  unconquerable  sufferer  for  the  good  of 
man ;  while  close  beside  it  towers  the  form  of  Zohak, 
image  of  tyranny  and  hate,  bound  in  hopeless  chains 
by  Feridun,  the  spirit  of  freedom.  Here  personality 
first  becomes  a  universal  idea,  a  world-consciousness.  As 
Cyrus  had  been  the  ideal  of  the  highest  Hebrew  and  Greek 
intelligence,  so  Alexander  became  the  ideal  of  far  more 
widely-spread  intellectual  and  religious  forces  at  a  later 
date.  From  the  fascination  of  his  world-opening  career 
no  corner  of  civilization  was  exempt.  For  centuries  hosts 
of  chronicles,  itineraries,  romances,  myths,  and  legends  mul- 
tiplied around  it,  of  ever}'  race  and  every  quality;  but  all 
so  dominated  by  his  dazzling  personality,  that  the  thought- 
ful historic  annals  of  Arrian  and  Diodorus  and  Strabo, 
and  the  learned  (but  not  so  trustworthy)  compilation  of 
Plutarch,  prove  often  as  puzzling  to  the  historic  sense 
as  the  palpable  tissues  of  fable  spun  by  a  pseudo-Callis- 
thenes,  or  a  Ouintus  Curtius,  or  by  those  mythologists  of 
Egypt,  Armenia,  and  Rome,  from  whom  their  threads  were 
borrowed. 

This  grasp  of  the  imagination,  then  first,  we  may  say,  set 
free  to  work  upon  genuinel}^  historic  materials  and  forces, 
knew  no  limits  in  geographical  space.  All  the  weird  stories 
of  supernatural  phenomena  and  monstrous  shapes  of  beasts 
and  men,  with  which  the  unexplored  wilds  of  Central  Asia 
had  been  peopled,  mainly  on  the  authority  of  Ctesias's 
Persian   history,  were  woven   into   the  marching  robes  of 


ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT.  365 

this  king  of  Nature  and  men.^  His  glory  was  the  honor 
of  all  nations.  Like  Persia,  Egypt  claimed  him  as  in  the 
direct  line  of  her  kings.^  The  god  of  the  Lybian  desert 
predicts  his  coming,  and  owns  him  as  his  son.  Sesostris, 
conqueror  of  continents,  rises  from  his  throne  among  the 
dead,  and  visits  him  in  vision,  to  sink  his  own  fame  in  the 
greater  master  who  shall  found  a  metropolis  of  nations, 
and  identify  Egypt  with  an  all-unifying  name.  Darius 
Ochus  and  Serapis  pay  him  similar  honors.  The  Jew  makes 
him  a  worshipper  of  Jahveh  and  the  savior  of  his  Holy 
Temple.^  The  Alexandrian  Greek  makes  him  abolish  all 
the  old  cults,  yet  not  by  force,  and  become  the  apostle  of 
a  universal  theism,  whose  prayer  to  the  "  Eternal  One," 
at  the  head  of  his  army,  brings  the  Caspian  mountains 
together,  that  he  may  build  gates  of  brass  to  bar  out 
Scythian  Gog  and  Magog  forever  from  the  lands  of  the 
true  faith. ^ 

Age  after  age  brought  fresh  accessions  to  that  Egyptian 
epopee  which,  under  the  assumed  name  of  Callisthenes, 
continued  down  to  the  time  of  Firdusi,  and  even  to  the 
Middle  Ages,  to  be  the  main  stream  of  this  mythic  lore.^ 
It  was  conspicuous  among  the  resources  of  Firdusi's  muse. 
In  this  legend  an  Egyptian  Magus  substitutes  himself  for 
the  god  Ammon,  and  brings  about  with  the  wife  of  Philip 
the  divine  birth  he  has  himself  predicted  to  her.  Alex- 
ander afterwards  kills  him ;  but  his  statue  at  Memphis 
speaks  out  to  hail  the  world-master  at  his  coming,  and 
places  a  globe  on  his  head.  Here  Alexander  instructs 
his  master  Aristotle  even  in  childhood,  reconciles  his 
parents,  slays  his  father's  murderers,  but  scorns  to  harm 

*  Rapp  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhch.,  xx.  64). 

^  Pseudo-Callisthenes. 

^  Josephus  :  A  titiquities  of  the  'Jews,  xi.  chaps,  v.  viii. 

^  Chassang  :  Histoire  du  Roman,  p.  333. 

^  Tlirougli  the  Armenian  translation,  probably  in  the  fifth  century.  For  account  of  Pseudo- 
Callisthenes,  see  Spiegel:  Eran.  Alterth.\\.  -p  c^%b,etseq.  And  Lessen  :  hidische  Alterth., 
ii.  734.     Also  Chassang  :  Histoire  du  Roman 


366  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

a  foe  who  wounded  him  in  battle ;  forgives  his  enemies, 
makes  war  only  for  humanity's  sake,  and  binds  the  na- 
tions in  brotherly  ties ;  and,  so  testifies  the  Byzantine 
age,  dives  to  the  depths  of  ocean  and  mounts  to  heaven 
upon  eagle's  wings.^ 

In  later  legends  of  the  same  cycle  (plainly  Mahometan), 
he  follows  the  setting  sun  to  reach  the  fountain  of  im- 
mortalit}-;  nay,  he  hears  the  admonition  of  the  Angel  of 
Judgment,  waiting  on  his  mountains  for  God's  command 
to  blow  the  last  trumpet.  He  learns  the  inherent  neces- 
sity of  evil  in  the  treasures  of  this  world  from  the  heap  of 
stones  beside  the  way,  from  which  he  who  takes  and  he 
who  refrains  from  taking  shall  be  equally  miserable ;  be- 
cause when  they  are  found  to  be  gems,  the  one  becomes 
wretched  because  he  has  not  taken  more,  and  the  other 
because  he  has  not  taken  any  when  he  might  have  had 
what  he  would.  His  death  is  foretold  him  by  a  king 
whom  he  finds  throned  within  a  mountain,  and  by  two 
trees  of  the  desert  that  speak,  the  one  by  day,  the  other 
by  night,  —  the  warning  of  Nature,  if  we  may  interpret 
the  myth,  that  even  her  master  is  also  her  child,  and  must 
return  to  her  bosom.  When  he  lays  his  hand  on  the  cof- 
fers of  the  kings  of  Iran,  she  goes  out  of  her  way  to  re- 
peat the  same  omen  by  a  monstrous  birth.  Greeks  and 
Persians  contend  for  the  right  to  bury  his  body;  but  the 
oracle  gives  it  to  Alexandria,  where  the  wise  of  all  nations 
gather  to  celebrate  his  obsequies. 

As  the  Jew  claimed  him  as  a  pilgrim  to  Jerusalem,  so 
the  Mussulman  finds  him  at  his  Kaaba,  and  a  Syrian  poet 
sings  his  praise  as  a  follower  of  Christ.^     Mahomet  him- 

1  The  Mahometan  legends  say  tliat  Alexander  came  to  Abraham  while  he  was  building 
the  temple  of  Mecca  with  Ismae),  and  acknowledged  him  as  the  messenger  of  Allah,  and 
walked  seven  times  round  the  place.  They  describe  him  as  able  to  turn  day  into  night  and 
night  into  day,  by  unfurling  one  or  the  other  of  two  magic  standards,  and  so  defeating  his  foes 
at  his  will ;  and  even  as  having  found  himself  so  near  the  sun  in  a  dream  that  he  was  able  to 
seize  him  at  his  two  ends.     Weil:  Biblical  Legends^  p.  70- 

^  Spiegel :  Eran.  Altertk.,  ii.  607. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  367 

self  celebrates  him,  it  is  commonly  believed,  under  the 
name  Dhu'lkarnain  (the  Two-horned),  as  a  prophet  sent 
to  chastise  the  impious  and  reward  the  just  with  easy 
yoke  ;  who  prefers  the  service  of  God  to  the  tributes  of  the 
nations.^  Mussulman  writers  placed  him  beside  Moses, 
Abraham,  Jesus,  and  the  rest  to  whom  revelations  had 
come.  In  the  Chronicle  of  Nizami,  he  is  the  son  of  a 
pious  Hebrew  woman,  adopted  by  Philip,  —  a  saint  and 
sage,  more  than  a  king.^  By  the  gift  of  a  stone,  which 
outweighs  everything  save  a  handful  of  dust,  the  angels 
cure  him  of  the  desire  to  gain  the  whole  world.  A  city 
whence  men  are  summoned  away  one  by  one,  to  vanish  in 
a  mountain,  and  cannot  be  held  back  from  obeying  the 
call  even  by  his  kingly  power,  teaches  him  the  inevitable- 
ness  of  death.  How  mythology,  the  world  over,  holds  all 
lords  and  masters  to  spiritual  realities  and  ethical  laws ! 
What  transforming  power  there  is  in  the  wand  of  imagi- 
nation, to  bring  a  world-conqueror  from  his  throne  of 
centuries  to  his  knees,  before  the  primal  conditions  of 
human  life  and  personal  success !  —  a  process  whose 
operation  illustrates  the  unhistorical  character  of  ideal- 
ization of  the  founders  of  religions  and  States,  while  at 
the  same  time  it  teaches  that  such  imaginative  construc- 
tions are  under  control  of  the  conscience  and  aspirations 
of  mankind. 

To  Mirkhond,  the  great  Persian  historian  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  Alexander's  name  signifies  "  lover  of  wisdom."  ^ 
He  is  the  ideal  philosopher  as  well  as  king.  He  receives 
from  Philip  political  counsels  as  fine  as  those  which  the 
Cyrus  of  Xenophon  hears  from  Cambyses ;  for  the  natural 
flow  of  wisdom  from  age  to  youth,  from  father  to  son,  is 
a  premise  of  our  ideal  sense  of  continuity,  which  asserts 
itself  wherever  it  is  permitted  to  do  so.     He  must  make  no 

1  Koran,  sura  xviii.  Sq,  go.  =  Spiegel  :  Eran.  Alterth.,  ii.  p.  607. 

'  Shea's  Translation  (Oriental  Fund  Series),  p.  36S,  369. 


368  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

distinction  in  his  treatment  of  rich  and  poor,  Persian  and 
Turk,  remote  and  near,  farmer  and  soldier,  native  and 
stranger.  He  must  never  be  indifferent  to  the  sufferer, 
nor  oppress  the  poor.^  Before  the  assembled  nobles,  after 
his  father's  death,  he  disclaims  all  special  rights,  consult- 
ing their  judgment  as  one  of  themselves,  and  accepts  the 
throne  only  at  their  desire.  So  for  near  two  thousand  years 
endures  the  repute  of  Alexander  for  having  identified  his 
conquests  with  local  and  personal  liberties.  His  victories 
are  in  Allah's  name,  and  his  letters  are  Moslem  sermons. 
Even  while,  as  true  Moslem,  he  must  of  course  have  de- 
stroyed "  the  accursed  faith  of  the  Magi,"  it  is  admitted 
that  he  had  all  their  science  translated  into  Greek.^  All 
the  wise  men  in  Persia,  India,  Maccdon,  shower  on  him  the 
didactics  of  ancient  wisdom;  but  not  even  the  Brahmins 
can  reprove  his  destructive  trade  of  war  without  being 
silenced  by  his  credentials  from  the  Creator  to  overturn 
unbelief  and  wrong  everywhere,  —  "  commands  which  I 
will  faithfully  execute  till  I  die."  ^  He  institutes  discus- 
sions between  rival  creeds  and  schools,  and  exalts  the 
Hindu  sage,  who  can  answer  all  his  questions  and  inter- 
pret all  symbolic  acts  and  gifts.  He  answers  those  who 
ask  things  impossible,  even  for  his  power,  with  edifying 
self-depreciation  and  humble  recognition  of  human  limits. 
Here  is  the  Mahometan  ideal  of  Nushirvan  and  Akbar 
referred  back  to  a  period  eight  hundred  years  before 
Mahomet  was  born.  Into  this  tribute-heap  arc  thrown 
aphoristic  treasures,  old  and  new,  till  the  conversational 
wisdom  of  Iskander  is  a  catechism  of  the  virtues  for  any 
age. 

"  In  what  should  a  king  show  perseverance?"  "  In  meditating; 
on  the  interests  of  his  people  by  night,  and  securing  them  by  day."  — ■ 
"  From  what  do  you  gain  most  pleasure  ?  "  "  From  rewarding  good 
service."  —  "  The  day  passed  without  redressing  some  wrong  or  grant- 

1  Shea's  Translation  (Oriental  Fund  Series),  p.  377.  -  Ibid.,  p.396.         '  Ibid.,  p.  405. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  369 

ing  some  petition,  is  no  part  of  life."  —  "  My  instructor  deserves  more 
of  my  respect  than  my  father,  because  my  father  brought  me  from 
heaven  to  earth  ;  but  Aristotle  raised  me  from  earth  to  heaven."  — 
"  I  refuse  to  make  stealthy  attacks,  by  night,  on  an  enemy."  —  "The 
noble  mind,  even  of  a  poor  man,  is  forever  held  in  honor ;  but  the 
mean  person,  of  whatever  rank,  is  condemned." —  "  Man  wants  under- 
standing more  than  wealth."  ^ 

His  last  message  is  a  tender  letter  to  his  mother.  Over 
his  remains  the  sages  moralize  on  the  contrast  of  his  glory 
with  his  dust;  and  then  with  the  tribute  that  "Fortune  has 
hidden  him  from  human  gaze,  like  treasures  of  silver  and 
gold,"  consign  him  to  his  Alexandrian  grave,  "  enveloped 
in  the  mercy  and  forgiveness  of  the  Almighty,  whose  per- 
fection endures  while  all  things  else  decay."  ^ 

Quite  as  marvellous  as  this  decree  of  natural  change 
over  which  the  Mussulman  sages  moralize  in  awe,  is  the 
contrast  between  the  Alexander  of  history  and  these 
products  of  religious  tradition,  weaving  ideals  of  succes- 
sive ages  around  his  name.  While  the  pith  and  point  in 
Plutarch's  sayings  of  Alexander  befit  a  master-mind  that 
swayed  men  as  it  did  nations,  the  commonplaces  of  the 
Mussulman  ideal  belong  to  a  traditional  moralist  or  a 
meditative  saint.  Probably  no  other  character  in  history 
has  afforded  scope  for  a  similar  variety  of  construction. 
Such  the  universality  of  his  function  in  history ;  such  the 
significance  for  the  future  of  the  first  appearance  of  per- 
sonal supremacy,  on  a  scale  that  matched  the  importance 
of  that  element  in  the  evolution  of  humanity  as  a  whole. 

Such  a  Titanic  force  was  not  only  accorded  ideal  rights 
by  the  voice  of  mankind,  but  strictly  held  to  correspond- 
ing ideals  of  duty.  And  this  moral  criticism  of  one  whose 
reported  claim  was  that  of  being  adored  as  an  incarnate 
god  is  extremely  creditable  to  the  ages  immediately  suc- 
ceeding him.     Yet  the   fact   is,  that  most   of  the   crimes 

'  Shea's  Translation  (Oriental  Fund  Series),  pp.  421-26.  -  Ibid.,  pp.  42S-29. 

24 


370  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

recorded  against  him  are  such  as  grew  inevitably  out  of 
the  dehrium  of  his  success  and  the  real  or  imaginary- 
perils  from  friend  and  foe  which  the  situation  involved. 
The  difficulty  of  reconciling  his  outbreaks  of  fur}'  with  the 
grandeur,  or  at  least  the  breadth,  of  his  purpose  and  the 
equity  of  his  general  conduct,  is  increased  by  the  puzzling 
variety  of  testimony  and  explanation  concerning  them. 
And  we  hardly  know  whether  to  ascribe  these  outbreaks 
to  an  intense  nervous  susceptibility  which  drove  him  to 
the  madness  of  rage  in  his  grief  over  the  natural  death  of 
one  friend,^  and  made  his  hasty  revenge  on  another  pro- 
duce a  revulsion  of  conscience  to  the  insanity  of  despair,^ 
or  to  believe  that  none  of  these  dark  tragedies  have 
been  related  in  their  true  connection  with  events.  Per- 
haps here,  as  often  elsewhere,  the  wine-cup  is  deep  and 
red  enough  to  solve  much  of  the  mystery.  But  careful 
study  of  the  biographies  of  Alexander  confirms  the  old 
belief,  that,  however  superior  to  vulgar  conquerors,  he  was 
in  many  respects  a  slave  of  unregulated  passions,  and  es- 
pecially of  an  ambition  for  personal  sway,  which  could 
efface  for  the  moment  every  consideration  of  mercy,  jus- 
tice, or  private  affection  that  appeared  to  stand  in  its  path. 
The  splendid  star  of  empire  that  beckoned  him  in  his  early 
youth,  when  he  complained  that  Philip  was  leaving  him  no 
lands  to  conquer,^  gathered  more  and  more  of  earthly  ex- 
halations about  it,  which  showed  that  it  was  not  made  to 
shine  steadily  in  the  heavenl}'  ether.  It  is  painful,  as  we 
follow  his  track,  to  see  how  his  victories  multiplied  the 
sharp  temptations  of  his  lower  instincts,  —  necessities  of 
cruel  wrong,  monstrous  delusions  about  the  plans  and 
motives  of  others,  barbarous  sacrifices  of  life  (brutal  in- 
dulgences), and  the  slaughter  of  friend  after  friend  upon 
suspicion,  or  in  the  fury  of  intoxication.     These  were  the 

^  Death  of  Hcfihiestion  (Arrian),  vii.  14.  =  Death  of  Clitus  (Arrian),  iv.  9. 

■"'  Plutarch:   Lfe  of  Alcxaml  r 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  371 

dreadful  fatalities  of  a  battle  waged  not  against  kingdoms 
so  much  as  against  nature,  against  possibility,  against  all 
rivalry  of  gods   or   men.      Even   Arrian,  a    most    lenient 
judge,  and  perhaps  the  most  dispassionate  of  his  biogra- 
phers, does  not  pretend  to  know  what  he  designed ;    but 
"  undertakes  to  say  that  he  would  never  have  been  satis- 
fied with  victories,  but  would  have  been  roving  after  places 
more  remote  from  human  knowledge.     If  he  could  have 
found   no   other    foe   to   encounter,  his   own   mind  would 
have  kept  him  in  a  constant  state  of  warfare."  ^    This  is,  we 
repeat,  the  incarnation  of  that  internecine  strife  of  the  Two 
Principles,  which  belonged  to  the  Iranian  conception  of  life 
and  the  universe.     The  terrible  conditions  of  that  world- 
development  were,  that  for  three  thousand  years  Ahriman 
should  be  master,  though  the  germs  of  Ormuzd's  victory 
are  struggling  and  shaping  through   the  whole ;    so  that 
the  very  deliverance  of  the  world  must  be  purchased  by 
the   costly  sacrifice  of  the  noblest  part  of  men's  natures 
to  the  worst.      The  representative  of  this  process  is  the 
career  of  personal  Will.     Translated  into  the  facts  of  his- 
tory,  it  has  no  type  so  perfect  as  Alexander's  towering 
ambition,  and   its   tragic   fates  of  good   and   evil.     By  its 
triumph  should  man  be  brought  to  the  consciousness  of 
his  unity.     But  the  master-will  shall  not  come  to  its  throne 
without  the  slaughter  of  the  man's  own  best  instincts  in  the 
terrible  struggle  with  opposing  wills  that  must  be  trodden 
under  his  feet.    Such  the  plane  on  which  the  conflict  moved, 
pointing  beyond  itself  to  higher  planes ;   such  the  inevi- 
table conditions,  of  which  he  who  should  play  the  role  of 
conqueror  must  be  the  instrument,  —  subject  none  the  less 
to   moral  forces,  since  our  responsibility  is  forever  proved 
real  by  what  we  are,  and  by  what  our   condition   brings. 
Neither  Sophocles  nor  Shakspeare  has  fathomed  the  tra- 
gedy of  personal  character  which  is  involved  in  every  step 

1  Ex,'>fr!iiwn  of  Alexander,  vii.  i. 


3/2  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

of  human  progress.  Only  the  grandeur  of  the  end  can 
absorb  the  anguish  with  which  we  must  contemplate  the 
actual  implications  of  every  great  historic  function.  And 
our  judgment  alike  of  the  suffering  and  the  shame  is 
obliged  to  accept  that  personal  equation  which  interprets 
both  these  elements  by  the  conditions  of  the  age  and  its 
work ;  its  susceptibilities  of  pain  and  pleasure,  good  and 
ill;  its  alternatives  of  choice;  its  ideal  hopes,  which  direct 
the  currents  of  individual  aim ;  and  the  infinite  stress  of 
its  invisible  forces,  which  must  smooth  their  own  most 
destructive  track  through  the  natures  they  have  them- 
selves prepared  to  be  their  instruments.  Even  contem- 
porary history  records  only  the  striking  facts,  the  patent 
results,  and  these  inaccurately  at  best:  their  causes  and 
conditions  and  their  spiritual  quality,  in  the  minds  of  the 
actors,  lie  mainly  beyond  its  ken.  If  a  past  age  cannot 
give  these  elements  for  judging  its  own  leaders,  our  later 
times  must  supply  them  in  part,  by  discerning  the  extent 
to  which  those  leaders  were,  as  they  largely  must  have 
been,  representatives  of  the  age,  as  we  now  comprehend 
it,  —  their  characters  and  conduct  the  work  of  its  hand. 

In  the  case  of  Alexander,  we  have  the  most  conspicuous 
instance  in  history  of  the  representation  in  one  man's  life 
and  destiny  of  the  power  of  an  age  to  shape  its  instrument 
to  its  own  historic  purpose.  In  him  its  constructive  as 
well  as  its  destructive  energies  found  play.  And  in  our 
respect  for  the  criticism  which  he  received  through  all 
the  glamour  of  his  success,  we  cannot  forget  that  the 
very  historical  conditions  which  rendered  such  criticism 
possible  were  in  part  results  of  the  stimulus  given  by 
him  to  moral  forces  of  which  he  was  no  mere  passive 
instrument,  but  to  some  extent  a  conscious  and  earnest 
producer.  He  who  can  effect  the  advance  to  an  ethical 
standard  higher  than  his  own  conditions  allowed,  and  capa- 
ble of  bringing  his  own  life  into  judgment,  is,  even  on  that 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  373 

ground,  an  ideal  factor  in  the  ethical  education  of  mankind. 
And  while  we  willingly  hear  Juvenal  and  Lucian  satirize 
his  claim  to  divinity,^  and  the  sophist  Theocritus  with  keen 
wit  tell  his  friends  to  "  keep  up  their  hearts,  so  long  as 
they  see  the  gods  dying  sooner  than  men ; "  while  we  re- 
spond to  the  somewhat  rhetorical  protest  of  Seneca,  against 
the  eternum  crhnen,  the  death  of  Callisthenes,  as  sufficient 
in  his  opinion  to  outweigh  everything  that  could  be  said 
for  "the  first  of  generals  and  kings," ^ — we  must  interline 
these  and  similar  criticisms  with  the  half-conscious  testi- 
mony of  their  authors  to  the  justice  of  even  an  Iranian 
hero-worship  in  his  case.  The  supposed  audacity  of 
claiming  the  name  and  honor  of  a  god  is  somewhat 
modified  by  the  practical  resemblance  of  most  of  the 
Greek  gods  to  men ;  by  the  frequency  of  a  supposed  title 
to  divine  descent ;  and  by  the  traditional  habits  of  Oriental 
allegiance.  Arrian  says  distinctly  that  the  "  adoration " 
given  was  "  after  the  Persian  manner."  It  was  the  Greek 
custom,  as  we  know,  for  great  families  to  claim  descent 
from  the  gods ;  and  Alexander  had  been  taught  to  trace 
his  own  through  three  lines  of  demi-gods  to  Jupiter  him- 
self.^ Lucian's  Diogenes  in  Hades  sneers  at  the  "  king  of 
kings,"  —  "  So  you  too  are  dead  like  the  rest  of  us  !  "  but 
his  own  impartial  Minos  decides  that  Alexander  is  greater 
than  Scipio  or  Hannibal,  great  as  they  are.*  Juvenal  and 
Seneca,  writing  from  the  abstract  ethical  standpoint,  lose 
some  of  their  force  as  soon  as  we  reflect  on  the  historical 
relations  and  conditions  which  they  wholly  leave  out  of 
sight.  Arrian,  whose  version  of  Callisthenes'  courageous 
rebuke  of  Alexander's  pretensions  to  deity  gives  this  phi- 
losopher the  highest  claim  on  our  sympathy,  nevertheless 
thinks  he  was  justly  odious  to  the  king  for  his  stiff  and 


1  Satire,  x.     Dialogue,  xix. 

'  QucEsiiones  Naiurales,  vi.  23.     See  Arrian,  iv.  10,  ir,  14. 

*  Arrian,  iv.  10.  ^  Dialogue,  xviii.  xix. 


374  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

sour  ways,  and  that  his  own  conduct  greatly  strengthened 
the  suspicions  to  which  he  fell  a  victim.^  Neither  this 
nor  any  other  acts  of  violence  of  which  he  allows  his 
hero  to  have  been  guilty,  prevented  Arrian  from  affirm- 
ing that  in  comparison  with  his  great  and  laudable  acts 
his  vices  were  few  and  trifling;  that  he  cannot  but  have 
been  the  special  instrument  of  a  divine  care ;  that  no  one 
was  ever  comparable  with  him ;  that  he  was  strictly  ob- 
servant of  his  own  promises,  vigilant  to  detect  the  treach- 
ery of  others,  and  "  as  indifferent  to  the  pleasures  of  the 
body,  as  he  was  insatiable  in  the  desires  of  his  mind."  ^ 
Curtius,  who  charges  Alexander  with  extreme  injustice 
and  cruelty  towards  Callisthenes,  "  for  which  he  sought 
to  make  amends  by  a  repentance  which  came  too  late,"  ^ 
has,  notwithstanding  this,  put  upon  his  lips  the  most  effec- 
tive defences  of  his  policy  and  conduct,  and  praises  the 
noble  qualities  of  his  heart,  —  his  constancy,  clemency, 
good  faith,  and  self-restraint  in  all  pleasure,  making  only 
one  exception,  "  an  inexcusable  passion  for  wine."*  As  to 
this  affair  of  Callisthenes,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  Aris- 
totle had  warned  his  friend  that  his  sharp  tongue  would 
probably  bring  him  to  an  early  death,^  and  that  he  had  the 
name  of  being  capable  of  making  Alexander  a  god  in  his 
writings,  and  yet  joking  at  his  divinity  among  his  friends.^ 
The  horrible  cruelties  said  by  some  to  have  been  inflicted 
on  him  are  simply  incredible  and  absurd.  Lucan,  in  the 
effort  to  set  off  his  own  divinity,  Julius  Caesar,  calls  the 
Macedonian  "  a  conquering  brigand  ;  "  '^  yet  his  Caesar  cares 
more  for  visiting  this  "  brigand's  "  grave  than  for  anything 
else  in  Alexandria ;   and  his  own  Roman  pride  is  mortified 


1  Expedition  of  Alexander,  iv.  ii,  12.  ^  Ibid.,  vii.  28,  29. 

s  History  of  Alexander  the  Great,  viii.  8.  *  Ibid.,  v.  7. 

^  Diogenes  Laertius  :  Life  of  Aristotle. 

8  Chassang  :  Histoire  du  Ratnan.     Arrian  (iv.  8)  admits  that  he  was  occasionally  subject 
to  this  passion,  to  which  he  ascribes  the  killing  of  Clitus. 
'  Lucan  :  Pkarsalia,  bk.  x. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  375 

by  the  confession  that  a  single  province  of  the  "  brigand's  " 
empire  is  great  enough  to  defy  the  imperial  arms.  Or 
what  credit  shall  we  accord  to  Curtius,  when  in  the  same 
breath  with  his  praises  of  this  hero  of  his  romance  for 
self-restraint  in  all  pleasures  but  wine,  he  describes  him 
as  having  kept  three  hundred  and  sixty  concubines,  and 
given  himself  up  to  debauchery  among  the  courtesans 
of  Persepolis?  ^ 

The  Zoroastrian  priesthood  put  Alexander  in  hell  for 
burning  the  "  Nosks "  of  the  Zend-Avesta  at  Persepolis, 
pretending  to  account  in  that  way  for  the  supposed  dis- 
appearance of  their  sacred  volume  till  the  time  of  the 
Sassanides,  and  charge  the  destruction  of  that  splendid 
city,  as  does  Curtius  also,  upon  a  drunken  debauch,  in 
which  Alexander  was  incited  to  the  act  by  the  courtesan 
Thais.^  But  the  best  authorities  agree  that  only  the  palace 
with  its  environs  was  burned,  and  this  as  a  foolish  act  of 
requital  for  Xerxes'  pillage  of  Athens;  ^  and  there  are  am- 
ple proofs  that  Persepolis  was  a  flourishing  city  from  the 
time  of  Alexander  to  the  age  of  Julian.^  Equally  unhis- 
torical  is  the  story  that  the  writings  of  Zoroaster  were 
destroyed  by  Alexander,  since  the  religious  books  of  the 
Persians  were  used  by  Hermippus  a  century  afterwards. 
They  were  in  fact  destroyed  by  Mahometan  fanaticism  nearly 
a  thousand  years  after  Alexander's  time.  It  was  contrary 
to  his  fixed  policy  and  his  natural  instinct  to  treat  native 
literatures  and  faiths  otherwise  than  with  respect.  In  spite 
of  the  odium  tJieologiciim  of  the  Zoroastrians,  ten  Persian 
poets  have  sung  the  "  Alexander-Saga." 

It  were  well  for  the  fame  of  the  conqueror  if  the  sack  of 
Tyre  and  the  enslavement  of  its  population,  the  massacres 
and   executions  in  India  and  Bactria,  and  above  all  the 

'  HUtory  of  Alexander  the  Great,  v.  7.  2  Ibid. 

3  Diodorus,  xvii.  2.     Arriau,  iii    18.     Plutarch:  Life  of  Alexander  {^Vc3!oo). 
*  Diodorus,  xix.  22.     2  Maccabees,  ix.    11.     Ammianus   Ularcellinus,  xxiii.  9.     Arrian, 
vi.  30. 


376  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

homicide  of  Clitus,  the  death-warrants  of  Philotas  and  Par- 
menio,  could  be  disposed  of  as  easily  as  the  conflagration 
of  the  Persian  capital.  It  is  no  part  of  our  purpose  to 
discuss  the  various  and  contradictory  accounts  of  many 
of  these  apparent  atrocities ;  the  testimony  is  too  strong  to 
be  dismissed,  that  here  were  deeds  that  would  shame  the 
noblest  record.  Some  of  the  palliations  that  have  been 
offered  for  them  are  not  wanting  in  force,  —  such  as  the  ex- 
asperation of  obstinate  conflict,  and  the  extremity  of  per- 
sonal peril, — though  by  far  the  strongest  is  the  universal 
testimony  that  his  violent  acts  were  generally  the  result  of 
sudden  frenzy,  and  succeeded  by  equally  violent  remorse.^ 
But  if  we  abandon  the  disgraceful  tradition  that  this  son 
of  the  gods  was  in  the  habit  of  brawling  with  his  friends 
over  their  cups,  we  are  thrown  back  on  the  worse  alterna- 
tive that  his  paroxysms  of  rage  had  not  even  the  excuse 
of  drunkenness.  Scandal-mongers,  flatterers,  false  wit- 
nesses, ambitious  companions,  old  national  grudges  (as 
against  Persepolis  and  Tyre),  plotters  against  his  life,^  the 
passions  of  his  followers,  the  unbridled  rage  of  his  soldiery, 
the  demands  of  turbulent  Macedonian  chiefs  to  judge  and 
sentence  suspected  persons,  the  necessity  of  sharp  and 
decisive  blows  in  case  of  rebellion  or  treachery,  —  all  must 
take  their  share  of  responsibility  for  these  acts,  and  it  is 
assuredly  not  a  small  one.  But  these  associations  were 
simply  the  natural  dramatis  personce  of  the  play.  How 
could  a  man  in  any  age  of  the  world  command  divine 
honors  to  be  paid  not  only  to  himself  but  to  his  friends, 
boasting  that  he  was  not  only  a  god  but  could  make  gods,^ 
without  bringing  such  furies  of  temptation  and  torment  as 
those  around  him  in  hosts?  Arrian  tells  us  he  promised 
Cleomenes  that  if  certain  temples  to  Hephasstion  in  Egypt 

*  See  especially  Justin,  xii.  6. 

2  Arrian  tells  us  that  a  plot  was  really  formed  to  kill  Alexander,  in  which  Philotas  was 
concerned  ;  and  that  it  was  discovered  through  Ptolemy.    Expedition  of  Alexander,  iv.  13. 

3  Lucian. 


ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT.  377 

were  built  strictly  according  to  his  orders,  he  would  forgive 
all  the  crimes  that  officer  might  afterwards  commit.  "  To 
give  such  license  to  a  man  of  cruel  disposition,"  adds  the 
historian,  "  admits  of  no  excuse."  ^  One  fact  remains, 
after  all  has  been  said,  —  Alexander  was  the  spoiled  child 
of  success.  The  confusion  of  his  biographers  as  to  his 
character  arises  from  the  fact  that  his  character  changed, 
and  at  every  phase  made  such  powerful  assertion  of  itself 
that  every  phase  seemed  equally  valid.  It  has  been 
allowed  by  all,  that  contact  with  Asiatic  taste  and  colossal 
temptations  gradually  corrupted  the  simplicity  of  his  Greek 
nature.^  The  treachery  of  friends  and  officials,  too,  de- 
stroyed his  faith  in  others.  After  such  experiences,  "  he 
became  more  and  more  ready  to  give  credit  to  accusations, 
and  inflict  severest  punishments  on  slightest  offenders,  on 
suspicion  of  plots."  ^ 

Here  on  the  soil  of  Iran  the  worship  of  personal  Will 
rose  to  its  absolute  idea  by  the  very  nature  of  men  and 
things,  and  the  human  master  could  not  stop  short  of 
pronouncing  himself  a  god.  We  cannot  but  think  that 
this  later  consummation  of  his  life  has  been  transferred 
to  its  beginning,  in  fastening  such  precocious  egotisms 
upon  his  youth  as  the  saying  that  "heaven  could  not  suf- 
fer two  suns,  nor  earth  two  masters;"*  or  the  complaint 
that  "  out  of  the  infinite  number  of  worlds,  he  could  not 
be  master  of  one."^  This  would  be  preternatural  in  the 
boy-prince  of  a  petty  kingdom ;  but  it  can  hardly  be 
called  audacity  in  one  who  had  actually  swept  the  civil- 
ized world  with  his  conquering  sword. 

It  would  seem  that  the  laws  of  human  progress  were 
responsible  for  the  Oriental  worship  of  Alexander.  Na- 
ture had  produced  a  man-child  fit  for  that  personal  ideal 

*  Expeditio7i  of  Alexander,  vii.  23. 

^  Sainte-Croix  :  Exainen  des  aticiens  hisioriens  d^Alexatidre-le-Grand,  p.  376. 

^  Arrian,  vii.  41.  4  Diodorus,  xvii.  S4- 

^  Plutarch  :  De  TraugiiilUtate  A  nimi,  iv. 


378  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

through  which  alone  man  could  advance  to  a  world-civil- 
ization. The  tribes  must  have  been  less  or  more  than 
human  not  to  have  adored  Alexander.  A  century  before 
his  accession  Macedonia  was  scarcely  a  State;  its  petty 
princedoms  were  in  feudal  strife ;  its  few  towns  were  held 
by  southern  Greeks ;  its  kings  were  regarded  as  barbarous 
chiefs,  though  claiming  to  be  of  Argive  descent.  At  the 
death  of  Philip  it  had  mastered  Greece  by  policy  and  war ; 
and  Greek  culture  had  penetrated  it,  in  spite  of  more  than 
one  threatened  return  to  barbarism.  -Yet  it  seemed  on  the 
point  of  disintegration.  Alexander  succeeded  to  a  throne 
whose  occupancy  was  usually  determined  by  assassination. 
He  inherited  an  empty  treasury,  royal  domains  mortgaged 
for  a  heavy  debt,  and  the  charge  of  a  mother  whose  ex- 
travagance was  only  equalled  by  the  evil  fame  which  threw 
suspicion  on  the  legitimacy  of  her  son.  His  early  habits 
of  frugality  could  have  had  no  worse  impediment  than  her 
pampering  hands.  The  mountain  tribes  were  preparing 
to  revolt.  Subject  Greece  was  discontented,  Sparta  hos- 
tile, Athens  intriguing  with  Persia  to  seize  the  moment  of 
a  change  of  kings  "  to  check  and  depress  the  rising  king- 
dom." But  Alexander  proved  his  descent  from  Jove.  He 
instantly  passed  every  barrier,  mastered  Pan-Hellenes  and 
Amphictyons,  received  from  both  councils  higher  honors 
than  his  father  had ;  and,  aided  by  a  sagacity  in  choice 
of  counsellors  as  great  as  his  energy  in  the  field,  at  once 
created  an  impression  of  majesty  that  made  his  visible 
presence  needless,  and  allowed  him  to  turn  with  all  his 
resources  to  the  punishment  of  the  Persian  King. 

And  these  resources  were  all  original.  His  Asiatic  vic- 
tories were  not  won  by  veteran  Greeks.^  Scarce  one  of 
his  generals  was  of  the  old  Greek  stock;  they  were  Mace- 
donians, as  was  the  mass  of  his  army.  The  tactics  and  the 
battle-order  of  Alexander  were,  like  everything  he  effected, 

'  Arrian  :  Indica,  cap.  xviii. 


ALEXANDER   THE   GREAT.  379 

revolutions  on  the  traditional  method.  He  made  the  old 
phalanx  mobile,  armed  it  with  the  long  spear,  and,  while 
drawing  forth  its  utmost  capacities,  supplied  its  defects  with 
corps  of  light  infantry  and  cavalry  trained  to  manoeuvre  on 
any  ground,  and  to  match  the  dash  of  their  leader  in  scour- 
ing the  deserts  and  surprising  armies  and  towns.  Before 
the  masterly  combinations  of  this  earlier  Napoleon,  no 
Asiatic  army,  however  immense,  could  stand.  And  every 
resistless  line  of  steel  moved,  after  all,  within  his  single  heart 
and  brain.  It  was  these  that  made  void  every  obstacle,  — 
the  jealous  chiefs  and  turbulent  soldiery;  the  Bactrian 
snows  and  mountain  passes;  the  terrible  heats,  droughts, 
and  famines  of  the  Gedrosian  coast;  the  numerous  satraps, 
watching  for  chances  to  start  rebellions  and  set  up  gov- 
ernments for  themselves ;  the  vast  populations  of  ancient 
cities  and  countries.  Amidst  it  all,  this  band  of  conquerors 
moved  like  some  volcanic  wave,  confident  as  though  on 
their  own  soil.  It  is  impossible  to  mistake  the  source  of 
their  inspiration ;  nothing  like  it  has  been  seen,  perhaps,  in 
military  history.  Exposing  himself  to  the  extreme  of  peril, 
wounded  again  and  again,  directing  every  detail  of  per- 
sonal government,  and,  in  spite  of  all  occasional  excesses, 
choosing  always  the  short  path  to  victory,  and  combining 
the  elements  of  every  situation  with  far-sighted  policy  to 
the  accomplishment  of  a  purpose  that  grew  vaster  with 
every  step,  — to  all  human  conception,  in  that  day,  Alex- 
ander verily  acted  the  god.  When  his  life  was  despaired 
of,  the  panic  of  the  little  army,  so  audacious  in  his  strength, 
was  equalled  only  by  its  grief;  and  when,  as  if  by  miracle, 
he  was  preserved  again  and  again,  it  seemed  to  their  deli- 
rious joy  that  Earth  and  Heaven  waited  on  his  will.^  The 
march  back  to  the  Phoenician  coast-cities,  and  the  slow 
siege  of  Tyre  were  not  the  waste  of  time  and  strength 
they  seemed ;  ^  they  gave  him  that  command  of  the  sea 

'  Arrian,  vi.  13.  '  Ibid.,  ii    17. 


380  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

without  which  he  was  lost.  Striking  at  once  at  the  great 
cities,  as  if  devoid  of  prudence,  he  really  gained  the  fame  of 
a  deliverer  and  the  greater  prestige  of  centralized  power. 

Lavish  to  his  soldiers,  often  magnanimous  to  his  foes ; 
considerate  of  differences  that  called  for  distinctions  in 
treatment  of  persons ;  master  of  the  arts  of  pleasing  and 
rewarding,^ — Alexander  knew  how  to  unite  the  paternal 
spirit  of  the  great  Cyrus  with  a  serene  assumption  of  right- 
ful ownership  in  all  Asia,  which  seemed  to  make  doubt  of 
the  claim  a  crime.  It  is  related  that  he  at  first  forbade 
his  soldiers  to  plunder  the  conquered  nations,  because 
these  were  their  own  countrymen ;  and  the  story  at  least 
perfectly  illustrates  his  attitude,  which  was  the  most  effec- 
tive possible,  even  in  a  strategic  point  of  view.  His  man- 
agement of  the  Greek  States  during  the  Asiatic  campaigns 
was  masterly;  on  the  one  hand,  losing  no  opportunity  of 
winning  their  gratitude  by  restoring  their  exiles,  releasing 
their  envoys  to  Darius  after  Issus,  liberating  and  honoring 
their  Ionian  cities,  sending  trophies  to  their  temples,  pay- 
ing devotion  to  their  traditional  gods  and  heroes  every- 
where, and  specially  encouraging  the  democratic  spirit,  as 
in  his  present  to  Athens  of  the  statues  of  the  patriot  tyran- 
nicides, Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  keeping  in  custody  the  Spartan  agents  at  the  Persian 
Court  (the  Greeks  who  had  entered  Persian  service  after 
the  league  between  Greece  and  Macedon)  as  hostages 
for  the  fidelity  of  their  countrymen  at  home.'^  He  dis- 
cerned that  the  part  of  pacificator  among  nations  and 
races  was  at  once  the  true  function  of  a  hero,  and  the  only 
path  to  universal  empire.  And  this  double  motive  explains 
his  assumption  of  Oriental  forms  and  manners ;  his  amal- 
gamation of  Greeks  and  Asiatics ;  his  training  hosts  of 
Asiatic  youths  {Epigoni)  in  Greek  disciplines;^  his  per- 

1  Arrian,  i.  18,  19;  ill.  24,  27;  iv.  21.  "  Ibid.,  ii.  15  ;  i.  30  ;  iii.  24. 

2  Ibid. ,  vii.  6. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  38 I 

sistent  refusal  to  gratify  his  Macedonians  to  the  sacrifice 
of  the  conquered  tribes  and  chiefs ;  and  the  energy  with 
which  he  suppressed  their  discontents  on  this  score,  es- 
pecially at  Opis,  crowning  his  success  with  a  grand  Feast 
of  Reconciliation,  celebrated  with  religious  rites  and  joyful 
games. ^ 

Conquest  develops  a  "  Scamp  Jupiter  "  out  of  an 
Apollo ;  but  we  cannot  refuse  Alexander  the  credit  of 
having  recognized  something  of  the  function  which  his 
conquests  were  to  fulfil  in  human  history.  He  was  no 
vulgar  marauder.  His  tastes  were  for  the  society  of  schol- 
ars, the  books  and  the  men  whom  all  ages  revere.  He 
had  thought  and  studied,  and  knew  what  his  own  age  had 
to  teach  and  to  transmit.  In  the  uncertainty  resting  on 
all  individual  statements  about  him,  it  is  of  great  signifi- 
cance that  on  this  point  all  testimonies  agree.  "  Puer 
acerrimis  literarum  studiis  eruditus,"  says  Justin.  Pliny 
makes  him  the  centre  of  art  and  artists,  and  supplies  one 
of  the  finest  symbols  in  the  history  of  literature  when  he 
pictures  him  putting  the  poems  of  Homer  in  the  costliest 
casket  he  could  find  among  his  Persian  spoils.^  We  are 
told  that  he  often  cited  verses  of  Euripides,  sometimes  large 
portions  of  his  dramas  at  once ;  that  he  enjoyed  Pindar's 
lyrics,  and  chose  Achilles  among  the  heroes  of  the  Iliad, 
as  was  natural  enough.  "  He  invaded  Persia,"  says  Plu- 
tarch, "  with  greater  assistance  from  Aristotle  than  from 
Philip."  3  And  if  we  go  over  the  ethical  and  political 
ideas  of  the  Stagirite,  we  shall  find  that  the  statement  is 
not  without  confirmation  in  much  of  Alexander's  history.* 

^  Arrlan,  vii.  ii.     Dicdorus  Siculus. 

^  Pliny  :  Natitral  History^  vii.  30. 

!*  "  That  Aristotle  accompanied  Alexander,  or  that  plants  and  animals  were  sent  to  him 
for  examination  from  distant  districts,  is  mere  talk.  Aristotle  confined  himself  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  own  day,  and  was  convinced  that  this  was  all  that  was  of  real  imponance  to  solve 
all  the  principal  problems."—  Lange  :  History  0/  Materialism^  i.  83.  Westminster  Review, 
July,  1881. 

^  Politics,  V.  II ;  vi.  8;  iii.  15,  16,  17 ;  i.  2,  4.     Ethics,  viii.  10,  11  ;  ii.  7  ;  iv.  i  ;  x.  7. 


382  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

The  clear  distinctions  between  a  tyrant  and  a  king;  the 
assertion  of  moral  responsibility  in  king  and  people  alike, 
of  limits  to  monarchical  power,  of  the  right  of  all  men  to 
be  well  governed ;  the  wise  praises  of  moderation,  and 
warnings  against  enslavement  to  passion;  the  democratic 
bias,  marred  though  it  is  by  the  advocacy  of  slavery  as  an 
appointment  of  Nature;  above  all,  the  praise  of  intellect 
and  of  living  for  the  best  idea,  —  these  elements  of  the 
Aristotelian  doctrine  may  well  have  had  their  influence  in 
producing  many  of  the  noble  purposes  and  acts  recorded 
of  Alexander  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  career.  Intellec- 
tually an  apt  pupil,  in  instincts  of  liberty  and  breadth  of 
human  interest  he  probably  was  far  beyond  his  master. 
Of  Alexander  no  praise  seems  to  have  been  thought  ex- 
travagant. To  a  poet  who  did  not  meet  appreciation  one 
said,  "  Hadst  thou  lived  when  Alexander  lived,  for  every 
verse  he  would  have  given  thee  an  island  or  a  territory." 
His  person  was  the  despair  of  artists,  till  one  said,  "  I  will 
compass  it;  I  will  shape  Mount  Athos  into  Alexander's 
likeness,  with  feet  reaching  to  the  seas,  with  a  fair  city  in 
his  left  hand,  and  his  right  pouring  as  constant  drink  a 
great  river  into  the  waves."  But  Alexander  said,  "  Let 
Athos  alone ;  it  is  already  a  monument  of  vanquished 
vanity.  Our  portrait  the  snowy  Caucasus,  the  towering 
Emodon,  the  Tanais,  and  the  Caspian  shall  draw."^  "He 
was  happier  than  other  conquerors,"  writes  Pausanias,  "  in 
that  his  felicity  was  least  of  all  assisted  by  treachery."  ^ 
The  tribute  of  the  historian  of  Egypt,  that  we  trace  his 
conquering  march  in  that  country,  "  not  by  ruin,  misery, 
and  anarchy,  but  by  the  building  of  cities,  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  the  growth  of  leaning,"^  is,  not\vithstand- 
ing  the  exceptions  we  have  mentioned,  in  great  degree  true 
of  his  whole  career. 

*  Plutarch:  Fortune  or  Virhie  of  Alexander. 
'  Itinerary  ;  or  Description  cf  Greece,  vii.  10. 
3  Sharpe  :  £'^'/;  (English  edition,  i?46),  p.  116. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  383 

And  here  is  the  point  of  reconcihation  between  the  man 
and  the  instrument;  between  what  he  was  and  what  was 
done  through  him.  Such  points  of  contact  there  must 
always  be,  or  the  continuity  of  historic  cause  and  effect 
would  be  broken.  Sainte-Croix,  whose  studies  of  the  bio- 
graphers of  Alexander  are  more  valuable  for  comparison 
of  evidences  as  to  facts  than  for  criticism  of  motives  or 
opinions,  makes  light  of  the  idea  that  he  was  moved  by 
any  universal  ideas  or  noble  purposes  whatever:  ^  nothing 
but  one  man's  unscrupulous  ambition  conquered  the  world. 
It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  unquestionably  direct 
effects  of  this  all-embracing  mastership  are  traceable  to  a 
personal  cause  so  ignoble.  To  refute  it,  we  need  not  rely 
on  his  reputation  with  every  biographer  for  occasional  acts 
or  constant  habits  of  heroism ;  on  his  sparing  the  tombs  of 
patriot-dead  at  Thebes,  his  sending  prisoners  and  exiles  to 
their  homes,  his  generosity  to  the  family  of  Darius,  his 
courteous  and  honorable  treatment  of  noble  women  com- 
mitted to  his  care,  his  agony  at  the  death  of  his  friends, 
his  remorse  for  his  own  excesses.^  There  are  stories  by 
the  best  authorities  that  show  him  watching  all  night  in 
cold  and  peril  beside  his  old  preceptor,  who  had  fallen 
exhausted  in  the  wilds  of  Anti-Libanus,  and  by  personal 
attack  on  a  hostile  camp  securing  the  means  of  preserv- 
ing his  life ;  pouring  away  the  water  sent  him  by  his 
thirsty  soldiers  in  a  terrible  drought,  saying,  "  If  I  alone 
drink,  these  good  men  will  be  dispirited ;  "  ^  drinking  a 
potion  before  the  face  of  the  physician  who  had  prepared 
it,  after  having  shown  him  a  letter  in  which  he  was  charged 
with  intent  to  poison ;  *  telling  a  queen  who  had  addressed 
his  friend  Hephaestion  as  the  king,  that  she  was  right,  "  for 
this   man    also   is  Alexander;"    persisting  in   disbelief  of 

1  Examen  des  anciens  historiens  d^ Alexandrc-lc-Grand. 
^  Pausaiiias ;  BcBoiica,x\\.     Qiiintus  Cuiti'.'.s,  v.  5. 
'  Plutarch:  Life  of  Alexander. 
*  Arrian,  ii   4. 


384  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

treachery  in  Harpalus  till  compelled  to  admit  it,  with  a 
shock  that  told  bitterly  on  his  faith  in  men.  Plutarch 
ventures  to  report  as  from  him  such  rare  sayings  as  these : 
"  There  is  something  noble  in  hearing  oneself  ill-spoken 
of,  when  one  is  doing  well;  "  "  God  is  the  common  father 
of  men,  but  specially  of  the  good." 

Nothing  can  deprive  Alexander  of  the  glory  of  having 
aimed  with  enthusiasm,  if  not  with  constancy,  at  uniting 
mankind  in  following  out  the  possibilities  of  progress  in 
that  wonderful  age.  In  this  form  of  imperial  influence  he 
instinctively  led  the  way,  in  his  passion  for  the  ideal 
State  throwing  aside  the  social  distinctions  founded  by 
Aristotle  on  slow  inductions  from  the  past.  We  may  well 
believe  the  tradition  that  in  making  Greek  and  Barbarian 
equal  before  the  law,  he  acted  against  the  philosopher's 
specific  counsel.-^  A  striking  illustration  of  this  policy 
was  his  permitting  his  opponents  in  Greece  to  abide  by 
the  decision  of  the  Amphictyons,  instead  of  having  them 
sent  to  Macedon  for  trial.^  He  won  the  hearts  of  the 
Egyptians  by  granting  independent  government  by  native 
rulers,  and  in  accordance  with  national  customs  and  laws ; 
and  charmed  their  priesthood  by  offering  worship  in  the 
temple  of  the  national  god,  as  his  son,  after  the  manner 
of  the  ancient  kings.^  He  in  fact  sought  to  accomplish 
in  the  political  world  what  Aristotle  pursued  in  the  scien- 
tific only.  How  much  finer  than  Napoleon's  reconstruction 
of  the  map  of  Europe  in  his  own  dynastic  interests,  under 
the  name  of  popular  rights,  was  Alexander's  establishment, 
at  every  commanding  point  in  Egypt  and  Asia,  of  cities 
that  should  be  nurseries  in  Greek  culture  for  States  re- 
manded to  native  rulers  and  under  free  governments ! 
Here  the  splendid  intellectual  and  political  genius  of 
Hellas  mingled  with  Oriental  passion  and  imagination,  to 

^  Plutarch  :  Fortune  or  Virtue  pf  Alexander,  i.  6. 

-  Pausanias,  vii.  10.  •^  Sharpe  :  Egyptian  hiscriptions. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  385 

initiate  the  best  elements  of  modern  science  and  faith, ^ 
and  especially  the  all-creative  sense  of  iniity  and  univer- 
sality, whose  far-brought  germs  have  grown  to  maturity 
only  in  our  day.  The  Neoplatonic  and  Jewish  elements, 
combined  in  Alexandria  to  give  early  Christianity  its  power 
of  expansion  and  adaptability  to  the  demands  of  thought, 
and  to  free  it  from  its  original  narrowness  of  scope, 
were  brought  together  by  this  mighty  centralizing  force. 
Perhaps  no  point  in  the  history  of  that  transition  has 
greater  interest  than  the  profound  connection  of  the  Al- 
exandrian philosophy  with  Oriental  conceptions  of  mon- 
archy, as  seen  in  the  imperialism  of  its  First  Principle, 
—  an  essence  lying  behind  all  human  experience,  above 
all  conceivable  processes  of  life,  and  uniting  Greek  science 
with  a  mediatorial  conception  of  ascending  grades  and 
orders  of  function  towards  the  unapproachable  One.^ 
This  speculative  idea  the  growth  of  Alexander's  empire 
had  made  the  palpable  suggestion  of  experience.  On  a 
quite  different  track  the  influence  of  these  conquests  was 
almost  equally  important.  Absorbing  all  political  ambi- 
tions in  centralized  forces,  personal  and  organic,  they  left 
freer  play  for  private  and  domestic  interests,  and  led  to 
a  greater  recognition  of  them  in  literature.^  The  New 
Comedy,  one  of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  the  study 
of  human  nature  and  social  elements  in  all  history,  arose 
after  Alexander  had  brouglit  the  exciting  conflicts  of  races 
and  States  into  quiet,  so  far  at  least  as  the  above  sugges- 
tion of  unity  and  order  in  the  political  sphere  could  be  so 
called ;  and  this  not  only  without  destroying  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  study,  but  by  greatly  encouraging  it.* 

But  Alexander  did  not  merely  found  cities,  whose  free 
cultures  were  germs  of  future  civilization ;  he  personally 
provided  such  cities  with  men  who  proved  competent  to 

*  See  Zeller's  Stoics,  p.  15  (English  edition).  -  Ibid.,  p.  3.). 

'  Ibid.,  p.  18.  *  Chassang:  Histoire  dii  Roman,  pp.  3S9,  434. 

25 


386  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

build  institutions  that  were  themselves  civilizations,  —  the 
Museum  of  Alexandria  and  the  Lyceum  of  Athens.  The 
weight  of  his  name  protected  the  free  thought  of  Aris- 
totle at  the  Lyceum ;  for  the  great  teacher  was  con- 
demned for  blasphemy  immediately  after  Alexander's 
death. ^  The  immense  pecuniary  aid  and  the  thousands 
of  collaborators,  which  Pliny  reports  him  to  have  given 
Aristotle  for  the  collection  of  scientific  material,  may  be 
an  exaggeration,  especially  as  his  physical  works  show 
slight  acquaintance  with  Asiatic  plants  and  animals,  and 
were  probably  written,  in  part  at  least,  before  Alexander's 
campaigns  ;  but  the  story  is  true  so  far  as  this,  —  that  the 
Indian  campaign,  especially,  was  the  source  of  a  flood  of 
writings  on  physical  geography  and  natural  history.''^  At 
his  touch,  harvests  of  historians,  scholars,  naturalists,  mor- 
alists, and  generals  sprang  up  on  Iranian  soil.  Ptolemy 
Soter,  the  regenerator  of  Egypt,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
sovereigns,  whose  glory  consisted  in  carrying  out  Alexan- 
der's system  of  freedom,  mildness,  and  equity,  and  his  love 
of  philosophy  and  letters,  was  his  intimate  friend,  and 
perhaps  a  near  relative.  A  scholar,  as  well  as  statesman, 
he  wrote  his  biography,  and  was  in  every  sense  his  best 
successor;  not  least  so  in  this,  that,  in  conjunction  with 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  he  planned  and  instituted  the  Mu- 
seum of  Alexandria,  and  made  it  the  intellectual  centre 
of  the  age. 

As  the  opener  of  the  East  to  free  government  and  scien- 
tific study,  Alexander  might  well  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of 
his  contemporaries ;  and  not  less  as  the  pioneer  of  letters, 
preparing  the  way  for  Homer,  yEschylus,  Sophocles,  Pindar, 
Plato,  and  Aristotle.  But  there  is  a  splendor  of  prophecy 
not  to  be  described,  in  the  influences  that  flowed  back  from 
this  Iranian  throne  upon  the  Western  world. 

^  Gillies,  p.  74. 

^  See  Blaiiiville:  Histoire  des  Sciefices  de  V Organisation,  i.  305. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  387 

Arabia,  India,  Persia,  Egypt,  Palestine,  Greece,  were  the 
CEcumcnical  Council  to  initiate  these  influences,  centrint^ 
in  the  purpose  of  this  human  Jove  and  the  grander  pur- 
pose that  wrought  at  once  beyond  and  through  his  will. 
Asia  was  not  the  mere  corrupter  of  Greece,  her  Oriental 
siren  of  luxury  and  slavery.  By  his  radiant  march  through 
Iran,  and  by  the  voyage  of  his  admiral  through  the  Indian 
seas,  —  which  he  proposed  to  follow  up  by  opening  the 
Euphrates  and  Persian  Gulf,  if  not  by  circumnavigating 
Arabia,  and  exploring  the  Euxine,  —  what  an  empire 
of  new  knowledge,  geographical,  physical,  ethnological, 
stimulated  every  human  faculty,  and  impelled  to  induc- 
tive generalization  as  the  only  way  of  dealing  with  the 
materials  !  The  spaces  of  Nature  were  doubled,  and  her 
borders  set  forward  from  the  Zagros  Mountains  to  the 
heart  of  India  and  the  Scythian  wilds  of  the  North. 
Science  became  encyclopedic,  a  seeker  of  classes  and 
wholes.  Diodorus,  Eratosthenes,  Strabo,  Pliny,  and  Ptol- 
emy, became  possible.  It  reached  eastward,  and  the  dis- 
tant Ceylon  was  found  to  be  an  island  only.^  It  began  to 
conjecture  inhabited  lands  in  the  Western  sea  that  might 
complete  the  circuit  of  the  globe,  to  strike  out  universal 
laws,  to  separate  truth  from  mythology;  and  a  wondrous 
series  of  cosmical  discoveries  ensued.^  The  commerce 
opened  between  Alexandria  and  India,  and  the  embassies 
of  the  Seleucidae,  brought  Greek  astronomy  into  the  Hin- 
du schools,  themselves  already  flourishing.^  Greek  terms 
abounded;  obligations  to  Greek  teachers  are  confessed; 
and  the  achievements  of  those  apt  scholars  became  in 
turn  the  sources  of  astronomical  knowledge  to  the  Arabs 
of  Bagdad,  by  whom  ancient  science  was  passed  down  to 
modern  times.  Still  fertile  in  errors,  as  was  natural  in  this 
fresh    expansion    of  its    realm,   the    imagination    received 

1  Pliny:  Natural  History,  ^\.  24.  2  Humboldt:  Cosmos,  ii.  147. 

*  Weber:  History  0/ Indian  Literature,  p.  251. 


388  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

from  the  vast  prospect  of  colossal  mountains,  varied  cli- 
mates, products,  races,  religions,  which  this  man's  eagle 
eye  traced  out,  an  impulse  unexampled  in  history.  At 
the  same  moment  serious  and  free  criticism  began  in  the 
necessity  of  testing  traditional  beliefs  by  comparison  with 
the  new  treasures  brought  by  the  higher  authority  of  fact. 
In  his  striking  description  of  certain  aspects  of  these  con- 
quests in  relation  to  the  study  of  the  physical  world,  Hum- 
boldt mentions  the  immense  step  taken,  mainly  through 
Aristotle,  in  "the  formation  of  a  scientific  language.'''^ 

Most  impressive  of  all  the  results  of  the  Macedonian 
conquests,  and  the  spirit  in  which  they  were  pursued,  was 
the  inevitable  suggestion  of  a  universal  citizenship  in  the 
great  republic  of  Humanity,  whose  common  interests  no 
natural  barriers  could  longer  hide.  The  sublime  outlook  of 
Stoicism  ;  its  city  of  God  ;  its  brotherhood  of  nations  ;  its 
absolute  trust  in  natural  order;  its  regeneration  of  Roman 
law  by  humanity  and  justice;  its  correction  of  Christian 
other-worldliness  by  acceptance  of  human  destiny,  flowed 
directly  from  the  bivouacs  of  this  great  soldier  on  the 
Iranian  plains.^ 

It  does  not  belong  to  the  plan  of  our  work  to  enter  into 
the  development  of  the  historic  causes  and  effects,  which  are 
here  affirmed  only  as  bearing  on  our  more  extended  theme, 
of  which  they  form  but  a  section.  Enough  has  been  said 
to  show  that  the  rapidity  of  these  changes  was  a  flash  of 
Iranian  fire.  It  demonstrated  also  that  Alexander  was  the 
swift-moving  focus  of  vast  tendencies,  of  which  his  age  was 
the  natural  climate  and  soil.     His  campaigns  were  over  in 

'  Cosmos,  ii.  149-165  (English  edition). 

2  No  one  has  more  strikingly  recognized  these  tendencies  in  the  very  necessities  of  his- 
toric cause  and  effect  than  Merivale  in  his  little  work,  "  The  Con\'ersion  of  the  Roman 
Empire."  Yet  he  has  greatly  marred  the  value  of  his  testimony  by  depreciating  these  ten- 
dencies of  Nature  in  view  of  a  supposed  supernatural  transformation  of  them  in  the  jierson 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Nor  does  he,  as  it  seems  to  me,  appreciate  Alexander's  conscious  purpose 
in  this  unifying  work.     Lecture  iii. 

"Nearly  all  the  most  important  Stoics  before  the  Christian  era  belong  by  birth  to  Asia 
Minor,  to  Svria,  and  to  the  islands  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago."— Zeller's  Stoics,  p.  37. 


ALEXANDER  THE   GREAT.  389 

twelve  years.  And  fifty  years  after  his  death,  the  city  he 
founded  and  laid  out  in  the  shape  of  his  Macedonian  cloak, 
and  made  the  representative  of  his  purposes  and  his. name, 
was  the  open  gate  of  intellect,  commerce,  and  faith,  to  a 
new  cycle  of  human  growth. 

There  is  no  evidence  to  confirm  the  tradition  that  he  died 
by  poison  ;  ^  but  much  reason  to  believe  that  Arrian  is  right 
in  saying  that  he  foresaw  that  his  successors  would  perform 
his  obsequies  in  blood.^  The  magnificent  funeral  car  moved 
across  the  continents  from  Babylon  to  Egypt,  bearing  the 
dead  form  of  the  master  of  civilizations  to  his  rest  beside 
the  sacred  Nile ;  ^  around  it  hovered  the  awe  of  myriads, 
who  believed,  so  says  the  tradition,  that  he  still  wore  the 
hue  of  life,  still  sat  crowned  and  on  his  golden  throne,  and 
was  sure  to  smite  to  earth  the  impious  one  who  should  dare 
to  touch  his  Majesty.  For  nearly  a  thousand  years  the 
cultus  of  his  divinity  survived  in  Egypt.  Yet  no  picture 
or  statue  remains.^  Other  gods  came,  whose  disciples 
could  endure  no  rival  names.  The  pictures  of  Augustus 
were  put  by  Claudius  in  place  of  those  of  Alexander. 
We  shall  not  see  that  majestic  statue,  by  Lysippus,  which 
was  said  to  have  made  men  tremble.^  The  Christians 
of  Alexandria  destroyed  his  tomb.  But  how  slight  is 
what  men  can  do  to  build  or  destroy  a  name,  compared 
with  the  work  of  ideas  and  principles  that  have  ages  for 
their  servants  and  history  for  their  fruits  ! 

The  ages  of  exclusiveness,  national  and  religious,  were 
passing  away.  The  communion  of  races  made  inevitable 
a  new  historic  birth.  In  Antioch  and  Alexandria  and 
Rome,  Jew  and  Gentile,  bond  and  free.  Barbarian  and 
Greek,  were  now  to  know  themselves  as  children  of  com- 
mon relations,  reaching  beyond  the  borders  of  nations,  con- 
tinents, oceans,  mountains,  and  deserts  that  had   seemed 

'  See  Arrian,  vii.  27.  -  Ibid.,  vii.  26. 

2  Diodorus  Siculus.  *  Sainte-Croix,  p.  506. 

6  Plutarch.     See  Sainte-Croix,  p.  ^gg 


390  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

the  limits  of  the  world.  Nature,  humanity,  unity,  brother- 
hood, were  syllables  shaping  on  the  winds,  blow  they 
whence  they  would.  Later  Judaism,  Christianity,  and 
Islam  were  to  find  their  way  prepared ;  the  universal  ele- 
ments were  ready  to  bear  these  religious  harvests,  and  law 
and  science  and  philosophy  and  all  secular  culture  were 
assured.  Three  hundred  years  had  passed  since  Cyrus 
turned  the  waters  of  the  river  of  Babylon,  when  Alexan- 
der left  an  empire  to  his  successors,  which  added  to  the 
Persian  those  worlds  of  intellectual  promise, —  Kgypt  and 
Greece. 

Now  again  a  mighty  force  of  personal  Will  gathers  and 
directs  the  currents  of  progress  through  the  ideal  prestige 
it  can  command.  Other  like  forms  of  personal  worship 
follow ;  for  this  was  the  condition  of  progress  that  opened 
with  the  mind  of  Iran.  But  all  were  involved  in  what  had 
already  been  done.  The  veil  that  had  hid  the  tribes  of 
the  earth  from  each  other  had  already  been  rent ;  and  the 
light  shone,  east  and  west,  over  the  whole  heavens  of 
mind. 


III. 

THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE. 


THE  SASSANIAN   EMPIRE. 

TT  7HAT  would  have  been  the  destiny  of  the  Persian 
'  ^  empire  had  Alexander  lived  to  complete  his  plans 
for  making  Babylon  the  organic  centre  of  a  new  civilization, 
and  transmitting  his  magnificent  prestige  in  this  permanent 
form,  may  be  partially  conjectured.  His  Oriental  sympa- 
thies, his  constructive  capacity,  and  that  of  the  remarkable 
group  of  thinkers  and  workers  whom  he  had  gathered 
around  him ;  the  vast  antiquity  of  Asiatic  traditions,  and 
their  common  allegiance  to  this  focus  of  cultures ;  the  com- 
mercial advantages  of  the  Euphrates  valley,  and  the  long- 
established  lines  of  communication  which  gave  Babylon  a 
commanding  voice  through  the  ancient  world,  —  would 
doubtless  have  preserved  the  continuity  of  the  Persian  State, 
and  concentrated  upon  that  historic  region  much  of  the 
intellectual  and  political  significance  which  after  the  decline 
of  Greece  fell  to  the  lot  of  Alexandria  and  Rome.  Helle- 
nic wisdom,  forsaking  the  ruined  republics,  and  gathering 
on  its  eastward  track  the  splendid  relics  of  Ionian  culture, 
would  have  brought  thither  its  best  philosophy  and  science 
to  mingle  with  the  moral  ardor  and  sensuous  idealism  of 
Mazdean  worship.  The  tribes  of  the  East  and  the  West 
would  have  gone  up  to  Alexander's  Babylon  with  that 
Iranian  passion  for  heroic  personality,  common  to  Persian 
and  Greek,  which  would  have  united  their  jealous  individu- 
alities and  sunk  their  feudal  independence  in  the  pride  of 
universal  empire.  Whether  the  corresponding  demand  for 
religious  unity,  which  was  the  all-controlling  impulse  of  the 
centuries  succeeding  Alexander,  resulting  in  Neoplatonism 


394  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

and  Christianity,  would  not,  under  these  conditions,  have 
found  its  centre  in  an  Aryan  rather  than  a  Semitic  faith,  and 
drawn  its  symbohsm  from  the  associations  of  Iran  rather 
than  from  those  of  Palestine  and  Arabia,  is  a  question 
not  to  be  lightly  answered  in  the  negative.  So  plastic  are 
special  religions  to  the  forces  of  evolution,  and  so  inter- 
woven and  mutually  dependent  did  they  become  as  a 
result  of  the  period  to  which  we  now  refer,  that  the  nat- 
ural selection  of  one  or  another  of  them  as  a  basis  for  the 
continuities  of  man's  spiritual  progress  depended  very 
much  on  such  external  elements  as  geographical  location 
and  the  set  of  social  and  political  currents.  Science  will 
not  trace  this  selection,  so  far  as  it  existed,  to  any  extreme 
difference  in  their  spiritual  quality  or  even  in  their  doctrinal 
form ;  while  it  overwhelmingly  disproves  the  claim  of  any 
one  race  or  religion  to  have  been  the  sovereign  factor  of 
the  highest  elements  of  our  civilization. 

The  Dualism  of  Mazdeism,  its  internecine  war  of  God 
and  Satan,  its  intolerance  of  infidel  and  hostile  wills  in  the 
name  of  purity,  its  energy  of  ethical  motive  and  its  enthu- 
siasm for  personal  heroism,  as  well  as  its  devotion  to  one 
Supreme  Person  combining  the  powers  of  creation,  preser- 
vation, and  destruction,  were  all  directly  in  the  same  line 
of  religious  development.  Judaism  and  Christianity  were, 
each  in  its  way,  equally  dualistic.  The  good  and  evil  crea- 
tions were  arrayed  against  each  other  in  the  prophecies  of 
Isaiah  and  the  Gospel  of  John  as  truly  as  in  the  Avesta  of 
Zoroaster.  The  monarchical  God  of  Europe  could  have 
been  evolved  from  Ahuramazda,  or  the  All-wise  and 
All-mighty,  as  well  as  from  Jahveh,  Allah,  or  the  Abba 
Father  of  Christianity.  Doubtless  the  form  in  which  the 
want  of  the  Iranian  world  in  Alexander's  time  for  such  a 
monarchical  Will  revealed  in  some  visible  or  human  way 
for  the  world's  deliverance  would  have  been  met,  would 
have  differed  from  that  in  which  Christianity  met  the  same 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  395 

demand  three  centuries  later  in  the  Httle  province  of  the 
Roman  State.  But  we  may  say,  with  equal  truth,  that  the 
revival  of  the  great  Oriental  monarchy  by  Alexander 
might  well  have  wrought  changes  in  all  Asia  to  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Great  Sea,  and  in  the  relation  of  those  States 
to  European  history,  which  would  have  foreclosed  the 
Messianic  tragedy  preparing  in  the  social,  political,  and 
religious  life  of  the  Jewish  people.  Imagine  the  passion- 
ate monotheism  of  those  patriotic  tribes  put  under  the 
fostering  care  of  a  new  Cyrus  and  the  spiritual  provi- 
dence of  an  idol-hating  Ahura,  instead  of  battling  for  its 
rites,  traditions,  and  holy  places  against  the  polytheism  of 
Greece  and  Rome.  Imagine  the  faith  of  Ahuramazda 
broadened  by  the  confluence  of  civilizations,  and  the  de- 
velopment of  Messianic  Judaism  drawn  by  his  imperial 
sway  out  of  its  exclusive  nationality,  and  made  impersonal 
by  prospects  of  moral  and  spiritual  renovation  for  man- 
kind, apart  from  the  house  of  David  and  from  visions  of 
the  end  of  this  world,  —  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  changed 
would  have  been  the  historical  relations  and  associations 
of  modern  civilization,  so  that  their  lines  would  have  run 
back  to  quite  other  religious  names  and  symbols  of  belief. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  Iranian  deity  which  made  such 
world-influence  impossible,  and  much  that  made  it  very 
probable,  in  connection  with  the  wonderful  old  city  where 
Jahveh  himself  was  imbued  with  the  larger  life  that  was  to 
come  of  his  loins.  All  Asia,  from  the  Hindu  Koh  to  the 
river  of  Babylon,  had  submitted  to  the  heroic  personality 
of  Alexander,  and  might  have  found  in  the  religious  tra- 
ditions of  the  empire  a  basis  for  those  cosmopolitan 
instincts  which  had  long  been  working  in  the  common 
relations  of  the  tribes  to  an  earthly  "  king  of  kings."  A 
monarchical  religion  was  desired  that  should  fully  recog- 
nize the  great  ethical  conflict  of  good  and  evil,  and  be 
reconcilable  with  the  liberty  of  States,  of  chiefs,  of  tribes, 


39^  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

of  traditions ;  a  god  commanding  by  his  ideal  purity  and 
energy  the  devotion  of  races  that  worshipped  heroic  Will, 
and  believed  in  building  a  kingdom  of  heaven  out  of  the 
resources  of  this  world.  Behind  all  dualistic  mythology, 
magism,  ritualism,  spirit  of  conquest  and  sway,  this  was 
the  essence  of  the  Mazdean  faith,  upon  which  in  large 
degree  Alexander  would  have  been  forced  to  build  his 
empire.  What  he  might  have  effected  in  associating  it 
with  all  future  development,  by  union  with  the  culture  of 
Greece,  and  the  communion  of  races  and  beliefs,  in  the 
city  that  had  passed  from  Nebuchadnezzar  to  Cyrus,  from 
Bel  to  Ahuramazda,  and  opened  her  gates  to  the  humani- 
ties of  Homer  and  the  wisdom  of  Aristotle,  is  therefore 
on  the  whole  not  to  be  determined  from  a  merely  Semitic 
or  even  Christian  point  of  view. 

But  Alexander's  purposes  died  with  his  last  breath ;  and 
the  Macedonian  princes  who  divided  the  yet  unorganized 
empire  neither  cherished  those  purposes  nor  were  capable 
of  fulfilling  them.  Iranian  religion,  therefore,  lost  its  dis- 
tinguishable hold  on  the  course  of  history,  though  not  its 
real  influence,  as  will  hereafter  appear.  The  river  of  Maz- 
deism  runs  mainly  underground  for  five  hundred  years,  and 
is  hardly  heard  of  till  the  day  when  the  Sassanian  Arde- 
shir  summoned  it  again  to  the  throne  of  the  East.  But 
was  a  revival  so  wonderful  ever  known,  before  or  since? 

A  more  complete  disappearance  than  that  of  the  ancient 
faith  of  Iran  during  the  reigns  of  the  Macedonian  and  Par- 
thian kings  can  hardly  be  imagined.  The  national  legend 
takes  no  account  of  this  period.  Firdusi  merely  says  that 
after  Iskander  "  light,  turbulent,  and  bold  princes  seized  on 
the  divided  empire,  and  were  called  kings  of  the  tribes ;  " 
then  passes  directly  to  the  birth  of  Ardeshir,  whose  origin 
he  traces  to  Sasan,  a  scion  of  the  native  royal  family,  the 
ancestor  of  a  tribe  of  shepherds,  poor  and  straggling. 
Brought  up  by  Babek,  king  at  Istakhar,  this  descendant 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE, 

of  Isfendiyar  reopens  the  heroic  and  patriotic  myth.  Of 
the  Seleucide  period,  history  has  preserved  Httle  but  a 
wild  phantasmagoria  of  shifting  boundaries  and  fortunes, 
presented  by  the  struggles  of  half-a-dozen  princes 
for  the  mastery  of  a  dissevered  empire.  Of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Iranian  population  under  Seleucus  Nicator, 
the  greatest  of  these  princes,  whose  dominions  were  al- 
most conterminous  with  the  old  Persian  empire,  we  know 
nothing.  The  Persian  chroniclers  may  well  ignore  this 
whole  Seleucide  period  and  that  of  the  Arsacidae  which 
succeeded  it.  The  Greek  colonists  took  no  interest  in  Maz- 
deism,  though  all  their  native  writers  testify  to  the  great 
influence  which  Oriental  astrology  (or  asteroscopy),  under 
the  name  of  Magism,  was  exerting  on  the  Hellenic  mind. 
Notices  of  Persian  Dualism  in  the  writings  of  Theopompus 
and  Plutarch,^  of  Pliny  ^  and  the  Alexandrians,  and  the 
increasing  tendency  of  all  the  Greeks  to  refer  the  begin- 
ning of  their  philosophic  culture  and  the  wisdom  of  their 
thinkers,  old  and  new,  to  Zoroaster  and  his  Magi,  testify^ 
to  the  profound  interest  created  not  only  by  the  com- 
panions of  Alexander,  but  by  the  whole  intercourse  of  the 
East  and  West  after  the  fall  of  the  Persian  empire,  in  a 
religion  which  was  really  of  their  own  brain  and  blood, 
but  more  suggestive  than  their  own  of  vast  and  subtile 
forces  awaiting  the  touch  of  the  understanding  and  the 
will.  Rut  great  as  was  the  world-historical  interest  of 
this  period  for  the  Mazdean  faith,  it  depended,  like  the 
expansion  of  every  other  religion,  upon  failure  and  death 
on  its  own  native  soil,  upon  the  transmission  of  its  life 
into  new  forms  and  symbols,  and  the  reaping  of  its  har- 
vests by  other  hands.  The  Macedonian  strangers  in  Iran 
had  little  interest  in  the  ethical  earnestness  of  the  Avesta, 

*  Plutarch:  Isis  and  Osiris.  ^  Pliny:  Natural  History,  xxx. 

^  For  a  full   account   of  these   testimonies,   see  Rapp  (Zeiischr.  d.  DeiUsch.   Alorgeid. 
Gesellsch.  xix.   i-iy)- 


398  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

and  were  doubtless  of  a  more  easy  tolerance  towards 
other  forms  of  faith.  The  religion  of  the  Parthians,  who 
soon  succeeded  them,  was  a  cultus  of  the  elements,  of 
the  Turano-Scythic  sort.  Their  worship  of  ancestors,  of 
guardian  genii,  and  of  the  heavenly  bodies  was  some- 
what advanced  by  a  mixture  of  certain  Mazdean  names 
and  associations,  but  had  little  regard  for  others,  since 
they  raised  temples  and  statues  to  Mithra,  and  carried 
images  of  their  gods  about  as  teraphim.^  It  was  said  of 
them  by  the  Armenian  writers,  that  they  let  the  fire  of 
Ormuzd  go  out ;  and  their  priesthood  may  have  been  like 
those  Median  Magi  who  conspired  against  Cambyses,  and 
sought  to  supplant  the  priests  {Athravmio)  of  Ahura.  But 
they  were  certainly  far  from  the  intolerance  of  either  party 
in  that  earlier  war.  The  ease  with  which  Ardeshir  accom- 
plished the  restoration  of  Mazdeism  after  four  hundred 
years  of  Parthian  rule,  his  immediate  success  in  gathering 
a  host  of  Mobads  (eighty  thousand,  it  is  said)  from  all 
parts  of  the  empire  for  this  purpose,  proves  the  full  lib- 
erty of  the  old  faith  to  maintain  itself  among  the  peo- 
ple through  the  reign  of  this  foreign  dynasty,  and  that  it 
was  in  fact  the  popular  religion  of  their  dominions. 

These  Mobads,  or  Magi,  whose  name  is  never  men- 
tioned in  the  old  Avesta  where  the  priests  are  Athravas, 
must  have  been  either  the  representatives  of  the  old  Aves- 
tan  priesthood,  rising  all  at  once  from  a  state  of  semi- 
repression  under  the  warlike  Parthian  tribes,^  or  else  the 
Medo-Turanian  priesthood  must  have  been  so  modified  by 
contact  with  Mazdeism  as  to  be  readily  transformed  into 
revivalists  of  Ahura  at  the  summons  of  his  apostle.  The 
power  of  these  Magi  over  the  people,  or  as  a  social  element, 
must  have  been  maintained  at  its  height  during  this  whole 
period,    since    the    revolution   of  Ardeshir  was    evidently 

'  Justin,  xli.  3.     Joseplnis  :  Ji-iuish  Antiquities,  xviii.  5,  9. 
'  Gibbon  :  Koiiian  Eiit/'ire,  cliap.  viil. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  399 

an  uprising  of  the  Persian  masses  in  the  name  of  Ahura ; 
and  their  representatives,  the  Mobads,  were  assigned  the 
foremost  place  in  the  new  order  of  things,  and  became  the 
functionaries  of  a  compulsory  State  religion.  They  col- 
lected and  restored  the  old  Avesta,  and  translated  it  from 
their  original  ancient  Bactrian  into  the  Pehlevi,  or  current 
language  of  the  (Parthian)  empire.  It  is  not  easy  to  see 
how  the  Mazdean  faith  could  have  survived  in  western 
Iran  without  the  aid  of  its  sacred  books ;  yet  if  the  old 
Bactrian  had  been  comprehended  by  the  people,  why  was 
it  necessary  to  translate  them  into  Pehlevi?  There  is  no 
way  of  accounting  for  the  facts,  but  to  suppose  that  there 
were  other  methods  of  transmitting  the  doctrine  and  rites 
in  the  absence  of  original  records,  —  such  as  oral  traditions, 
fragmentary  collections  of  hymns  and  precepts,  embody- 
ing the  substance  of  the  faith,  immemorial  forms  inter- 
woven with  social  and  domestic  life,  and  including  all,  the 
undying  love  of  a  people  for  beliefs  that  were  the  natural 
outcome  of  their  inward  life.  Here  was  a  force  of  resist- 
ance capable  of  preventing  any  foreign  influence  from 
doing  more  than  to  overlay  this  natural  religion  with  new 
details  without  altering  its  spirit,  though  the  language  of 
its  records  had  become  obsolete.  The  later  portions  of 
the  Avesta,  with  their  elaborate  ritualism,  are  sufficient 
evidence  of  such  foreign  accessions  and  changes  during 
the  period  preceding  Ardeshir,  which  the  presence  of  the 
old  Gathas  at  least  would  have  foreclosed.  The  heroic 
national  legends,  as  collected  by  Firdusi  as  late  as  the 
Mahometan  period,  show  how  much  of  the  oldest  my- 
thology of  the  faith  is  still  traceable  in  strong  outline 
through  the  whelming  vicissitudes  of  thirteen  centuries. 

Such  was  the  hold  of  the  law  of  Ahuramazda  upon 
the  people  of  Iran  through  these  five  hundred  years  of 
foreign  dominion.  If  the  "  fire  "  of  that  deity  "  had  be- 
come extinct,"  it  was  not  because  the  Parthian  had  directly 


400  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

supplanted  it  by  other  fires,  though  he  had  lost  his  sacred 
regard  for  it  sufficiently  to  burn  the  dead  even,^  but  be- 
cause the  rule  of  a  tribe  of  Turanian  nomads,  living  on 
horseback,  and  devoted  to  aggressive  warfare,  had  discour- 
aged those  national  and  personal  traditions  on  whose  au- 
thority it  had  come  to  rest,  and  by  whose  exclusiveness  it 
had  been  fed.  The  revolution  proved  that  the  religious 
conscience  of  the  Mazdcans  had  not  been  suppressed. 
Had  it  even  been  outraged  ?  To  the  honor  of  their 
Scythic  origin,^  the  Parthians  were  tolerant  of  all  fires  of 
faith.  The  Jews  grew  strong  enough  in  Babylon  and 
Nisibis,  under  their  eyes,  to  rebel  against  them.^  Jahveh, 
Ormuzd,  Christ,  even  Bel  and  Buddha,  dwelt  side  by  side 
with  the  Parthian  Mithra,  and  the  worship  of  teraphim  with 
that  of  the  sun  and  moon.  In  Osrhoene,  Christianity  was 
a  State  religion.  Edessa  was  a  fountain  of  Christian  learn- 
ing. The  Parthian  in  Persia  knew  no  difference  of  Greek 
and  Jew.  His  coins  bore  Greek  legends  and  Greek  gods. 
At  no  other  time  or  place  in  their  history  did  the  Jews  live 
in  greater  authority  and  luxury  than  in  his  shadow.  In 
his  reign  the  materials  for  the  Babylonian  Talmud  were 
gathered  in  quiet  research.  Everywhere  in  the  empire 
sects  competed  and  missionaries  proselyted  without  of- 
fence. In  Harran  the  Sabeans  served  many  gods,  and 
struck  a  root  which  held  till  the  tenth  century.  If,  as 
has  been  thought,*  the  Parthians  sought  to  make  every 
householder  a  priest,  and  thus  to  discourage  special  priest- 
hoods, this  very  liberalism  may  have  offended  the  Mazde- 
ans.  But  the  coins  of  the  empire  at  that  very  time  bore 
fire-altars,  and  the  priests  of  Ahura  were  ready  for  the 
call  of  Ardeshir.^  The  very  names  of  these  Parthian  kings 
were  mostly  old  Persian.*^ 

1  Herodian,  iv.  30.  2  gtrabo,  Justin,  Arian,  Gibbon,  Niebuhr. 

2  Josephus  :  Bell.  Jud.  i.  11,  et  seq.  *  Gobineau  :  Histoire  des  Parses. 
B  Gobineau  :  Histoire  des  Perses,  ii.  6,  7. 

8  Roth  {Zeitschr.  d.  Dcutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xiii.  415,  416). 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  40I 

It  is  probable  that,  as  the  Parthian  kings  dropped  the 
Scythian  cap  for  the  tall  tiara  of  the  Persians,  so  they 
accepted  the  Magism  of  their  subjects  as  they  found  it, 
and  allowed  it  considerable  influence,  —  since  the  numbers 
of  the  priesthood  in  their  time  were  very  great,  their 
possessions  large,  and  they  exercised  a  check  on  the  royal 
autocracy.^  The  Parthians,  though  they  had  no  art  of 
any  value,  were  by  no  means  uncivilized,  and  became  apt 
pupils  of  the  Persian  and  the  Greek.  Mithridates  turned 
upon  the  Scythic  hordes,  from  whose  bosom  his  line  had 
come,  and  drove  them  from  Iran.  The  race  had  large 
sympathies,  and,  like  the  Macedonians,  sought  unity  on 
the  basis  of  a  religious  freedom  more  liberal  than  Rome. 
They  preserved,  in  this  respect,  the  traditions  of  Alex- 
ander's policy,  as  well  as  foreshadowed  the  larger  unities 
of  modern  times.  It  is,  then,  impossible  that  they  should 
have  dreamed  of  extinguishing  the  fires  of  Ahuramazda; 
but  it  is  equally  impossible  that  this  very  latitudinarianism 
should  not  have  offended  the  rooted  pride  of  ]\Iazdeism, 
mortified  its  zeal,  and  provoked  its  jealousy;  especially 
as  its  confessors  were  allowed  too  much  freedom  to  be- 
come disheartened  about  their  future  destiny. 

The  energy  of  the  revival,  and  its  intense  intolerance, 
were  precisely  what  was  to  be  expected  from  a  religion 
absorbed  in  the  worship  of  a  supreme  Divine  Will.  The 
old  strength  of  Agni  and  Indra  was  in  this  flame  that 
leaped  from  its  fallen  altars,  where  it  had  smouldered  for 
five  hundred  years,  and  soared  to  its  native  heaven  of  abso- 
lute sway.  What  changes  the  faith  had  undergone  during 
this  long  period,  it  is  as  yet  difficult  exactly  to  determine. 
But  the  Pehlevi  literature  of  the  Sassanians  shows  a  large 
intermixture  at  least  of  Semitic  beliefs,^  with  which,  in  the 
above  respect,  it  could  readily  affiliate. 

1  Rawlinson  :  Sixth  Oriental  Motiarcky. 

2  See  Spiegel :  Eranisdie  Alterihumskunde,  iii. 

26 


402  rOLITICAL   FORCES. 

The  interference  of  the  Parthian  kings  with  Iranian  po- 
Htical  institutions  was  equally  unimportant  The  Parthian 
rebellion  was  the  work  of  nobles,  discontented  at  the  loss 
of  personal  liberties  under  the  Seleucide  rule;  and  their 
success  brought  personal  rights  to  the  front  to  such  a 
degree  that  royalty  itself  was  but  a  part  of  the  nobility.-^ 
In  respect  to  the  powers  of  local  chiefs,  the  Perso-Parthian 
State  might  be  called  Iranian.  Originally  a  free  tribe, — 
free  from  the  time  of  Cyrus  down,  now  allied  to  Alexan- 
der, and  now  arrayed  against  him,  —  the  Parthians  were 
swift  to  revolt  from  Hellenic  satraps  (250  B.C.)  in  the  true 
spirit  of  old  Iran.  Their  real  sway  over  the  empire  began 
with  Mithridatcs  I.  (163  B.C.),  a  conqueror  worthy  to  be 
compared  with  Cyrus  and  Alexander,  and  was  conducted 
on  principles  familiar  to  the  native  tribes.  High-spirited 
nobles — a  part  of  them  Magi, and  holding  priestly  office — 
elected  the  kings  (called  ©eol,  and  brothers  of  the  Sun  and 
Moon),  and  tempered  despotism  by  their  independence.^ 
The  provinces  were  viceroyalties,  and  the  social  consti- 
tution, like  the  old  Persian,  was  on  a  feudal  basis,  —  each 
State  retaining,  in  most  respects,  its  local  forms  of  govern- 
ment. The  numerous  cities  founded  by  Alexander's  Greek 
colonists  preserved  their  liberties.  The  local  rulers  coined 
their  own  money.  Persia  itself  had  its  own  king  and  its 
own  customs.  Coins  have  been  found,  representing  Or- 
muzd  and  the  Mazdean  religion,  w^hich  good  reasons 
have  been  given  for  ascribing  to  rulers  of  southern  Persia 
during  this  period.^  In  every  city  there  was  a  king,  and 
it  was  in  this  sense  that  the  Parthian  first  called  himself, 
with  literal  truth,  "  king  of  kings,"  a  title  assumed  by 
every  master  of  the  Iranian  State.  These  institutions  were 
inherent  in  the  soil,  learned  from  Persia  and  Greece.     The 

^  Carr^:  L'Ancten.  Orient  ii.  364. 
*  Rawlinson :  Sixth  Oriental  Monarchy,  p.  419. 

'  See  the  description  of  coins  in  Pehlevi  legends,  described  by  Levy  (Zeitschr.  d.  Dcntsch. 
Morgenl.  Geselhch.,  xxi.  440). 


THE    SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  403 

Parthian  was  himself  their  product,  and  he  was  not  the 
first.  Bactria  had  already,  led  by  its  Hellenic  rulers, 
thrown  off  allegiance  to  the  Seleucidae,  and  revived  its 
ancient  glory.  Alexander's  death  was  the  signal  for  local 
revolt.  Even  northern  India  hastened  to  refuse  obedi- 
ence to  his  successors.^  Each  of  these  States  had  its  own 
hero  or  semi-divinity,  a  centre  of  enthusiasm  for  nobles 
and  people,  of  a  local  pride  and  self-reliance,  of  which 
Firdusi's  epic  gives  the  afterglow.  It  is  curious  to  note 
that,  notwithstanding  the  great  variety  of  races  included  in 
the  Persian  empire,  the  names  of  most  of  these  men  of 
ideal  will  were  Iranian. 

If  the  Macedonian  or  Parthian  kings  could  have  become 
legitimate  centres  of  the  hero-worship  so  natural  to  their 
subjects,  and  made  it  a  national  instead  of  a  localized 
instinct,  they  would  have  fulfilled  the  great  opportunity 
opened  by  the  conquests  of  Alexander.  Some  of  them 
had  commanding  qualities,  —  Seleucus  Nicator  in  the 
Macedonian  line,  Mithridates  I.  in  the  Parthian.  But  a 
succession  of  sanguinary  conflicts,  forever  undecided, 
ruined  every  prestige  of  personal  power ;  there  was  no 
towering  personality,  no  natural  king  of  the  world,  among 
these  ambitious  rivals.  And  so  the  States  of  Iran  fell 
apart  into  their  own  natural  position  as  individual  atoms 
of  Will.  But  more  than  that,  there  was  no  representative 
of  the  ancient  war  of  Good  against  Evil ;  no  son  of  Ahura 
to  summon  the  masses  of  Iran  with  the  old  Zoroastrian 
warnings  and  commands ;  no  supreme  ethical  principle 
embodied  in  royal  lives  that  lived  and  died  for  its  sake, 
r  and  passed  on  its  immortality,  in  a  line  like  that  of  the 
old  Avestan  saviours  of  mankind.  There  were  merely  so 
many  warring  wills  ;  and  mere  will-force,  without  the  flame 
of  ethical  law  for  its  divinity,  could  make  no  permanent 
impression  on  the  Iranian  mind.     And  if  it  is  the  experi- 

1  Justin,  XV.  4. 


404  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

ence  of  all  subsequent  ages  of  Aryan  and  Semitic  develop- 
ment, that  personal  Will,  as  ultimate  authority,  can  never 
make  a  permanent  government,  this  is  only  because  such 
will  can  never  become  the  permanent  basis  for  philoso- 
phical or  religious  belief.  Political  stability,  though  in- 
consistent with  established  creeds,  yet  rests  directly  on 
the  religious  nature ;  and  the  natural  religion  of  Iran 
demanded  either  a  succession  of  wills  great  enough  to 
represent  its  living  God,  or  else  a  system  of  ethical  prin- 
ciples and  spiritual  beliefs  embodying  his  enduring  right- 
eousness. The  Seleucidc  kings  aimed  to  satisfy  the  first 
of  these  alternatives.  They  aped  divinity,  and  were  adored 
with  sacrifices,  and  put  their  images  among  the  gods. 
They  counted  time  from  the  dates  of  their  accession  to 
the  throne.  They  worked  effectively  at  building  cities, 
opening  trade,  and  circulating  Greek  culture,  and  made 
many  admirable  laws.  But  these  claims  had  small  value 
in  Iranian  eyes  in  comparison  with  the  consecrated  local 
instincts  and  personal  loyalties  which  the  foreigner  over- 
rode. Alexander  had  wisely  put  local  opportunities  into 
native  hands ;  but  the  satraps  of  the  Selcucidae  were 
Greek.  The  subject  States  saw  their  tributes  squandered 
by  luxurious  and  sensual  courts,  by  men  of  foreign  lan- 
guage and  belief  Domestic  feuds  and  family  tragedies 
were  bad  arguments  to  prove  the  divinity  of  a  line  of 
kings ;  so  were  rival  ambitions,  and  the  cruelties  of  jeal- 
ousy and  fear.  The  old  indigenous  feudalism,  based  on 
a  heroic  impulse,  sought  its  natural  king;  and  so  the  old 
experience  was  repeated  in  the  case  of  the  Greek  empire 
in  Asia,  which  we  have  already  described  as  befalling  the 
empires  which  preceded  it  on  the  soil  of  Iran.  Individual 
States,  such  as  Parthia  and  Bactria,  the  mother-land  of  the 
faith,  broke  away  from  the  central  government,  leading 
their  Greek  satraps,  where  these  were  competent,  first  into 
independence,  and  then,  as  the  substitution  of  Bactrian  for 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  405 

Greek  legends  on  the  coins  clearly  shows,  into  gradual 
adoption  of  the  local  traditions  and  life.^  And  finally 
Parthia,  remotest  of  these  States  which  had  grown  by  such 
local  training,  and  so  little  known  on  its  Turanian  borders 
that  no  Greek  had  thought  of  paying  heed  to  its  growth, 
puts  forth  a  natural  master  of  men,  seizes  the  unwieldy 
empire,  —  as  the  Persian,  and  before  him  the  Mede,  had 
done,  —  and  proves  again  that  on  this  soil  new  energy  was 
always  to  be  supreme. 

There  was  much  in  the  Parthians  to  rouse  the  hero- 
worship  of  Iran.  They  were  bold  riders,  and  made  the 
bow  and  arrow  historic.  The  crescent  and  star  on  their 
standards  were  significant  emblems  to  the  "  fire-worship- 
pers," and  anticipated  those  of  great  nations  and  religions. 
Doubtless  the  military  energy  which  gave  them  the  mas- 
tery of  the  Persian  empire  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Hindu 
Koh,  and  which  was  the  only  power  capable  of  checking 
the  advance  of  Rome  to  world-dominion,  —  conquerors  of 
Antony  and  Crassus,  and  during  their  whole  existence 
the  terror  of  the  Roman  soldier,  to  whom  a  Parthian  cam- 
paign was  the  saddest  of  tidings,  —  was  not  entirely  due  to 
inherent  qualities  in  the  race.  It  was  encouraged  by  the 
natural  difficulties  in  the  way  of  invading  their  country, 
and,  aided  by  the  effects  of  their  guerilla  warfare  on  horse- 
back, a  novelty  to  their  European  foes.  But  they  had 
really  great  valor  and  endurance;  they  were  as  terrible 
with  the  long  lance  as  with  the  distant  arrow.  Crassus 
was  told  by  fugitives  that  they  could  neither  be  escaped 
when  they  pursued,  nor  caught  when  they  fled;  and  that 
their  strange  arrows  reached  their  mark  before  they 
seemed  to  have  been  shot.^  Theirs  was  the  great  historic 
function  of  preserving  the  self-respect  of  Asia,  and  of 
holding  over  the  traditions  of  the  Persian  empire  till  its 
glorious    revival    under    the    Sassanide    kings.      Without 

I  Lassen:  Ind.  Alterth.  ii.  311.  2  Plutarch:    Vila.  Crassi. 


406  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

them  the  strong  organizing  hand  of  Rome  would  have 
crushed  the  freer  feudahsm  of  Iran,  and  that  splendid 
literary  and  artistic  era  would  probably  never  have  dawned. 
Intolerant  in  their  faith,  the  native  Sassanide  dynasty  in- 
herited an  earnest  and  spirited  people,  whose  idealism  had 
been  allowed  free  growth  under  the  Parthian  rulers,  so  that 
the  requisite  element  was  provided  for  counteracting  the 
hard,  practical,  and  political  realism  of  Rome. 

It  was  reported  of  the  Parthian  kings  that  they  always 
respected  the  sacred  rights  of  ambassadors,  and  never  vio- 
lated their  treaties ;  that  they  were  on  the  whole  kind  to 
their  prisoners  of  war,  gave  asylum  to  fugitives,  and  ad- 
mitted foreigners  to  offices  of  trust.^  Germanicus,  one  of 
the  best  of  the  Romans,  was  in  especial  honor  among  them.^ 
Their  dynastic  broils,  on  which  the  Roman  historian  Taci- 
tus dwells,  were  at  least  proofs  of  remarkable  individual 
force.  He  also  says  of  the  people,  that  they  were  constantly 
quarrelling  with  their  princes,  and  regretting  the  loss  of 
them  when  they  had  been  expelled.  These  kings  have  the 
usual  tragic  record  of  crimes  which  belongs  to  all  the  dy- 
nasties of  the  time  ;  but,  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  Ro- 
man C.'Esars,  all  Parthian  enormities  become  respectable. 

The  condition  of  the  Parthian  empire  in  the  early  part 
of  the  third  century  \i.  C.  prepared  the  way  for  the  Sas- 
sanian  revolution.  Persia  had  lost  its  imperial  name, 
divided  into  eighteen  independent  States ;  but  the  prov- 
ince of  Pars,  which  had  been  the  mother  of  that  name, 
was  most  thoroughly  alive  to  its  heroic  and  sacred  tra- 
ditions, and  persuaded  that  a  great  future  awaited  them 
out  of  the  political  anarchy  and  disintegration  of  the 
Arsacide  State.  The  theory  that  the  native  uprising  was 
due  in  large  degree  to  the  influence  of  the  Semitic  ele- 
ment of  the  population,  and  in  pursuance  of  Semitic  in- 

1  Rawlinson  :  Sixth  Monarchy,  pp.  413,  426. 
'  See  Tacitus,  ii.  58. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  407 

terests,^  has  no  other  apparent  ground  than  the  religious 
intolerance  that  characterized  it ;  and  this  was  so  decided 
in  the  Mazdean  faith  as  to  need  no  aid  from  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  Semitic.  The  disciples  of  Ahura  were  not 
likely  to  be  gratified  by  the  easy  secularism  of  the  Par- 
thian. In  their  eyes,  probably  his  heaviest  oppression 
consisted  in  his  latitudinarian  treatment  of  creeds.  They 
could  not  bear  to  see  other  priesthoods  put  on  an  equality 
with  their  own ;  for  the  worship  of  Ahura  was  the  service 
of  an  all-commanding  exclusive  Will.  Gobineau's  idea, 
that  the  rebellion  was  an  insurrection  of  the  peasantry 
{jaqucTie)  directed  against  turbulent  nobles,  may  or  may 
not  be  partly  true ;  but  the  utter  extermination  of  the 
Parthians  by  Ardeshir  Babegan  shows  that  only  religious 
zeal  could  have  been  the  prime  mover  of  the  war.  And 
this  motive,  aided  by  the  free  communication  between  all 
parts  of  Iran,  and  brought  under  the  influence  of  a 
common  personal  admiration  for  the  great  qualities  of 
Ardeshir,  broadened  into  a  patriotic  ardor,  which  effaced 
local  jealousies,  and  re-created  the  empire  out  of  the 
ver}'  essence  of  its  historic  life.  The  old  religious  organ- 
ization of  the  empire,  in  accordance  with  the  Zoroas- 
trian  Amesha-gpentas,  was  not  only  preserved  under  the 
Sassanian  regime,  in  "seven  great  families,"  clothed  with 
exalted  and  hereditary  rights,  but  constituted  a  thread 
of  political  continuity  which  extends  from  the  early 
Achaemenidae  down  to  the  end  of  the  native  Persian 
State. 2  So  the  old  lower-landed  nobility  (i?////('iz/^^/^)  were 
still  administrators  of  local  functions  in  the  time  of  the 
Mussulman  conquest.^  The  five  classes  of  this  native 
aristocracy  resisted  all  processes  of  centralization,  and  kept 
alive  the  local  independence  so  dear  to  the  Iranian  mind. 


1  Gobineaii  :  Histoirc  des  Perses,  ii.  604. 

^  See  Nbldeke :    Tnbari,  p.  437.     (Uber  die  inncren  Verlidltn.  d.  Sassanidenreicks.) 

•*  Ibid.,  440.    Also  Masudi :  Meadows  0/ Gold,  v.  33. 


408  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Against  all  these  individual  elements  the  Sassanian  kings 
had  a  hard  struggle  to  maintain  an  authority  won  only  by 
the  revolutionary  energy  of  Ardeshir ;  and  their  success 
was  due  not  so  much  to  any  power  they  possessed  to  dis- 
turb the  traditional  organism  of  the  State,  as  to  the  influ- 
ence of  personal  character,  and  the  seizure  of  special 
opportunities  to  make  good  their  private  interests  and 
gratify  their  desires.  The  clergy  grew,  under  the  religious 
earnestness  of  the  dynasty,  into  a  close  and  highly  organ- 
ized body,  and  formed  a  kind  of  "  State  within  the  State," 
whose  power  was  often  leagued  with  that  of  the  nobles 
against  the  king,  and  who  knew  as  well  as  any  other  priest- 
hood how  to  persecute  and  rule.  The  empire,  divided 
into  prefectures,  was  loosely  related  to  the  central  power; 
the  army,  a  cumbrous  feudal  mechanism, was  under  the  im- 
mediate control  of  the  higher  nobility.  Nevertheless,  the 
kings  had  the  old  prestige  of  Iranian  will-worship.  They 
called  themselves  "  gods,"  or  rather  "  the  seed  of  God," 
and  took  the  names  of  national  deities,  not  exactly  as  iden- 
tified with  them,  but  as  claiming  to  be  under  their  special 
care.^  The  common  hope  was  to  restore  the  old  religious 
traditions.  It  was  by  representing  these  that  Ardeshir 
rose  at  once  to  the  place  of  Cyrus  in  the  hero-worship  of 
his  people ;  so  that  Gibbon  thinks  he  must  have  been 
himself  a  Magus.  Appealing  at  once  to  the  popular  in- 
stincts, he  superseded  the  local  chiefs.  The  revival  was 
essentially  democratic,  so  far  as  this  was  possible  in  an 
Oriental  State.  The  popular  element,  thus  revealed  in 
Mazdeism,  appeared  in  various  ways.  The  native  legends 
make  Ardeshir  the  son  of  a  common  shepherd,  soldier, 
astrologer,  or  laborer,  though  descended  from  the  great 
line  of  kings  that  ran  back  to  the  mythical  Isfendiyar ;  ^ 
and  the  impoverishment  that  had  befallen  this  royal  race 

1  Nbldeke  :  Tabari's  History  of  Sassanides,  pp.  451,  452. 

2  Masudi ;  also  Firdiisi. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  409 

was  the  mythic  expression  of  the  long  eclipse  of  the  Persian 
State.  The  last  discrowned  Sassan  had  served  a  wealthy 
person  named  Babek/  whose  daughter  he  married,  and 
their  son  was  Ardeshir  Babegan.^  These  humble  rela- 
tions of  the  new  royalty  were  justified  by  the  popular 
nature  of  his  institutions.  "  He  allowed  no  intermediate 
power,"  says  Gibbon,  "  between  himself  and  the  people." 
The  local  chiefs  had  to  yield  to  his  personal  sway.  He 
deprived  the  satraps  of  excessive  powers,  and  brought  a 
standing  army  to  hold  them  in  obedience.  The  chroniclers 
prove  at  least  his  fame  as  a  wise  and  just  ruler,  when  they 
ascribe  to  him  sentences  like  these :  "  No  power  without 
an  army;  no  army  without  money;  no  money  without 
agriculture ;  no  agriculture  without  justice."  "  A  king 
should  be  a  father;  but  without  religion  he  is  a  tyrant; 
and  for  a  people  to  be  without  religion  is  simply  mon- 
strous." "  The  worst  of  kings  is  he  w^ho  is  feared  by  the 
rich  and  not  by  the  bad."^  "Four  qualities  are  indispen- 
sable to  kings  :  a  natural  magnanimity ;  goodness  of  heart ; 
firmness  to  repress  social  disorder;  and  justice  enlightened 
enough  to  give  no  occasion  to  any  loyal  subject  to  fear  for 
his  life,  his  honor,  or  his  estate."  * 

Burning  to  restore  the  ancient  faith  and  freedom,  Ar- 
deshir pushes  his  way  to  high  office  in  his  native  Pars, 
refuses  to  be  superseded,  and  the  whole  province  backs 
him  in  his  revolt.  He  defeats  and  slays  Artaban,  the 
Parthian  king,  in  the  battle  of  Hormuz ;  and,  after  Oriental 
fashion,  strengthens  his  position  by  marrying  the  king's 
daughter.  Imperilled  by  the  ambition  of  his  brother  and 
his  wife,  he  puts  them  out  of  the  way;   and,  apparently 

1  Or  Papak.  In  the  inscriptions  he  is  called  Sap  or  "king."  Others  say  he  was  the  son 
of  a  n'lble,  and  revolted. 

-  Noldeke's  translation  of  Tabari's  History  of  Sassanides,  p.  34.  Tabari  gives  the  legends 
about  Ardeshir :  his  predicted  sway,  his  slaying  the  petty  kings,  his  motive  for  avenging  the 
murder  of  Darius.  Trover's  note  on  p.  105.  Dabistan,  vol.  i.  Rawlinson  :  Seventh  Ori- 
ental ]\To>iarchy,  pp.  30-32. 

s  Firdusi.  *  Bernard  :   Chroniques  Orientates,  p.  99. 


41 0  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

shrinking  from  no  severity  necessary  to  make  secure  his 
throne,  proceeds  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  grandest 
epoch  of  Persian  nationahty. 

Ardeshir  is  regarded  by  the  Persians  as  entitled  to  a 
still  more  enduring  glory.  Their  traditional  code,  the 
basis  of  their  civil  polity  for  many  ages,  was  his  work ; 
their  lost  and  scattered  religious  books  came  down  re- 
covered, reconstructed,  given  to  the  people  through  his 
pious  hands.  El  Masudi,  the  Moslem  writer,  says  "  the 
satrapies  were  in  anarchy,  after  Alexander's  death,  till  Ar- 
deshir united  the  empire,  restored  order,  established  re- 
ligion, advanced  agriculture,  preparing  the  way  for  the 
greater  prophet  sent  of  God  to  destroy  every  infidel 
creed. ^  P'irdusi  tells  us  that  he  organized  labor,  forbade 
bribery,  enforced  good  administration,  enjoined  forbear- 
ance in  war.  and  mercy  to  the  defeated  foe ;  that  he  estab- 
lished schools  and  altars  in  every  street,  suffered  none  to 
remain  in  want,  exhorted  his  son  Hormazd  to  obey  God 
and  seek  refuge  in  him  alone.  His  administration,  which 
promised  equal  laws,  personal  security,  and  suppression  of 
feudal  tyrannies,  was  doubtless  a  mighty  revolution,  so  far 
as  the  old  aristocratic  nobles  were  concerned,  many  of 
whom  were  driven  out  of  Persia  proper  into  Seistan,  where 
the  Afghan  clans  still  represent  the  old  jealous  hate  of  cen- 
tralized government.  Though  labor  was  freed  from  many 
galling  exactions,  the  feudatories  were  by  no  means  extin- 
guished, and  the  people,  brought  directly  under  the  strong 
hand  of  ro}^alty,  were  subjected  to  strict  sumptuary  laws 
and  stern  religious  disciplines.  It  is  charged  that,  while 
destroying  the  great  nobles  who  endangered  the  throne, 
Ardeshir  not  only  retained  a  noble  class  distinctl)'  marked 
off  from  the  masses,  but  held  to  the  necessity  of  a  per- 
manently poor  class,  as  a  durable  basis  fof  the  political 

1  Meadows  of  Gold,  chap  xvii.  Malcolm  :  History  of  Persia.  Carre  L''Ancien 
Orient,  ii.  365. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  411 

structure.^  Many  cruelties  are  ascribed  to  his  penal  legis- 
lation, while  he  is  credited  with  many  mitigations  of  older 
customs. 

But  whatever  merits  entered  into  his  system,  it  was  cer- 
tainly the  union  of  Church  and  State  in  the  most  aggressive 
form.  The  sentiment,  already  quoted  as  ascribed  to  him, 
that  a  people  without  religious  institutions  is  a  monstrous 
form  of  society,  meant  a  great  council  of  priests,  in  whom 
was  vested  direct  control  over  the  descent  of  property,  over 
police  and  private  affairs,  and  who  had  the  principal  voice, 
through  their  chief,  in  determining  what  were  the  last  in- 
structions of  the  king  before  his  death  concerning  the 
succession  to  the  throne,  which  could  only  be  filled  by  a 
sworn  servant  of  Ahura.^  In  an  empire  which  for  cen- 
turies had  been  the  home  and  the  debating-ground  of 
religions  (of  Mazdeism,  Buddhism,  Hellenism,  and  Christi- 
anity), he  let  loose  the  hounds  of  a  merciless  intolerance, — 
the  old  Avestan  hate  of  the  unbeliever  in  Ahura,  the  fierce 
exclusiveness  that  lurks  in  the  worship  of  a  monarchical 
will.  He  destroyed  every  graven  image,  trampled  out 
every  foreign  cult,  and  put  his  host  of  Mobads  at  the  head 
of  the  State.  Till  the  Arab  came  to  substitute  for  Mazde- 
ism a  god  and  prophet  as  jealous  as  its  own,  the  law  of 
Ahura  was  the  government  of  Iran.  Here  and  there  a 
Sassanian  king  was  great  enough  to  bring  out  its  human- 
ities rather  than  its  fanatic  zeal ;  but  most  of  the  line  were 
persecutors.  The  chronicles  tell  us  that  Ardeshir  com- 
manded his  Mobads  to  provide  one  of  their  number  who 
should  "  divest  himself  of  the  body,  and  bring  intelligence 
of  heaven  and  hell."  Hence  the  Vision  of  Ardai-Viraf, 
who  is  selected  out  of  forty  thousand,  as  the  one  sinless 
saint,  to  receive  the  revelation  in  sleep.    The  work  whereof 

1  Gobineaa  :  Histoire  des  Perses,  ii.  p.  626,  627. 

^  Nbldeke  (Tabari,  p.  2^)  records  him  as  having  fulfilled  an  oath  of  his  ancestor  Sassan  to 
destroy  every  Arsacide.  Noldeke  thinks  he  is  greatly  overrated,  and  was  a  cruel,  ambitious 
despot,  p.  8. 


412  POLITICAL  FORCES. 

this 'Story  is  the  mythical  explanation  is  in  substance  pre- 
served, and  combines  the  two  opposite  elements  of  the 
Avestan  faith  to  which  we  have  referred.  Led  through  all 
the  spheres  by  guardian  angels  of  the  Avesta,  and  with 
performance  of  its  sacred  rites,  this  older  Dante  beholds 
in  types  of  sense  the  rewards  and  punishments  of  Mazdean 
futurity.  Amidst  the  delights  of  heaven  are  the  spirits  of 
all  who  have  observed  the  solemn  festivals,  —  the  priests 
and  their  attendants,  the  heroes  of  the  faith,  the  souls  of 
shepherds  and  husbandmen,  and  makers  of  gardens  and 
fertilizing  streams.  In  fetid  winds  and  Avaters  of  hell,  in 
night  and  cold,  tormented  by  demons,  and  horrible  food, 
are  not  only  shedders  of  innocent  blood,  slanderers,  ex- 
tortioners, sensualists,  hypocrites  and  liars,  defraudcrs  of 
labor  and  oppressors  of  the  poor,  betrayers  of  trusts, 
but  breakers  of  the  ritual  observances  and  laws  of  purifica- 
tion, even  those  who  have  wept  for  the  dead,  or  slayers  of 
four-footed  animals,  such  as  water-dogs,  and  in  general 
all  who  have  befriended  those  hostile  to  the  faith. ^  A 
more  extended  version  of  the  book  shows  it  intended 
to  announce  that  all  existing  religions  but  the  Mazdean 
were  inventions  of  the  enemy,  and  to  embody  the  pur- 
pose of  the  revival,  which  was  to  put  an  end  to  the  long- 
continued  ferment  of  differing  creeds  in  Iran.^ 

But  if  such  was  its  purpose,  the  multiplication  of  beliefs 
which  followed  it,  and  the  profound  influence  of  the  Sassa- 
nian  empire  on  the  development  both  of  Christianity  and 
Islam,  show  that  the  native  energy  of  Mazdeism  could  not 
be  confined  to  these  destructi\'e  channels.  And  we  are 
disposed  to  think  that  the  work  of  Ardeshir  was  essen- 
tially constructive ;  that  it  supplied  the  concentration  of 
forces,  political  and   religious,   needed   to   counterbalance 

'  See  Dabistan,  i.  2S3-304.  Arda-i-Viraf  is  mentioned  in  the  later  Yeshts  of  the  Avesta, 
and  his  work  is  beheved  to  have  been  sent  by  Nushirvan,  in  the  sixth  century,  as  a  kind  of 
Mazdean  Bible,  to  all  the  provincial  governors  of  the  empire.     (Ibid.,  2S5.) 

^  Gobineau  :  HUtoire  des  Perses,  ii.  630. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  413 

similar  forces,  —  at  least  equally  exclusive  and  tyrannical, 
—  by  whose  rapid  organization  in  the  Western  world  the 
faith  and  freedom  of  Asia  were  alike  threatened  with 
destruction. 

The  military  and  political  energy  of  Ardeshir  was  more 
than  rivalled  by  the  reign  of  his  successor,  Shapur  I.,  in 
whom  all  the  pride  of  the  Assyrian  and  the  world-ambition 
of  the  Achaemenidan  were  renewed.  Shapur  avenges  the 
East  upon  the  West.  He  defies  Rome,  devastates  her 
provinces,  defeats  her  armies  on  their  own  soil,  drags  her 
emperor  in  triumph  to  Ctesiphon,  his  Persian  capital,  gives 
her  legions  a  new  general,  and  clothes  an  obscure  fugitive 
from  Antioch  with  the  imperial  name.  The  inscriptions 
give  no  support  to  the  story  of  shocking  barbarities  in- 
flicted on  the  captive  Valerian.^  An  immense  irrigating 
system  of  canals,  and  a  dike  twenty  feet  broad  and  twelve 
hundred  feet  long,  built  to  turn  the  Karun  upon  the  plains 
around  a  city  of  his  own  creation,  were  monuments  of  his 
devotion  to  Ahura's  law,  —  another  grand  type  for  Iranian 
hero-worship,  which  did  its  best  to  make  him  immor- 
tal in  stone.  There  stands  his  statue,  a  colossal  image 
twenty  feet  high,  hewn  out  of  the  natural  rock,  of  noble 
proportions,  the  hand  resting  on  the  sword.^  That  tower- 
ing head-gear,  with  eagle's  Avings  poising  the  globe  in  air, 
speaks  the  true  Shahan-shah,  —  the  king  aspiring  to  god- 
hood  by  right  of  will.      And  again   the  sculptures  show 

*  According  to  Firdusi,  Shapur,  visiting  Roum  (Ctesiphon),  was  taken  by  the  emperor  when 
under  the  influence  o£  wine,  sewed  in  the  skin  of  an  ass,  and  thrown  into  prison,  whence  he 
was  delivered  by  a  young  girl  of  Iranian  descent,  who  swears  to  keep  his  secret  by  everything 
sacred  in  all  existing  religions,  and  by  her  love  and  fear  for  the  Lord  of  Iran.  She  softens 
the  ass-skin  with  milk,  and  they  escape  together.  When  the  emperor  in  his  turn  is  defeated 
and  taken  prisoner,  Shapur  revenges  himself  by  cutting  otT  his  ears,  piercing  his  nose,  and  cast- 
ing him  into  prison  ;  while  the  people  of  Roum  refuse  to  recognize  him,  his  name  is  accursed, 
his  altars  are  cast  down,  his  bishop's  crosses  and  girdles  burned.  "  Roum  and  Canoudj  differ 
no  more,  for  the  voice  of  the  Messiah's  faith  is  dead  "  (Mohl's  Firdusi,  v.  465.)  The  un- 
historical  character  of  this  legend  is  clear  enough.  Tabari  celebrates  his  virtues  (Nbldeke, 
PP-  3'-33),  among  them  his  distribution  of  treasures  to  the  poor  on  his  accession,  and  his 
deference  to  the  claims  of  his  nobles. 

^  See  Rawlinson  :  Seventh  Oriental  Monarchy,  p.  605. 


414  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

him  riding  in  triumph,  holding  a  conquered  Caesar  with 
one  arm  while  he  guides  his  steed  with  the  other,  the  em- 
bassies of  nations  on  their  knees  around  him,  pleading  for 
mercy  or  for  ransom  for  the  royal  captive,  it  would  seem, 
in  vain.  How  these  Persians  seized  the  historic  value  of 
his  achievement,  lavishing  upon  it  such  munificence  of 
art  as  that  of  the  great  tablet  representing  his  triumph  by 
a  hundred  and  fifty  figures,  animal  and  human !  Their 
colossal  carving  delighted  in  the  theme  of  the  royal  sons 
of  Ahura  charging  the  children  of  Ahriman  on  steeds  full 
of  nervous  power,  kings  dead  and  still  beneath  their  feet, 
or  Ahriman  himself  grovelling  in  chains  before  them. 
Never  was  the  heroic  ideal  of  Mazdeism  so  fulfilled  as 
in  this  Sassanian  line.  They  more  than  made  good  the 
terrible  prestige  won  by  Parthian  arms;  holding  Cocsar 
after  C^sar  at  bay,  carrying  one  away  captive,  annihilating 
the  splendid  army  of  a  second,  and  defeating  a  third, 
alternating  defeat  with  victory,  for  centuries  the  only  coun- 
terpoise to  the  power  that  was  to  rule  the  world  at  last. 
Gibbon  describes  it  as  the  height  of  the  Emperor  Julian's 
ambition,  "  despising  the  trophies  of  a  Gothic  victory,  to 
chastise  the  haughty  nation  "  which,  as  he  had  said  in  his 
satire  on  the  Caesars,  had  so  defied  the  Roman  arms  that 
in  a  war  of  three  hundred  years  they  had  not  subdued  a 
single  province  of  its  dominion.^  But  the  chastisement 
fell  upon  his  own  head,  and  he  died  amidst  his  routed  and 
panic-stricken  army,  retreating  from  the  desperate  courage 
of  a  people  who  dared  to  sacrifice  all  they  possessed  that 
the  invader  might  be  fought  with  famine  and  fire,  if  heroic 
swords  should  fail.^ 

Shapur  II.,  the  conqueror  of  Julian  and  his  magnificent 
Roman  and  Arabian  army,  was  as  great  a  general  as  the 
first  of  his  name.     In  his  youth  he  delivered  Iran   from 

^  Gibbon,  xxiv. 

2  Gibbon's  noble  chapter  on  the  expedition  of  Julian. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  415 

the  earliest  incursions  of  Arab  hordes ;  in  his  maturity  he 
imposed  a  degrading  treaty  on  Rome.  Khosru  I.  and  II. 
were  equally  famous  in  the  Roman  wars ;  the  latter  cap- 
tured Jerusalem,  and  his  general  failed  to  take  Byzantium 
only  from  the  want  of  a  fleet.  In  all  his  campaigns 
against  Rome  the  first  Khosru  was  never  defeated  but 
once,  and  his  treaty  with  Justinian,  framed  upon  terms 
of  equal  advantage  to  both  empires,  became  historic  by 
a  provision  which  enjoined  upon  that  persecutor  of  Greek 
culture  to  receive  again  the  seven  great  heathen  teachers 
whom  he  had  banished,  and  restore  their  freedom  of 
speech.  Yezdegerd,^  the  last  of  the  line,  though  not  him- 
self a  soldier,  but  inclined  to  the  luxurious  habits  of  the 
old  Persian  kings,  vigorously  resisted  the  Moslem  invasion 
in  the  seventh  century  for  twenty  years,  and  only  yielded 
at  last  to  a  fanaticism  of  conquest  before  which  no  nation 
on  the  earth  could  stand. 

And  the  spirit  of  the  Sassanian  kings  was  always 
shared  by  the  local  chiefs,  when  it  was  itself  heroic ;  and 
when  it  was  tyrannical  or  weak,  they  recalled  the  old  liber- 
ties of  Iran,  and  either  dethroned  the  monarch  or  dismem- 
bered the  State.^  They  set  aside  Kobad  for  his  adherence 
to  the  communistic  schemes  of  Mazdak,  and  after  his  death 
determined    the    succession.      When    Hormazd   IV.,   after 

1  Yezdegerd,  called  "  the  Wicked "  by  Tabari,  and  by  the  priestly  traditions  of  Persia 
charged  with  every  kind  of  oppression  and  cruelty,  seems  to  have  lived  in  intense  strife  with 
his  nobles  and  other  privileged  classes,  who  took  their  revenge  on  him  for  his  resistance  to 
their  authority.  The  Christians  on  the  contrary,  who  were  humanely  treated  by  him,  as 
well  as  the  Jews,  regarded  his  memory  with  affection,  and  called  him  "the  Blessed." 
(Nbldeke's  note  to  p.  75.) 

Similar  differences  of  judgment  attach  to  the  memory  of  Hormazd,  the  son  of  Khosru, 
whom  Firdusi  treats  with  great  severity,  while  Tabari  says  he  had  strife  only  with  the  privi- 
leged classes,  and  was  a  lover  and  benefactor  of  the  poor.     (Noldeke,  p.  264.) 

The  struggle  of  the  great  Sassanians  with  their  nobles  was  vain.  In  the  later  times  the 
downfall  of  the  State  was  foreshadowed  by  the  disintegration  caused  by  this  class. 

Varahran  V.  was  a  brave,  generous,  and  most  popular  prince,  famous  for  dealing  justly 
with  all  classes  of  his  people,  and  forgiving  all  his  nobles  who  sought  to  deprive  him  of  his 
birthright  (Malcolm,  History  of  Persia,  i.  91).  His  story  in  the  epic  of  Firdusi  is  a  most 
fascinating  picture  of  the  hero,  the  philosopher,  and  the  saint. 

^  These  contentions,  as  described  by  Tabari  and  others,  were  incessant. 


41 6  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

years  of  beneficent  government,  became  a  despot,  the  tribes 
revolted  under  leadership  of  their  chiefs,  who  dethroned 
him  and  repaid  his  cruelties  by  depriving  him  of  sight. 
Then  they  placed  his  general  at  the  head  of  the  State ;  and 
when  forced  to  receive  his  son  as  their  king  they  refused  to 
be  placated,  even  though  a  Roman  army  was  brought  to 
his  assistance.  This  son  Khosru  II.,  called  Parviz,  a  man 
of  capricious  and  cruel  temper,  but  a  great  promoter  of 
art,  order,  and  social  prosperity,  when  he  fled  behind  the 
walls  of  Ctesiphon  from  the  Roman  army  of  Heraclius, 
was  imprisoned  and  put  to  death  by  his  indignant  nobles,^ 
who  had  seen  their  cities  burned,  their  sacred  fires  extin- 
guished, and  their  people  transported  by  thousands  at  a 
time.  It  was  Khosru  II.  who  tore  up  Mahomet's  letter 
demanding  submission  to  Islam,  and  flung  its  fragments 
into  the  Kara-Su,  —  which,  says  the  Mussulman  chronicler, 
shrank  within  its  banks  with  horror,  and  refused  to  fertilize 
the  land  of  a  blasphemer.  He  had  made  Persia  glorious 
abroad  and  prosperous  at  home.  He  had  plucked  out  of 
the  hands  of  Rome  the  holy  city  of  the  Jews,  which  had 
cost  her  such  a  terrible  price,  and  made  its  hated  Christians 
with  their  patriarch  march  out  into  captivity  behind  "the 
true  cross,"  —  the  sign  of  the  godhood  of  their  Christ 
changed  into  a  trophy  of  Ahura.  His  palace  was  the 
ideal  of  Persian  pride  and  splendor,  and  his  throne  was 
girded  with  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.  Yet  when  he 
basely  yielded  to  the  advance  of  the  invader,  —  or  rather, 
according  to  Tabari,  when  he  overloaded  the  people  with 
exactions,  maltreated  the  nobles,  and  committed  cruel- 
ties on  soldiers  and  prisoners,  —  the  patriotic  chiefs  forgot 
everything  but  the  personal  dishonor,  and,  led  by  his  own 
son,  deprived  him  at  once  of  life  and  crown.^ 

In   several   instances   the  crown  was  seized  by  idolized 
generals,  who  made  and  unmade  kings.^     It  was  the  army 

*  52S  A.  D.  *  Noldeke  :  Tabari,  p.  356.  ^  ibid.,  p.  396.. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  417 

that  raised  a  daughter  of  Khosru  to  the  place  of  the  first 
female  ruler  of  Iran  since  the  foundation  of  the  empire, 
to  be  succeeded  by  her  sister.  The  individual  Will  that 
had  held  its  own  throughout  Iran  for  all  these  ages,  and 
had  spent  its  pride  in  upholding  a  throne  of  national 
glory,  yielded  its  natural  result  when  that  throne  was 
hastening  to  its  fall.  Pretenders  to  royalty  arose  every- 
where, as  in  Rome  in  the  latter  days  of  the  Caesars ;  the 
crumbling  crown  was  seized  by  hand  after  hand,  and 
wrested  from  each  within  a  few  months.  Province  after 
province  fell  apart  from  the  rest,  and  the  empire  was  the 
prey  of  anarchy,  simply  from  the  absence  of  a  personality 
great  enough  to  stand  as  the  ideal  of  these  worshippers  of 
heroic  Will.  It  was  this  failure  of  the  central  ideal,  not  de- 
fect of  courage,  patriotism,  or  resource,  which  caused  this 
great  historic  structure  to  go  down  before  the  blows  of 
Rome  on  the  one  hand,  and  Islam  on  the  other.  The  power 
of  electing  their  king  had  come  back  to  the  nobles  of  Iran ; 
but  there  was  none  to  answer  to  the  meaning  of  kinghood, 
and  their  selection  of  a  prince  of  the  old  Sassanian  line 
was  a  pathetic  resort  to  legitimacy  as  their  only  hold  upon 
the  proud  traditions  of  the  State.  In  truth,  the  wealth  and 
glory  of  Persia  had  made  the  imperial  office  a  hotbed  of 
vanity  and  luxury;  and  Iranian  hero-worship  had  become 
dazzled  by  the  vain  show  of  earthly  godhood  with  which  it 
had  clothed  its  object.  The  majesty  of  the  Sassanian 
kings  was  lost,  like  the  throne  of  Jemshid,  before  the  army 
of  Heraclius  had  trampled  on  its  pride.  Yezdegerd  had 
worn  jewelry  instead  of  armor.  Khosru  had  been  se- 
duced into  luxurious  habits  by  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem. 
Kobad  II.  had  massacred  his  own  family  to  secure  the 
crown.  The  spoils  captured  and  divided  by  the  Roman 
chiefs  in  the  palace  of  Ctesiphon,  the  golden  horse  covered 
with  precious  stones,  the  silver  camel,  the  heaped-up  gems, 
and  the  jewelled  carpets  of  inestimable  price,  revealed  that 

27 


41 8  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

the  souls  of  these  later  Sassanians  had  been  buried  under 
the  splendors  of  the  mine.  The  old  ideal  of  the  servant 
of  Ahura  could  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  these  Ahrimanic 
seductions ;  and  the  national  spirit  was  already  broken 
when  the  united  frenzy  of  the  Arab  and  the  Sirocco  won 
the  decisive  battle  of  Kadisiyeh,  and  the  glorious  standard 
of  Persian  hero-worship,  the  blacksmith's  apron,  fell  into 
the  invader's  hands.  Every  successive  battle  proved  more 
clearly,  that,  while  an  ideal  loyalty  inspired  the  Mussul- 
man, all-conquering  mastership  had  departed  from  its  own 
fatherland  of  Iran.  Her  vast  armies  were  routed  and  ex- 
terminated by  a  handful  of  desert-born  heroes,  who  had 
been  scornfully  called  a  lizard-eating,  salt-drinking  horde. 
When  the  elephants  on  which  she  had  shifted  the  burden 
of  defence  that  belonged  to  men,  were  once  despoiled  of 
their  terrors  by  being  turned  upon  their  masters,  the  end 
had  come ;  and  the  Persians  saw  their  king,  not  at  the 
head  of  his  failing  hosts,  but  in  flight  on  the  distant  bor- 
ders. The  last  of  the  Sassanians  died  miserably  outside  of 
his  kingdom,  —  none  knew  certainly  how  or  where.  His 
predecessors  had  been  puppets  of  factions,  and  doomed 
victims  of  the  passions  on  whose  crests  they  had  been 
lifted  up  to  momentary  power.  Another  stream  of  Iranian 
fire  had  become  extinct,  having  burned  this  time  more 
than  four  hundred  years. 

The  Iranian  ideal  comes  to  its  typical  form  for  the  Sas- 
sanians, and  we  may  perhaps  say  for  the  Persian  race,  in 
Khosru  I.,  who  received  the  enviable  title  of  "  Soul  of 
Sweetness  "  (^Nicshirvdn),  to  which  was  added  "  The  Just  " 
{Al-Adil).  His  reputation  among  his  contemporaries  was 
unrivalled.  Agathias  speaks  of  Romans  as  well  as  Persians 
who  regarded  him  as  having  "  reached  the  summit  of  phi- 
losophical and  literary  culture,"  ^  being  familiar  through 
translators  with  the  highest  productions  of  Greek  genius; 

*  Hiitoriarum  libri,  ii.  28. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  419 

and  although  he  treats  this  tribute  with  evident  doubt,  he 
does  not  hesitate  to  declare  him  the  greatest  of  Persian 
kings,  not  excepting  Darius,  or  Cyrus  himself/  Mahomet 
is  said  to  have  held  himself  fortunate  in  being  born  during 
the  reign  of  such  a  prince.^  The  ideal  of  an  age  must 
have  shared  its  spirit;  and  this  was  an  age  when  power 
was  everywhere  purchased  by  cruelty,  from  Christian  bish- 
ops who  proved  their  piety  by  massacring  Arians  and 
Manichaeans,  to  the  Mazdean  king  opening  his  reign  by 
putting  to  death  his  own  relatives  who  conspired  to  set 
him  aside,  and  exterminating  the  heresy  of  Mazdak,  which 
was  perhaps  necessary,  by  the  sword.  Heraclius  tortured 
Jews  and  heretics ;  and  Justinian  depopulated  whole 
kingdoms,  and  destroyed  more  than  ten  times  as  many 
Samaritan  lives  alone  in  the  name  of  Christ  as  Khosru 
destroyed  Christian  ones  in  the  name  of  Ahura.*^  In  a 
period  when  law  had  not  yet  either  given  security  or  set 
limits  to  personal  power,  the  main  condition  of  political  or 
military  success  was  to  act  with  resistless  energy  in  what- 
soever of  good  or  evil  one  had  to  do.  It  is  certain  that 
Khosru  could  show  better  reason  for  his  appeals  to  the 
sword  than  most  rulers  of  his  time  could  for  theirs.  His 
principal  wars  with  Rome  were  incited  by  the  appeals  of 
oppressed  provinces  and  peoples  to  his  humanity.*  The 
heresy  of  Mazdak,  which  had  already  carried  away  the 
court,  perhaps  from  policy  through  a  natural  reaction 
against  despotism,  against  property  and  the  family,  was 
one  of  those  communistic  storms  which  any  civilized  gov- 
ernment must  suppress,  or  itself  perish.^  The  military 
energy  of  Khosru  was  marvellous,  and  had  not  its  equal  in 
Eastern  history.     There  was  no  Oriental  enervation  in  the 

1  H istoriarum  libri,  iv.  29.  '  Gibbon,  xlii. 

3  See  Gibbon,  chaps,  xliii.  xlvii  (Milman's  edition,  ii.  pp.  87,  99,  183).    See  also  Procopius: 
De  Bell.  V'and.  ii.     And  Finlay  :  Greece  imder  the  Romans,  pp.  284-288. 
*  Gibbon,  ii.  77-S2. 
^  See  Malcolm ;   History  0/  Persia,  i.  108,  109. 


420  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

will  of  this  •'  king  of  kings."  His  wars  with  the  Romans 
were  a  succession  of  rapid  and  overmastering  blows,  such 
as  the  capture  of  Antioch  and  other  Roman  cities,  with  an 
initiative  which  reminds  us  of  the  victories  of  Prussia  in 
her  war  with  Austria.  Khosru  had  the  wealth  of  these 
great  cities  in  his  treasuries  before  Rome  knew  of  his 
advance,  and  the  foundations  were  laid  in  an  hour  of  the 
prodigious  riches  which  have  made  Persia  the  synonym 
of  splendor  ever  since  his  day.  He  was  never  personally 
defeated  but  once.  He  made  treaties  in  a  grander  style 
than  other  kings,  —  no  ordinary  truce  between  the  stand- 
ing hates  of  Asia  and  Europe,  but  peace  which  was  to 
be  as  endless  as  their  wars  might  have  been ;  the  eternal 
Ahura  in  place  of  an  eternal  Ahriman,  —  the  glorious 
consummation  of  the  universe.  And  when  peace  had  to  be 
broken,  he  pursued  war  also  equally  in  the  spirit  of  his 
faith,  till  he  had  secured  fully  equal  terms  with  the  con- 
querors of  all  other  nations  but  his  own.  If  the  Christian 
dogma,  at  least  as  intolerant  as  his  own,  should  not  be 
expelled  from  Persia,  it  should  not  propagate  there;  and 
if  Persia  must  give  up  her  guardianship  of  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  Euxine,  Rome  must  pay  thirty  thousand 
pieces  of  gold  annually  for  an  undetermined  future.  Only 
Belisarius  could  check  his  path  to  the  mastership  of  the 
world ;  and  from  Arabia  to  the  Transoxanian  tribes,  his 
armies  dictated  order  and  dynastic  succession.  Besides 
inflicting  on  Justinian  the  intolerable  disgrace  of  an  an- 
nual subsidy,  he  forced  him  to  advance  seven  years  pay- 
ment of  the  same,  thereby  impoverishing  the  empire  and 
crippling  its  resources  for  supplying  mercenary  troops.^ 
Rome  was  in  no  condition  to  bear  this  drain.  Justin- 
ian's administration  was  the  most  expensive  and  wasteful 
that  had  been  known  for  a  long  period.  At  the  same  time 
the  pay  of  the  soldiers  was  cut  down  and  came  irregularly, 

1  Finlay :  Greece  under  ilw  Ramans,  p.  326. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  42 1 

mercenaries  were  put  in  the  place  of  provincial  troops,  and 
foreigners  placed  in  command ;  the  army  was  in  disorder, 
and  revolts  incessantly  weakened  its  discipline.  Justinian 
failed  to  support  his  best  generals,  who  alone,  by  the  un- 
aided force  of  military  genius,  sustained  the  fortunes  of 
his  decaying  empire  against  every  discouragement  from 
within. 

It  was  the  Persia  of  Khosru  that  brought  to  light 
the  failing  energies  of  Rome,  and  in  every  campaign 
showed  far  more  energy  than  her  mighty  rival.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  his  armies  displayed  more  indi- 
vidual valor  than  their  opponents,  who  relied  more  on 
traditional  Roman  discipline,  which,  as  we  have  just  said, 
was  already  on  the  decline.  Finlay  mentions  the  circum- 
stance, strongly  illustrative  of  our  view  of  Iranian  char- 
acter, that  the  Roman  officers  caught  from  the  Persians 
the  passion  for  personal  prowess;  ^  and  nothing  could 
have  been  more  unfavorable  to  that  subordination  and 
precision  in  which  the  strength  of  their  legions  consisted. 
Khosru  brought  all  the  States  into  political  unity  and  in- 
spired them  with  a  common  loyalty,  —  an  unprecedented 
achievement,  and  of  itself  sufficient  to  prove  him  the 
greatest  ruler  Persia  had  known.  The  old  system  of  gov- 
erning them  by  satraps,  so  fertile  of  fraud  and  dissension, 
was  superseded  by  a  fourfold  division  of  the  empire,  each 
fourth  being  placed  under  a  prefect,  and  including  several 
provinces.  Central  supervision  was  maintained  not  only  by 
the  old  expedient  of  official  espionage,  but  by  personal  in- 
spection. In  both  these  ways  Khosru  appears  to  have  dili- 
gently watched  over  the  comfort  and  security  of  the  poorer 
classes,  to  whose  appeal  special  courts  of  inquiry  were 
always  open.  Poor  and  orphan  children  were  the  care 
of  the  State,  and  officials  were  bidden  to  carry  the  poor 
in  their  bosoms.     P"or  this  kind  of  virtue  the  Mahometan 

^  Finlay :  Greece  under  tlu  Romans,  p.  25S. 


422  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

writers  give  him  highest  credit.  Mirkhond  relates  that  he 
executed  eighty  tax-gatherers  at  one  time  for  extortion, 
and  rendered  taxation  uniform,  systematic,  and  moderate ; 
exempting  women,  together  with  the  very  old  and  the  very 
young.  Many  hundred  years  after  his  time,  the  people  of 
Ctesiphon  showed  strangers  a  little  house  hard  by  the  ruins 
of  his  palace,  as  a  memorial  of  the  humanity  of  the  just 
king.  When  about  to  build  a  palace,  Khosru  gave  or- 
ders that  all  the  buildings  on  the  spot  should  be  bought, 
and  the  highest  price  paid  to  their  owners.  But  one  poor 
old  woman  refused  to  sell  her  little  homestead,  saying  that 
she  would  not  give  up  the  king's  neighborhood  for  the 
whole  world ;  whereat  the  king  was  so  pleased,  that  he 
not  only  allowed  the  house  to  stand,  but  so  improved  it 
that  it  lasted  longer  than  his  palace  itself.^  "  Irregularity 
with  justice,"  added  a  courtier,  "  is  better  than  symmetry 
purchased  by  wrong."  The  legend  grew,  of  course  always 
to  the  greater  honor  of  the  hero.  Thus  the  servants  of  the 
palace  complained  to  the  king  that  the  paintings  on  its 
walls  were  suffering  from  the  smoke  that  came  from  the 
old  woman's  fire ;  but  Khosru  commanded  that  the  pic- 
tures should  be  renewed  as  often  as  they  needed  it,  and 
that  no  one  should  molest  the  hearth  of  the  poor.^  It  is 
related  that  being  sick,  the  king  was  advised  by  his  phy- 
sicians to  take  as  a  remedy  pounded  brick  from  a  ruined 
Persian  town ;  but  when  the  messengers  returned  from 
searching  after  it,  they  reported  that  not  a  ruined  town 
was  to  be  found  in  his  dominions.  When  warned  against 
going  abroad  without  protection,  he  wrote  :  "  Justice  is  the 
protection  of  kings."  "  All  I  give  to  worthy  people  is 
saved,  not  lost."  "  The  happiness  of  his  people  is  a 
better  defence  for  a  king  than  armies,  and  justice  a  bet- 
ter fertilizer  of  his  lands  than  the  happiest  climate."     To 

•  Travels  of  Yai;ut-el-Rumi  (twelfth  century),  Zeitschr.  d.  Deuisch.  Morgenl-  Geselhck. 
xviii.  406.  -  Caswine,  ibid. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  423 

his  son  Hormazd  he  left  this  last  injunction :  "  Remem- 
ber the  poor;  and  be  not  seduced  by  indolence  and  self- 
indulgence."  And  the  pious  son  of  Islam,  catching  this 
broad  humanity  of  an  unbeliever,  concludes,  — "  Since 
death  has  not  spared  this  great  prince,  the  wise  man 
should- not  attach  himself  to  the  goods  of  this  world."  ^ 
A  true  Zoroastrian,  Khosru  reorganized  industry,  and 
encouraged  agriculture.  After  the  fashion  of  model  Ori- 
ental kings,  he  established  a  fixed  land-tax,  and  advanced 
seed  and  implements  to  the  husbandmen.^  His  laws  pro- 
vided for  reclaiming  waste  lands ;  he  enforced  irrigation, 
punished  idleness,  and  opened  good  roads  through  the 
empire.  The  great  dike  of  Shuster,  built  of  immense 
stones  clamped  together,  is  claimed  as  his  work.  To 
purify  administration,  the  official  "jackals"  throughout  the 
country  were  put  to  death. ^  To  increase  population,  mar- 
riage was  made  compulsory,  immigration  encouraged,  and 
colonists  from  conquered  countries  were  settled  on  the 
land.*  To  protect  his  empire  from  the  northern  hordes, 
he  completed  the  long  wall  commenced  by  Kobad,  famous 
as  the  barrier  of  Gog  and  Magog,  of  stones  seven  feet  thick 
and  twenty  feet  long,  without  cement,  and  which  still 
stands  stretching  three  hundred  miles  along  the  Georgian 
mountains ;  and  in  every  treaty  with  Rome  he  jealously 
stipulated  that  both  empires  should  unite  in  guarding  these 
borders  from  the  common  foe.  It  was  a  curious  instance 
of  the  intermingling  of  barbarous  with  humane  impulses 
which  characterized  this  great  type  of  Iranian  Will,  that  he 
built  a  new  city  out  of  the  spoils  of  his  terrible  Syrian  cam- 
paign, —  a  march  as  merciless  to  life  as  it  was  rapacious 
of  booty,  —  put  his  Syrian  captives  into  this  new  home  as 
like  as  possible  to  that  from  which  they  were  exiled,  and 


'  Mirkliond  :  Hisioire  des  Sassanides,  translated  by  De  Sacy. 

-  Malcolm:  History  of  Persia,  i.  115.  s  Ibid.,  1.  117. 

*  Rawliiison  :  Persia. 


424  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

made  it  an  asylum  for  Greek  slaves.  As  he  forsook  the 
use  of  wood  for  that  of  stone  in  his  public  buildings,  so  he 
seemed  to  possess  the  gift  in  administration  of  putting 
everything  to  new  and  permanent  uses.  Thus  the  past  and 
future  of  Persia  centred  in  him.  He  revived  the  old  code 
(or  rather  moral  and  political  maxims)  of  Ardeshir,  and 
so  ennobled  it  that  its  important  features  passed  over  into 
the  golden  age  of  the  Mussulman  caliphs.  He  made  the 
priesthood  watchers  over  the  interests  of  the  people  by 
inspection  of  the  conduct  of  officials.  Above  all,  his 
services  to  literature  and  philosophy  conferred  immortal 
renown  on  his  country  and  his  race.  Even  on  the  Mus- 
sulman conquerors  his  intellectual  reputation  produced  a 
kind  of  messianic  awe,  and  took  the  usual  mythical  form 
of  a  childhood,  before  which  the  aged  counsellors  of  the 
kingdom  bent  to  hear  a  wisdom  higher  than  their  own.^ 

The  testimony  of  Agathias  to  his  encouragement  of  free 
discussion  on  theological  and  cosmical  questions  is  qualified 
by  the  Byzantine's  studied  contempt  for  the  sophist  Uranius, 
with  whom  he  declares  the  king  to  have  been  infatuated,  and 
by  his  vivid  description  of  the  disappointment  of  the  seven 
Greek  scholars  at  the  whole  character  of  Persian  civiliza- 
tion, which  they  had  painted  in  ideal  colors  before  their 
arrival  at  the  court.  According  to  Agathias,  these  cul- 
tivated men  hurried  away,  persuaded  that  it  would  be 
better  to  suffer  immediate  martyrdom  on  reaching  their 
native  country  than  to  endure  the  spectacle  of  such  bar- 
barous customs  and  corrupt  administration.  But  the 
Greek  historian  evidently  writes  under  a  strong  bias 
against  "  the  barbarian,"  and  contradicts  that  high  repute 
of  Persia  in  enlightened  Athens  on  which  the  sages  had 
based  their  glowing  expectations,  and  in  regard  to  which 
the  Athenians  could  not  have  been  mistaken.     The  trans- 

'  Mirkhond.  Be  Sicy's  translation  ol  Hzsiotre  des  Sassamdes,  p.  ssg.  T^'dldeke's  Taiart, 
p    162. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  425 

cendental  nature  of  the  questions  discussed  at  the  court 
of  Khosrii,  although  put  in  a  ridiculous  Ught  by  the  shal- 
low chronicler,  prove  intellectual  tastes  and  sympathies 
of  a  high  order.  Here  was  a  king  of  Asia  who  made 
actual  what  Alexander  had  dreamed ;  who  had  set  trans- 
lators at  work  upon  all  the  great  philosophies  and  poems 
of  Greece ;  who  could  read  and  discuss  them ;  who  took 
pride  in  furnishing  every  aid  to  the  Greek-speaking  world 
for  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  his  country  and  its  institu- 
tions;^ who  founded  colleges  and  schools;^  who  stands  out 
as  a  calm  rationalist  in  relief  against  the  fanaticism  of  his 
day;  who  compelled  the  priesthood  of  Ahura  to  meet  and 
tolerate  the  speculative  and  religious  thought  of  the  world  ; 
who  opened  his  arms  to  the  representatives  of  Greek  cul- 
ture when  their  schools  had  been  closed  and  their  voices 
silenced  by  the  Christian  Church  and  State;  and  who  made 
special  provision  for  their  liberty  of  teaching  in  his  treaty 
with  Rome.'^  "  He  began  his  reign,"  says  Mirkhond,  "  by 
proclaiming  that  his  power  did  not  extend  over  the  con- 
sciences of  his  subjects,  since  only  the  All-seeing  could 
judge  the  heart;  that  justice,  not  caprice,  should  govern 
his  judgments,  and  that  administrative  reform  was  his 
first  duty.  Behold  the  reward  of  righteousness ;  time  has 
not  been  able  to  destroy  the  palace  of  Khosru."*  His 
interest  in  physical  studies  was  a  rare  thing  in  that  age, 
and  could  least  be  expected  in  an  Asiatic  monarch  ;  and 
his  medical  school  at  Susa  embraced  the  study  of  phi- 
losophy and  poetry.  His  vizier,  Abu-zurd-Mihir,  raised 
from  the  lowest  ranks  through  the  penetration  of  the  king, 
is   scarcely   less    famous    for  wisdom    and   humanity  than 

1  Through  his  favorite  interpreter,  Sergius,  to  whom  Agathias  was  indebted  for  what  he 
has  recorded  (History,  iv.  30,  Latin). 

^  So  says  Malcolm,  i.  iro. 

3  Noldeke  ;   Tabari,  p.  162. 

*  Mirkhond:  Sassanian  Kings,  translated  by  De  Sacy.  See  also  Zeenui-icl-Tuarikh. 
(Malcolm,  i.   108),  and  Firdiisi's  account  ol  hts  talks  with  the  Mobads- 


426  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Khosru  himself.^     Firdusi  records  his  magnificent  declar- 
ation of  the  rights  of  conscience. 

But  Khosru's  greatest  services  to  future  ages  were  per- 
formed in  collecting  and  preserving  the  heroic  legends  of 
Iran,  which  were  destined  to  become  immortal  as  the  Shah- 
Nameh,  or  Book  of  Kings;  and  in  bringing  out  of  India, 
and  transmitting  through  a  Pehlevi  version  to  all  languages 
of  the  civilized  world  the  oldest  Bible  for  Rulers,  —  the 
marvellous  Sanskrit  Apologues,  which  are  known  to  us,  in 
substance,  through  two  variations,  the  "  Hitopade^a  "  and 
the  "  Pancha-tantra," — as  the  noblest  treasury  of  practical 
wisdom  and  humane  culture  in  the  Oriental  world.  In 
what  form  this  old  Book  of  Wisdom  was  brought  into 
Persia  we  cannot  now  tell ;  for,  like  the  rest  of  the  native 
Persian  literature  of  the  Sassanian  period,  the  translation 
made  by  order  of  Khosril  perished  at  the  Moslem  con- 
quest. We  know  it  only  through  an  expanded  Mahome- 
tan-Persian version  of  the  fifteenth  century, — the  "Anvar-i 
Suhaili,"  or  "  Lights  of  Canopus,"  —  and  from  the  Arabic 
version  of  the  eighth  century  of  the  "  Book  of  'Kalilah  and 
Damnah,' "  of  which  the  other  was  a  secondary  revision.^  It 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  king's  Pehlevi  translation 
much  more  closely  resembled  the  Hindu  originals  we  have 
named,  than  do  these  later  Mahometan  ones.  While  the 
"  Pancha-tantra  "  and  the  "  Hitopadega  "  themselves  ma- 
terially differ  from  each  other  in  their  list  of  fables,  and  still 
more  in  the  maxims  which  are  thickly  strown  among  them, 
they  are  alike  in  their  extreme  directness  and  simplicity  of 
form,  which  is  in  absolute  contrast  with  the  verbose  and 
hyperbolic  language  of  the  later  Persian  "Anvar-i  Suhaili." 
Besides  this  difference  of  style,  the  Persian  work  contains  a 
very  large  amount  of  material  not  to  be  found  in  either  of 


1  See  chap,  on  Shah-Nameh. 

-  Both  have  been  translated  into  English,  —  Kalilah  and  Damfuth,  by  Knatchbull,  1819; 
and  the  Anvar-i  Suliaill,  by  Eastwick,  1S54. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  427 

the  Others,  and  is  thoroughly  Persian  in  its  character.  But 
the  spirit  of  all  three  is  one  and  the  same;  and  throughout 
all  the  changes  undergone  by  this  venerable  Gospel  of  the 
Duties  of  Kings,  there  is  no  marring  of  the  soul  of  justice, 
tenderness,  nobility,  and  reverence  for  humanity  which 
pervades  these  genial  tales  and  aphorisms;  no  lowering  of 
the  tone  of  serious  remonstrance  and  rebuke,  of  high  ex- 
hortation couched  in  parable  and  hint  and  maxim  ;  no  wav- 
ering from  the  standard  set  before  the  sovereign,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  "  Anvar-i  Suhaili,"  when  he  accepts  labor 
and  trial  for  "  the  repose  of  his  oppressed  subjects  and 
the  peace  of  the  poor  among  his  people,"^'  and  at  the  end 
when  his  epitaph  reads,  — 

'*  Two  things  life  offers,  —  fame,  the  virtuous  deed. 
Save  these,  '  All  tilings  ai'e  sjibject  to  decay^ 
Injure  not  others,  help  men  to  succeed  ; 
Thus  shalt  thou  reap  a  blessing  for  to-day  — 
And  the  next  world,  when  this  hath  passed  away."^ 

Firdusi  tells  us  the  legend,  that  Barsuyah  the  physician 
brought  word  to  Khosru  of  a  Hindu  book  which  taught 
how  to  bring  the  dead  to  life,  where  the  wise  interpreted 
the  teaching  to  mean  resurrection  from  the  death  of  ignor- 
ance ;  and  being  successful  in  committing  it  piecemeal  to 
memory,  he  brought  it  to  Persia  in  great  joy,  saying,  "  The 
ocean  of  wisdom  has  indeed  come  to  us,"  and  begged  of 
the  king  that  the  vizier  in  re-editing  it  might  make  the 
opening  a  memorial  of  himself. 

This  dumb  morality,  and  the  reverence  for  a  Providen- 
tial destiny,  which  is  equally  prominent  in  the  IMahom- 
etan  version,  is  in  substance  identical  with  the  homely, 
practical,  uninspired  tone  of  the  Hindu  books,  through 
all  the  difference  of  form.  We  may  be  sure  that  Khosru's 
information  of  the  world-famed  book,  "  whose  wisdom  in 
all  that  befits  a  king  had  been  compiled  from  the  speech 

1  Anvar-i  Suhaili^  p.  70-  ^  Ibid.,  p.  649. 


428  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

of  animals,"  and  his  unspeakable  desire  to  obtain  it,  were 
associated  with  these  all-pervading  qualities  that  make  it 
so  impressive  to  us ;  and  if,  as  the  Mahometan  writer  as- 
sures us,  "  his  actions,  as  they  may  be  traced  in  his  justice 
and  beneficence,  his  conquests  of  countries  and  his  ways 
of  soothing  the  hearts  of  his  subjects,  were  based  on  the 
perusal  of  this  book,"  we  can  understand  why  it  is  that  he 
stands  at  the  zenith  of  royalty  for  all  Persian  and  even 
Mahometan  faith. 

The  age  of  Khosru  brings  him  into  direct  contrast  and 
comparison  with  another  great  monarch  of  equal  fame,  but 
of  far  inferior  qualities,  the  head  of  Christendom  as  he  was 
of  Heathendom,  —  the  Roman  emperor,  Justinian,  with 
whose  name  are  associated  the  compilation  of  Roman 
law  and  the  general,  though  by  no  means  final,  suppression 
of  Paganism  in  the  Christian  world.  The  most  striking 
difference  is  that  the  glory  of  Khosru  is  thoroughly  per- 
sonal, that  of  Justinian  external  and  incidental.  Justinian 
was  a  bad  administrator  of  the  empire,  financial,  political, 
civil,  religious ;  he  was  a  bigot,  and  an  extortioner  from  the 
poor.  "  His  victories  and  his  losses,"  says  Gibbon,  "  w^ere 
alike  pernicious  to  mankind."  Italy  and  Africa  were 
desolated  ;  Vandals  and  Moors  were  slain  by  millions  ;  and 
fifty  thousand  laborers  were  starved  in  a  single  district  of 
Italy  alone.  "  Khosru,"  says  Procopius,^  "  was  a  bad  man, 
but  it  was  Justinian  who  incessantly  stirred  up  the  Persian 
wars."  Under  his  system  of  taxation,  landed  proprietors 
were  impoverished  and  reduced  to  the  level  of  slaves ;  his 
civil-service  system  was  far  more  corrupt  than  the  Persian, 
his  treasury  filled  with  the  open  sale  of  offices.  He  cheated 
his  troops  of  their  pay,  heaped  abuse  upon  his  best  gen- 
erals, and  left  them  unaided  in  face  of  overpowering  foes. 
The  whole  empire  was  discouraged  and  demoralized  at  the 
moment  when  hordes  of  barbarians  threatened   its  very 

1  Historia  Arcana,  p.  iS. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  429 

existence  with  incessant  raids  and  terrible  devastations. 
He  even  cut  down  the  army  to  save  expense,  while  he  lav- 
ished immense  sums  on  public  buildings  and  churches  and 
monasteries.  He  closed  the  schools  of  philosophy,  and 
destroyed  the  municipal  institutions  of  Greece.  He  abol- 
ished the  Olympic  games,  but  encouraged  the  frightfully 
riotous  and  internecine  factions  of  the  circus.  He  emptied 
the  local  treasuries  of  Greece,  and  gave  over  her  cities  to 
ruin.  The  central  authority  was  broken  down  for  all  pur- 
poses but  that  of  persecution,  and  its  place  filled  with  the 
anarchical  wilfulness  of  soldiers,  monks,  usurers,  sects,  and 
officials. 

And  perhaps  one  main  reason,  that  with  all  the  military 
prestige  of  the  Roman  empire  it  found  itself  again  and 
again  beaten  back  by  Persia,  lay  in  this  premature  dis- 
integration by  the  extortionate,  selfish,  and  intolerant 
policy  of  Justinian  and  his  successors.  Nothing  in  his 
private  character  could  justify  confidence  or  quicken  the 
failing  patriotism  of  the  empire.  John  of  Cappadocia, 
notoriously  the  most  villanous  ecclesiastic  of  his  day,  was 
his  special  favorite.  His  early  intrigues  and  crimes,  and 
his  uxorious  submission  throughout  his  long  reign  to  the 
unscrupulous  Theodora,  whose  vices  filled  all  the  best  his- 
torical writers  of  the  age  with  indignation  and  contempt, 
gave  added  impulse  to  the  downward  tendencies  of  the 
State. ^  That  dissolution  of  nationality  into  multitudes  of 
discordant,  rebellious  wills,  which  befell  the  last  days  of 
Sassanian  Persia,  began  at  a  much  earlier  moment  in  the 
Graeco-Roman  empire  ;  and  in  both,  the  compensation  was 
a  return  in  some  measure  to  that  force  of  personality 
which  always  conditions  the  passing  away  of  old  systems, 
and  the  entrance  of  new  social  or  religious  forces. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  new  life  thus  introduced 
into  the  decaying  frame  of  Justinian's  empire  was  Chris- 

1  Gibbon,  xlvii. 


430  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

tianity ;  but  Christianity  was  itself  the  reHgion  of  the  State, 
the  narrowing  creed,  the  rule  of  ecclesiastical  councils  and 
military  edicts,  tending  to  the  utter  annihilation  of  per- 
sonal freedom  and  rational  inquiry.  The  new  life  which 
national  disintegration  indicated  was  the  birth  of  heresy 
everywhere,  the  heroism  of  martyrs,  the  building  up  of  a 
rival  religion,  which  absorbed  great  sections  of  the  Roman 
world. 

It  is  stated  by  Procopius,  that  the  persecutions  by  Jus- 
tinian of  Christians  and  Pagans  alike  not  only  caused  great 
religious  revolts  in  various  parts  of  the  empire,  which  re- 
sulted in  multitudes  of  deaths  by  suicide  and  war,  and 
great  accessions  to  Paganism  and  Manichseism,  but  that 
by  reason  of  them  great  numbers  fled  for  shelter  to  nations 
outside  of  Roman  or  Christian  sway.^  His  superstition 
made  him  a  willing  tool  of  an  intolerant  priesthood,  so  that, 
as  Gibbon  says,  "his  whole  reign  was  a  uniform  yet  various 
scene  of  persecution."  He  gave  bishops  the  right  to  use 
the  military  arm  to  compel  conversions.  He  was  so  fool- 
ish as  to  believe  that  all  the  heresy  in  his  empire  could  be 
abolished  by  a  three  months'  warning  to  be  converted  or 
banished,  and  Paganism  be  destroyed  by  inquisitors ;  also 
for  the  crime  of  a  creed,  he  stamped  out  almost  the 
whole  nation  of  the  Samaritans,  from  which  his  Master  had 
brought  a  type  of  humanity  to  rebuke  the  priests  and  Le- 
vites  of  his  own  race.  He  refused  unbelievers  in  Christian- 
ity the  right  to  testify,  to  teach,  or  to  bequeath,  and  imposed 
death  as  a  penalty  for  refusing  baptism.  But  by  the  irony 
of  events,  this  arch-persecutor  of  heretics  died  not  without 
the  taint  of  heresy  upon  his  name. 

Every  portion  of  the  empire  was  devastated  by  these 
systematic  attempts  to  eradicate  both  Pagan  and  hereti- 
cal  belief,^   and   the   Byzantine   historians  even  talk  of  a 

1  Procopius  :  Hisioria  A  rcaiut,  xi. 

2  Gibljon,  chap,  xlvii.  pp  182-83.     Finlay  :  History  0/ Greece,  p.  324. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  43  I 

depopulation  of  the  world  by  his  religious  wars.^  The 
ecclesiastical  writers  themselves  denounce  the  imperial 
couple  of  "Christian"  propagandists,  whose  very  differ- 
ences and  discords  added  to  the  general  miseries.'^  "They 
seemed  not  human,  but  some  malignant  form  of  demonic 
existence  sent  to  plague  mankind."  ^  Yet  all  their  bar- 
barity failed  to  eradicate  Paganism,  which  was  destined 
to  reappear  in  a  more  powerful  form  than  ever,  when  the 
gigantic  empire  of  Islam  arose  among  the  outposts  of  the 
empire,  and  drove  back  the  advancing  tide  of  Christianity 
from  some  of  its  fairest  portions.  Nor  must  we  forget  that 
this  new  form  of  Paganism  not  only  drew  under  the  shelter 
of  its  wings  some  of  the  best  elements  of  Christianity,'*  as 
well  as  of  Mazdeism,  but  also  contained  within  itself  prin- 
ciples, spiritual  and  ethical,  at  least  as  elevated  as  the 
degenerate  church  of  the  later  Roman  empire. 

In  truth,  the  fall  of  the  Byzantine  as  well  as  that  of  the 
Persian  State  illustrates  the  destiny  of  politico-religious 
systems  based  on  the  authority  of  Will.^  Justinian  and  his 
successors  absorbed  all  those  duties  which  truly  educate 
the  citizen,  into  absolute  personal  government,  directed  by 
the  absolutism  of  a  monarchical  Church,  whose  sovereign 
will  they  claimed  to  represent.  Justin,  Maurice,  Phocas, 
Heraclius,  some  of  them  really  good  and  able  men,  all 
pursued  the  same  policy  of  unifying  the  religious  beliefs  of 
the  empire  by  the  often  barbarous  exercise  of  despotic 
will ;  and  so  the  destruction  of  all  those  broad  national 
sympathies  and  institutions  by  which  a  people  are  trained 
to  obey  good  laws  and  confide  in  those  who  administer 
t  them,  went  on  in  spite  of  every  virtuous  effort  by  the  ruler 
to  reconcile  his  system  with  the  public  good.^     When  the 

1  Procopius  :  Historia  Arcana,  xviii.  ^  Jbid.,  iii.  '  Ibid.,  xii. 

*  For  example,  Nestorian  schools  of  Syria,  after  their  expulsion  by  Justinian,  and  then  by 
Leo  the  Isaiirian. 

5  Procopius  :  Historia  Arcana,  xxx. 

"  See  the  striking  picture  of  tliese  tendencies  in  Finlay's  Greece  ttnder  the  Romans. 
Zeller  :  Entretiens  sur  I  'histoire,  x. 


432  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

Persian  empire  neared  its  fall,  it  had  gone  through  similar 
disintegrating  phases,  not  so  much  from  the  absolutism  of 
orthodoxy  as  from  the  weakness  of  monarchs  who  failed 
to  justify  the  popular  demand  for  heroic  personal  ideals. 
The  logic  of  human  nature  brought  a  common  result  to 
both.  But  a  new  and  stronger  will  than  royal  vicegerent 
of  Ormuzd  or  of  Christ  appeared  in  the  Allah  of  Islam, 
whose  decrees  wrought  in  his  servant's  will  with  the  re- 
sistless power  of  Fate. 

There  is  indeed  another  side  to  this  picture  of  Justinian, 
which  has  doubtless  been  colored  by  partisan  feeling.  His 
priv^ate  habits  seem  to  have  been  pure,^  and  his  passions 
under  control.  There  are  evidences  of  real  humanity  in 
his  re-enactment  of  Constantine's  law  against  gladiatorial 
shows ;  and  his  literary  and  artistic  tastes  were  proved  by 
a  multitude  of  public  works,  as  well  as  by  his  constant 
intercourse,  within  the  limits  of  his  creed,  with  men  of 
high  culture  in  every  department  of  thought  and  action. 
In  all  these  respects  he  is  not  discredited  by  comparison 
with  his  great  contemporary.  He  was  a  centre  of  illustrious 
men ;  his  great  architect  Anthemius,  his  great  jurist  Tri- 
bonian,  his  great  generals  Belisarius  and  Narses,  his  great 
historian  Procopius,  were  a  glory  of  which  any  emperor 
might  be  proud.  Above  all,  the  devotion  of  the  great 
legal  talent  of  the  age  to  the  codification  of  Roman  law 
out  of  the  confused  heap  of  traditions,  decisions,  and  special 
codes  gathered  from  the  writings  of  forty  civilians,  and  the 
concentration  of  two  thousand  treatises  into  fifty  books  ;  the 
separation  of  all  these  data  into  their  historical  elements 
and  order  of  growth,  and  the  stamping  of  the  whole  with 
the  fruits  of  Roman  civilization  in  the  jurisprudence  of  his 
own  time,  —  this  marvellous  substructure  of  the  legislation 
of  the   modern   civilized  world   is  an    achievement  which 

1  It  will  not  do  to  attach  too  much  confidence  to  the  strange  revelations  of  Procopius,  in 
his  Sc-crei  Memoirs,  which  differ  so  utterly  from  his  Public  History  of  the  Emperor. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  433 

may  well  immortalize  the  names  of  all  who  had  share  in 
its  accomplishment.  For  the  public  spirit,  the  persevering 
energy,  the  legal  acumen  and  research  required  for  this 
vast  undertaking,  the  praise  belongs  to  Justinian  and  the 
great  lawyers  whom  he  selected  for  it,  —  especially  to  Tri- 
bonian,  the  master-spirit  of  the  whole.  But  that  which 
constitutes  the  immortal  value  of  the  Pandects  and  the 
Code  does  not  belong  to  that  age,  or  to  its  ruling  spirits 
in  government  or  law.  Their  best  was  not  the  work  of 
Christian  emperors.  Their  limitations  to  the  "  patria  po- 
testas;  "  their  steps  towards  testamentary  justice,  towards 
the  emancipation  of  women  and  of  slaves ;  their  broad 
recognition  of  the  jiis  gejitiiun  or  laws  of  universal  appli- 
cation as  distinguished  from  the  privileges  of  Roman  de- 
scent or  rights  of  conquest,  —  whatever  gives  breadth  and 
permanent  value  to  this  monument  of  jurisprudence  was 
mainly  the  work  of  a  nobler  and  freer  age,  the  product  of 
the  spirit  infused  into  Roman  law  by  the  great  Stoic  school, 
centuries  previous,  when  they  brought  the  equity  of  their 
philosophical  "  Law  of  Nature"  to  bear  upon  the  accumu- 
lating laws  of  nations  and  the  praetorian  edicts  by  which 
these  were  administered  as  nearly  as  possible  upon  a  com- 
mon basis ;  and  not  only  upon  these,  but  upon  the  civil 
law  of  the  Roman  State,  as  developed  through  successive 
ages  and  codes. ^  The  effect  of  this  grand  ethical  con- 
ception of  Stoicism  was  the  rapid  adjustment  of  laws  to 
universal  principles  of  justice  and  the  rights  and  duties 
of  humanity.  The  great  age  of  Roman  jurisprudence 
covers  the  reigns  of  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines.^  The 
imperial  constitutions  which  succeeded  that  period  are 
marked  by  reaction  to  despotic  sway,  and  by  increasing 
servility  in  the  construction  and  interpretation  of  laws. 
And  the  treatment  of  this  nobler  legislation  by  Justinian 

*  See  Maine's  Ancient  Law,  p.  65. 
2  Compare  Woolsey's  Introduction  to  Roman  Law. 
28 


434  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

and  his  supple  parliament  of  jurists  was  in  full  keeping  with 
these  accepted  requirements  of  the  interests  of  the  State. 
Besides  av^oiding  the  freer  and  purer  spirits  of  the  old  re- 
public, they  corrupted  the  records  of  these  best  days  of 
the  empire,  and  blotted  out  the  noblest  statutes,  which 
they  dared  not  indorse.  And  so  unscrupulously  was  this 
done,  that  "  the  contradictions  of  the  Code  and  Pandects 
still  exercise  the  patience  and  subtilty  of  modern  civil- 
ians." ^  How  far  the  same  hands  are  responsible  for  the 
disappearance  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  literature  and 
data  of  Roman  jurisprudence  is  uncertain  ;  the  charge  of  a 
deliberate  purpose  to  destroy  what  did  not  suit  the  des- 
potic aims  of  Justinian  has  no  other  ground  than  the  sup- 
pression and  corruption  already  mentioned.  But  the  work 
which  was  to  supersede  them  came  very  near  to  sharing 
their  fate;  and  it  is  said  that  all  the  manuscripts  of  the 
Pandects  are  derived  from  one  original,  preserved  with 
devout  care  in  the  palace  of  the  Florentine  republic.^ 

The  jurisprudence  of  Justinian  was  in  fact  no  exception 
to  the  general  spirit  of  his  reign.  Whatever  the  oppor- 
tunities, afforded  by  his  grand  survey  of  national  experi- 
ence, he  discovered  no  means  of  staying  the  degeneracy 
of  Roman  civilization.  As  compared  with  Constantinople 
at  this  period,  Persia  was  a  country  of  order  and  law.  The 
horrible  anarchy  of  the  circus,  with  its  incessant  blood- 
shed and  sensuality  (so  vividly  described  by  Gibbon),^ 
stimulated  to  its  worst  excesses  by  the  emperor's  own 
eager  support  and  encouragement  of  the  most  barbarous 
of  the  factions,*  was  unparalleled  in  any  heathen  land. 
In  the  ferocious  brawl  of  the  Nika  sedition,  the  best  part 
of  the  city  was  ravaged  and  burned  by  the  savage  factions 
of  the  Blues  and  Greens,  and  thirty  thousand  persons 
slaughtered,  —  a   carnage    suppressed   only   by  the   vigor 

1  Gibbon,  chap.  xliv.  =  Ibid.  ^  Ibid.,  chap.  xl. 

*  See  Zeller's  account  of  the  massacre  nf  the  Nika  {Eniretiens  sur  V  hisioire),  chap.  x. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  435 

of  Belisarius.  Yet  these  factions  were  deliberately  en- 
couraged by  the  imperial  champions  of  Christianity  and 
law.  The  long,  lingering  decay  of  the  Byzantine  empire, 
—  plucked  by  barbarians  and  assailed  by  Turks,  torn  by 
political  and  religious  factions,  by  strife  with  Rome  and 
Alexandria,  crazed  with  theological  disputes,  —  was  one 
wretched  commingling  of  rebellion,  assassination,  and  dis- 
traction, dominated  only  by  the  insane  endeavor  to  enforce 
uniformity  of  religious  belief.  The  military  and  adminis- 
trative genius  of  Heraclius  furnished  the  only  check  upon 
this  headlong  descent.  And  when  Persia  fell  under  the 
sway  of  Islam,  a  future  of  intellectual  and  political  great- 
ness opened  upon  her,  in  striking  contrast  with  the  mel- 
ancholy spectacle  of  this  servile  empire,  the  bequest  of 
Justinian  to  his  Church  and  his  laws. 

The  fierce  intolerance  of  Justinian,  though  in  extreme 
contrast  with  the  spirit  of  his  Persian  rival,  was  entirely  in 
accordance  with  that  of  most  Sassanian  kings.  Mazdeism, 
like  Judaism  and  Christianity,  could  not  tolerate  a  different 
object  of  worship  from  its  own,  because  this  object  of  its 
worship  was  a  single  personal  Will,  ruling  its  worshippers 
by  direct  command.  The  bitter  exclusiveness  of  the  Per- 
sian Mobads  betrayed  itself  whenever  they  were  intrusted 
by  their  kings  with  power,  as  invariably  as  did  that  of  the 
Christian  priesthood  and  Moslem  orthodox  upon  a  like 
opportunity.  The  Sassanian  line  began  with  an  exter- 
minating warfare  upon  all  unbelievers  in  Ahura,  whose 
holiness  could  not  endure  the  presence  of  these  servants 
of  Ahriman ;  and  their  successors,  for  the  most  part,  fol- 
lowed in  the  same  track.  From  this  intolerance  the  Jews 
were  excepted,  almost  always  continuing  on  good  terms 
with  the  Persians,  partly  from  a  common  veneration  for 
the  name  of  Cyrus,  and  partly  from  the  very  intensity  of 
exclusiveness  common  to  Ahura  and  Jahveh,  which,  com- 
bined with  great  ethical  resemblance,  strongly  suggested 


436  POLITICAL  FORCES. 

that  they  were  one  and  the  same  God.  The  comparative 
weakness  of  the  Jews  and  their  hatred  of  Rome  were  also 
points  of  attraction  for  the  Sassanian  monarchs,  who  found 
Christianity  far  more  dangerous  than  Judaism,  and  especi- 
ally after  its  ascension  to  the  throne  of  the  Caesars.  Shapur 
I.,  the  great  conqueror,  was  believed,  from  the  inscription 
at  Haji-Abad,  to  have  embraced  Christianity;  but  the 
reading  has  been  shown  by  liaug  to  be  erroneous.  That 
he  first  encouraged  Mani  and  then  banished  him,  is  uncer- 
tain tradition;  that  the  great  heretic  returned,  to  be  put  to 
death  by  Varahran  II.,  is  not  improbable.^  Shapur  II.  was 
persecuting  the  Christians  when  Constantine  came  to  the 
throne.  Yezdegerd  I.,  converted  to  Christianity,  falls  into 
deadly  strife  with  the  Magi,  and  is  called  "  the  Wicked ;  " 
then  recurring  to  Mazdeism,  he  inflicts  barbarous  penalty 
on  the  Christians  for  five  years.  Varahran  I.  puts  them 
to  torture.  Yezdegerd  II.  imposes  Mazdeism  by  force  on 
the  Armenian  church  (450  A. I).),  and  having  quelled  the 
revolt  of  Vartan,  makes  martyrs  of  all  who  would  not 
recant.  Khosru  II.,  professing  Christianity,  devout  slave 
of  the  Virgin  and  of  St.  Michael,  and  husband  of  a  Chris- 
tian woman,  surrendered  Jerusalem  to  the  ferocity  of  Jew- 
ish and  Persian  priests,  who  massacred  or  banished  the 
whole  Christian  population,  on  pretence  of  punishing  them 
for  hiding  "  the  true  cross." 

That  this  chronic  intolerance  proceeded  from  the  nature 
of  personal  Will  as  the  ideal  of  worship,  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  these  Sassanian  kings,  so  far  from  being  men  of 
cruel  disposition  were  generally,  in  civil  affairs,  benevolent 
and  just.  To  Hormazd  I,  is  ascribed  the  institution  of  a 
court  for  trying  complaints  of  the  poor  against  the  rich,  over 
which  he  often  presided.    The  chief  persecutor  of  Christian- 

'  Although  the  savage  cruelty  of  his  execution,  as  described  by  Tabari  (Niildeke,  p.  47), 
is  probably  a  fiction,  at  any  rate  Manichasisra  was  fiercely  persecuted,  though  in  no  wise  put 
down. 


THE   SASSANIAN   EMPIRE.  437 

ity,  Varahran  V.,  was  held  a  model  king  in  his  treatment 
of  his  people,  and  in  his  regard  for  arts,  sciences,  and  all  the 
functions  of  the  State. ^  Peroz,  also  intolerant,  remitted  all 
taxes  during  a  seven  years'  drought,  distributed  corn  and 
money,  and  used  every  expedient  for  the  preservation  of 
his  people.  Shapur  II.,  as  bitter  in  his  treatment  of  Chris- 
tianity as  he  was  heroic  in  his  wars  against  Arabia  and 
Rome,  is  credited  with  such  maxims  as  these:  "Words 
may  be  refreshing  as  the  rain  or  sharp  as  a  sword."  "  A 
spear  may  be  drawn  out  of  a  wound,  but  a  harsh  word 
cannot  be  plucked  out  of  a  wounded  heart."  Yezdegerd  I. 
said  that  the  wisest  king  is  he  who  never  punishes  in  anger, 
and  follows  his  first  impulse  to  reward  the  good. 

The  obscure  history  of  Mazdak  and  his  school  of  com- 
munists is  a  striking  illustration  of  our  position,  that  Sassa- 
nian  severities  in  religion  were  consistent  with  a  consider- 
able degree  of  social  and  political  freedom.  This  Mazdak 
admitted  the  national  faith,  but  added  a  system  of  com- 
munism, abolishing  marriage  and  property,  and  otherwise 
threatening  the  destruction  of  the  whole  social  order.  His 
following  increased,  till  it  became  necessary  to  suppress 
the  whole  movement  by  the  uprising  of  the  better  classes 
of  the  community.  The  king  himself,  Kobad  I.,  was  infatu- 
ated with  doctrines  which  would  have  swept  away  all  royal 
government  in  an  hour,  and  had  to  be  dethroned.  Restored 
by  a  Tartar  army,  he  resumed  his  crown,  forgiving  his 
opponents,  and  discouraging  the  subversive  school  of 
Mazdak.  Yet  so  deep-rooted  was  the  evil,  that  Khosru 
on  his  accession  is  said  to  have  been  obliged  to  suppress 
it  by  putting  to  death  a  hundred  thousand  persons.  How 
much  of  historical  truth  is  contained  in  these  traditions 
is  uncertain.  But  the  fact  is  unquestionable,  that  this 
revolutionary  system  had  been  suffered  to  reach  wide 
diffusion  before  it  was  put  down  by  force ;   and  such  dif- 

'  See  especially  Firdusi's  Bahratn-gour. 


438  POLITICAL   FORCES. 

fusion  implies  a  free  circulation  and  discussion  of  social 
theories,  and  a  power  of  association  among  the  working 
classes,  which  we  should  hardly  expect  to  find  in  that 
period  or  in  an  Oriental  State.  The  protests  against 
luxury  and  monopoly  ascribed  to  Mazdak,  his  puritanism 
in  diet  and  dress,  and  general  preaching  of  self-restraint, 
hardly  comport  with  the  excesses  which  his  followers  are 
said  to  have  committed  against  decency,  property,  and 
peace. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  persecution  of  the  Manichaean 
heresy,  both  in  the  East  and  the  West,  grew  directly  out 
of  the  religious  motive  we  have  already  described. 


PHILOSOPHIES. 
I. 

MANICHiEISM. 


MANICH^ISM. 

THE  invincible  exclusiveness  of  Mazdean  will-worship 
was  conspicuous  in  its  treatment  of  Mani,  who  repre- 
sented a  natural  growth  of  its  own  dualistic  ideas,  but 
combined  these  with  a  wide  eclecticism,  the  equally  natural 
result  of  the  intrusion  of  numerous  races  and  religions 
upon  the  soil  of  Iran.  All  tradition  is  agreed  that  Mani 
had  attained  the  largest  culture  possible  in  his  day.  He 
was  an  astronomer,  a  physicist,  a  musician,  and  an  artist  of 
eminence,  who  could  use  his  gifts  with  great  effect,  not 
only  to  charm  the  public  taste,  but  to  illustrate  his  own 
written  thought.  He  had  mastered  the  faith,  first  of  the 
Magi,  then  of  the  Christians,  and  had  travelled  far  and 
wide  to  the  cradle-lands  of  other  and  older  religions.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  the  eastern  legend  of  his  having 
sent  out  three  apostles  —  Addas,  Thomas,  and  Hermas 
—  towards  different  quarters  of  the  world,  and  of  his  per- 
sonal relations  with  Scythianus  and  Terebinthus  or  Buddas 
(names  that  have  no  historic  meaning,  except  as  types  of 
the  Egyptian  and  Indian  religions),^  is  simply  the  mythical 
expression  of  his  eclectic  method  and  wide  religious  sym- 
pathies.2  Some  of  the  early  Fathers  connect  him  with 
Brahmanism.3  His  followers  identified  him  with  Christ, 
Buddha,  Zoroaster,  and  Mithra,  and  believed  that  all  these 
religious  names  meant  the  one  solar  Deity .^  His  acquain- 
tance with  the  Jewish  Cabala  and  the  Gnostic  masters, 
who  for  a  century  had  been  constructing  heretical  systems 

*  Archelaus  :  Dispiitatio  cum  Mamie,  c.  51,  52. 

*  Lassen  :  Ind.  Alterth.,  iii.  403.     Colditz  :  Die  Entstehung  d.  Munich.  (1837). 
^  Ephrem  Syrus,  and  Epiphanius. 

*  Herbelot:  Biblioih^qtie  Orientale — Mani. 


442  PHILOSOPHIES. 

out  of  the  combination  of  Syrian  and  Greek  ideas  with 
Christian  faith,  was  complete.  In  his  large  survey,  he  re- 
jected no  belief  by  reason  of  prejudice  against  the  system 
of  which  it  formed  a  part.  The  asceticism  and  metem- 
psychosis of  the  Brahman ;  the  emanation  and  emancipa- 
tion of  the  Buddhist;  the  mystical  and  prophetic  element 
even  in  that  Judaism  whose  Jahveh  was  in  his  belief  a 
delusion  and  snare  to  man ;  the  Dualism  of  the  Persians, 
and  the  Saviour  of  the  Christians,  though  under  forms 
which  materially  differed  from  those  of  their  respective 
orthodox  creeds,  —  all  entered  into  an  elaborate  system 
which  seemed  to  be  devised  for  meeting  the  largest  number 
of  special  wants  in  an  age  of  many  conflicting  religions 
and  philosophical  schools.  When  we  add  that  he  ap- 
peared in  Persia  at  a  time  when  two  parties  had  arisen  in 
the  Mazdean  church, —  the  one  strongly  dualistic,  the  other 
seeking  to  place  a  distinctly  supreme  unity  beyond  the 
two  ethical  contraries,  —  and  that  his  own  system  took  an 
intermediate  ground,  in  some  respects  differing  from  both, 
in  some  agreeing  with  one  or  the  other,  —  there  seems  to 
be  no  sufficient  reason  for  doubting,  as  the  historian  of 
Gnosticism  has  done,^  that  Mani  really  purposed  to  con- 
struct a  universal  system  out  of  the  ferment  of  beliefs 
in  his  time.  I  cannot  agree  with  Matter  that  this  was 
unnatural  in  a  philosopher  of  that  age  and  country.  On 
the  contrary,  circumstances  seemed  to  make  it  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world ;  and  the  probability  is  height- 
ened by  the  remarkable  union  of  imaginative  and  rational- 
istic elements  in  the  system  itself 

This  is  the  higher  significance  of  Manichaeism,  and 
affords  the  true  point  of  view  for  explaining  the  extreme 
intolerance  with  which  it  was  pursued  by  the  three  great 
religions,  —  IMazdeism,  Judaism,  and  Christianity.  The  war 
waged  against  it  was  a  war  of  narrow  dogmatism  against 

^  Matter  •  Histoire  Critiqjie  du  Gnosiicisme,  iii-  73 


MANICH/EISM.  443 

universal  tendencies,  however  imperfect  their  expression, 
however  distorted  by  the  false  lights  of  the  day.  Through 
all  historical  doubts  and  conflicting  details  the  one  fact 
stands  fast,  —  that  wherever  Mani  appeared,  or  his  system 
found  foothold,  they  were  persecuted  with  a  ferocity  unex- 
ampled even  in  the  ancient  world.^  We  must  ascribe  this 
fact  to  the  boldness  and  breadth  of  his  eclecticism ;  to  the 
promise  of  his  method  to  solve  all  religious  problems  by  a 
Gnostic  insight  beyond  and  above  all  outward  revelation 
by  church  or  book;  to  its  rationalistic  criticism  of  the  cur- 
rent grounds  of  belief;  and  to  the  seeming  claims  of  the 
new  apostle  or  paraclete  to  rival  the  head  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  to  supersede  Zoroaster  and  Moses,  —  to  all 
of  whom  he  seemed  to  give  a  recognition  by  accepting 
just  so  much  of  every  system  as  would  give  him  a  hear- 
ing with  its  disciples,  while  subtly  undermining  it  by  a 
more  stringent  logic  and  a  refusal  of  implicit  faith.  Fir- 
dusi  reports  Mani  as  saying  that  his  painting  proved  him 
a  prophet,  and  asserts  that  he  was  put  to  death  for  his 
image-worship.  Only  these  signs  of  a  larger  mental  scope 
and  freedom  can  account  for  the  peculiar  violence  which 
marked  the  Manichaean  persecutions  down  to  the  Middle 
Ages,  when  the  name  was  applied  to  numerous  heresies 
as  the  very  strongest  term  of  hatred  and  reproach.  By  the 
necessity  of  their  belief,  and  by  the  confession  of  the  best 
of  their  opponents,  the  Manichaeans  were  pure  in  their 
morals ;  and  the  charges  brought  against  them  were  pre- 
cisely those  of  which  the  Christians  had  reason  to  know 
the  worthlessness  from  their  own  experience  of  the  same. 
Libanius  the  rhetorician,  in  his  appeal  to  Constantine  on 
their  behalf,  describes  them  as  scattered  over  many  coun- 
tries of  the  earth,  injuring  none,  but  suffering  injuries  from 
many ;   abstemious,  and  counting  death  a  gain.^     Yet  not 

1  Spiegel  :  Erdtt.  Altertk.,  ii.     Neander  :  Church  History,  ii.  770. 
*  Neander :  Church  History,  ii   768. 


444  PHILOSOPHIES. 

only  was  Man!  cruelly  put  to  death  by  Varahran  the  Sas- 
sanian  king,  but  the  Christian  emperors  from  Constantine 
to  Justinian,  with  but  one  or  two  exceptions,  tried  per- 
petually to  exterminate  the  sect.  They  were  burned  at 
the  stake  by  Vandals  in  Africa,  and  by  Catholic  Christians 
in  Europe  for  six  centuries.^  Augustine,  converted  from 
their  communion  to  Christianity,  turned  upon  them  with 
all  the  bitter  and  arbitrary  injustice  of  which  his  passion- 
ate nature  was  capable.  And  later  Christian  apologists 
have  argued  a  priori  the  necessity  of  immorality,  as  a 
result  of  the  Manichaean  belief  in  the  physical  unreality 
of  the  Christ  and  in  the  impurity  of  the  senses  and  sexual 
relations  ;  unable  to  see  that  the  very  same  tendencies  were 
important  factors  in  Christian  faith,  and  led  not  only  to  the 
exaltation  of  Jesus  above  all  laws  and  conditions  of  matter, 
but  to  the  meritoriousness  of  celibacy  and  the  monastic 
life.  In  the  same  way  the  division  of  Manichaean  believers 
into  the  two  classes  of  "hearers"  and  "elect"  has  been 
supposed  to  justify  the  same  charges,  in  face  of  precisely 
similar  distinctions  in  the  Christian  Church  from  the  be- 
ginning to  the  present  day !  The  Sassanians  persecuted  a 
Dualism  which  was  the  logical  issue  of  their  own  creed, 
and  the  Jews  a  Cabalism  which  in  substance  they  could 
find  in  their  Talmud. 

Such  evil  treatment  of  a  system  which  sought  to  find 
points  of  sympathy  with  every  one  of  the  great  religions 
of  the  world,  becomes  the  more  remarkable  the  more  fully 
these  points  are  appreciated.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
Mani  claimed  to  be  a  Christian,  and  that  he  was  thoroughly 
a  Gnostic,  and  in  some  points  even  a  Judaistic,  Christian. 
In  his  depreciation  of  the  senses,  though  Mani  forsook  the 
first  principle  of  Mazdeism,  yet  he  was  very  far  from  anti- 
Christian.  Even  his  Dualism,  Mazdean  in  substance,  was 
almost  equally  in  accordance  with  Christianity,  in  which 

1  Trace  this  in  Jortin's  Ecclesiastical  History. 


MANICH.'EISM.  445 

Satan  corresponded  to  his  Evil  Principle,  dominating  man 
till  deliverance  should  come  in  the  Christ.  The  light 
shining  in  the  darkness,  which  comprehended  it  not,  was 
the  substance  of  both  Alexandrian  and  Catholic  theology, 
the  soul  of  the  Gospel  of  John  as  well  as  of  the  Avesta; 
and  the  emancipation  of  the  Good  Principle  was  as  posi- 
tively predicted  by  Mani  as  the  triumph  of  Christ  in  the 
Gospels,  or  of  Ahura  in  the  Avesta.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  see 
how  the  developed  creed  of  Christianity  could  have  ob- 
jected to  Manichoean  Dualism  as  a  religious  dogma,  since 
the  Christian  God  was  admitted  to  be  unable  to  eradicate 
evil  from  the  universe,  and  his  unity  had  slipped  into 
trinity,  and  this  had  so  verged  upon  tritheism  as  to  fill  the 
Church  with  irreconcilable  contradiction  and  contention. 

But  these  very  points  of  resemblance  did  but  aggravate 
the  intense  and  peculiar  hatred  of  the  three  great  religions 
to  Manichaeism  as  the  most  intolerable  of  heresies.  And 
for  this  there  was  a  reason  common  to  all  three.  They 
were  all  religions  of  personal  Will.  Jahveh,  Ahura, 
Christ,  were  absolute  sovereigns,  whose  laws,  as  personal 
commandments,  permitted  no  rival  authority,  no  suspense 
of  faith,  no  balance  of  reasoning.  In  each  of  these  reli- 
gions an  omnipotent  Will,  consciously  engaged  on  the 
affairs  of  men,  was  the  centre  of  all  motive,  the  sum  of  all 
rights  and  claims.  Creation  was  simply  the  act  of  that 
Will ;  sin  was  violation  of  its  command ;  hell  was  the  con- 
sequence of  its  wrath ;  heaven  was  the  reward  of  its  ap- 
proval. What  man  was  and  was  to  be,  what  right  and 
wrong  meant,  resulted  directly  from  its  determinations ; 
and  would  have  been  other  than  they  are,  had  these  been 
different.  This  absorption  of  all  being  into  the  sovereignty 
of  Will  made  each  of  the  three  contending  religions  es- 
sentially intolerant.  It  must  deal  with  all  other  religions 
as  rivals  and  foes ;  and  the  more  bitterly,  the  closer  these 
seemed  to  be  to  its  own  communion.     For  reasons  already 


446  PHILOSOPHIES. 

given,  Judaism  and  Mazdeism  came  to  an  accommodation 
without  change  of  face.  Between  Judaism  and  Christian- 
ity the  hatred  was  mutual  and  made  irreconcilable  by  ages 
of  Christian  persecution,  —  perhaps  the  blackest  page  of 
religious  bigotry  in  the  whole  history  of  man,  all  in  conse- 
quence of  supposed  crimes  against  the  person  of  Christ. 
No  peace  ever  dawned  on  the  hates  of  Christianity  and 
Mazdeism,  symbolized  in  the  eternal  strife  of  Persia  and 
Rome,  But  a  mightier  Will  swallowed  the  will  of  Ahura  ; 
and  then  came  for  Christianity  another  and  more  deadly 
conflict,  lasting  for  ages,  till  at  last  Allah  and  Christ  are 
stilled  by  the  new  world-forces  which  command  that  reli- 
gion shall  cease  to  be  the  worship  of  wills,  and  become 
the  worship  of  universal  principles  and  laws. 

More  intolerable,  however,  to  Christianity  than  any  out- 
side rival  personality  was  a  system  which  arose  within  its 
own  household  in  rebellion  against  the  authority  not  of 
Christ  onl}',  but  of  Will  itself.  The  system  of  Mani  substi- 
tuted principles  for  persons.  This  was  the  real  though 
scarcely  recognized  secret  of  the  hate  and  fear.  It  was  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall  predicting  death  to  arbitrary  will 
in  the  name  of  reason,  and  instinctively  the  Church  sprang 
to  efface  it.  It  is  admitted  that  Mani  was  true  to  his  Iran- 
ian origin  in  his  ready  spring  from  abstractions  to  concrete 
forms ;  ^  that  his  conception  of  world-processes  and  cosmic 
powers  was  dramatic,  so  that  light  and  darkness  were  not 
only  opposite  substances,  but  living  powers  contending  in 
space.  But  this  was  only  the  superficial  poetic  dress.  He 
emphasized  principles,  and  gave  them  a  logical  develop- 
ment inconsistent  with  personal  caprice.  He  used  Dualism 
not  as  the  conflict  of  two  opposite  wills,  one  of  which  must 
triumph  by  the  destruction  of  the  other,  but  as  the  organic 
structure  of  the  world,  whereof  all  personal  life  is  but  the 

1  Spiegel  has  noticed  this,  but  fails  to  see  the  deeper  impersonality  on  which  it  rests. 
Eran.  Alterth.,  ii.  206. 


MANICH^EISM.  447 

temporary  expression.  He  laid  the  basis  of  his  creed  not 
in  intentional  and  positive  commands,  but  in  the  logic  of 
essential  causes.  A  true  Gnostic,  he  put  reason  for  out- 
ward revelation,  philosophy  for  special  providence,  and 
creation  itself  was  but  a  single  sequence  in  the  evolution 
of  the  inherent  relation  of  good  and  evil.  This  rationalism 
was  his  unpardonable  sin ;  and  his  eclecticism,  pressing 
elements  of  all  creeds  into  his  service,  not  to  aggrandize 
a  special  God,  but  to  work  out  his  principles  on  the  broad- 
est human  scale,  was  simply  an  aggravation  of  it.  We  may 
here  briefly  illustrate  our  statement,  before  proceeding  to 
that  larger  demonstration  which  its  novelty  may  seem  to 
require. 

Light  and  Darkness,  or  Good  and  Evil,  in  the  Manichaean 
system,  although  defined  respectively  as  spirit  and  matter, 
were  not  distinguished  as  spiritual  and  material  in  our  sense 
of  those  terms.  Light  was  not  separated,  as  purely  con- 
scious mind,  from  Darkness,  as  dead  elemental  substance. 
The  moral  distinction  of  good  and  evil  controlled  that  dif- 
ference. Although  coarser  and  cruder  than  light,  darkness 
was  not  confined  to  bodies ;  although  more  spiritual  than 
darkness,  light  was  not  confined  to  spirits.  The  two 
opposites  were  Principles,  without  beginning  and  without 
end.  The  will  of  the  Manichaean  Christ  could  not  destroy 
the  Darkness,  which  remained  after  the  element  of  Light 
had  been  mainly  eliminated,  and  though  buried  out  of 
sight  it  was  kept  in  place  by  powers  not  free  from  the  in- 
termixture of  evil  with  good.  Its  relation  to  man  ceased, 
but  not  its  essential  reality  as  the  opposite  of  good. 

Evil,  in  Mazdeism  infused  from  without  into  man  to  cor- 
rupt his  native  purity,  is  in  Manichaeism  an  organic  part 
of  him  from  the  beginning,  a  principle  developing  itself 
in  conjunction  with  good,  the  darkness  that  ever  co-exists 
with  the  light;  not  the  work  of  a  personal  tempter,  not 
the  product  of  a  fall  from  obedience.     If  this  antagonism 


448  PHILOSOPHIES. 

exists,  reasoned  Mani,  how  should  it  come  but  from  the 
nature  of  things?  A  personal  Will  cannot  have  created 
good  and  evil,  since  its  very  life  is  in  being  conformed  to 
one  or  the  other.  Neither  can  it  end  the  evil  which  it  did 
not  create,  except  so  far  as  to  separate  the  good  which  is 
imprisoned  in  evil,  and  leave  the  last  a  barren  principle  of 
darkness,  self-existing  but  inoperative  on  man.  Behind  all 
plans  and  purposes  lies  the  unchangeable  nature  of  things. 
It  is  the  natural  tendency  of  evil  to  mingle  with  good,  and 
imprison  it;  of  good,  to  escape  the  evil  mingled  with  it, 
into  purity  and  freedom.  Hence  a  universe  whose  imper- 
fect and  struggling  condition  represents  these  opposing 
forces.  And  of  these  man  is  the  product,  —  an  imprisoned 
light-essence,  involved  in  darkness,  seeking  its  native  ele- 
ment, aided  by  the  whole  world  of  Light,  held  back  by  the 
whole  world  of  Darkness, — who  at  length  through  the  per- 
vasion of  the  whole  universe  by  the  all-mastering  suffering 
of  the  soul  of  Humanity,  as  the  Son  of  Man,  is  delivered 
from  the  bondage  of  the  night  into  the  liberty  of  eternal 
day.  And  thus,  though  the  strife  is  dramatically  set  forth, 
and  every  stage  is  crowded  with  stirring  and  strenuous  Will, 
though  every  cosmic  force  centres  in  a  living  conscious 
energy,  —  in  /Eons  and  emanations  and  spiritual  powers, 
—  and  the  speech  of  the  whole  is  one  mighty  symbolism 
of  spirit  and  matter,  of  the  senses  and  the  soul,  still  every 
step  is  predetermined,  not  by  any  monarchical  scheme,  but 
by  the  antagonisms  and  masteries  of  Nature.  The  light 
must  free  itself  from  the  darkness,  because  each  is  what  it 
is.  No  personal  favoritism  alters  the  course  of  Nature. 
According  as  each  man  is  in  relation  to  this  supreme  law 
of  spiritual  progress,  so  is  his  fate.  This  stands  in  place 
of  election  and  reprobation;  this,  not  the  Bible  or  the 
Gospels,  is  the  revelation;  this,  not  the  personal  trinity 
in  unity,  is  the  witness  of  the  spirit;  this,  not  incarnation 
in   a  body  of  sense,  is  the  presence  of  the  Christ;    this 


MANICH/EISM.  449 

doctrine,  not  his  life  or  death,  is  the  power  of  salvation. 
All  prophets  and  gods  sink  before  this.  Jahveh  is  degraded 
into  the  tempter  of  Adam,  while  the  serpent  becomes  a 
saviour  because  he  teaches  the  rights  of  knowledge  above 
arbitrary  commands,  leading  man  into  the  liberty  of  the 
light  instead  of  the  bondage  of  the  darkness.  The  visible 
Christ  of  tradition  is  a  mere  shadow;  the  true  Christ  was 
not  crucified,  because  the  spiritual  light  cannot,  as  a  prin- 
ciple, be  so  confined  and  slain  in  forms  of  sense.  The  true 
Christ  was  sent  at  the  beginning,  to  save  the  imprisoned 
light,  and  is  invisibly  crucified  throughout  Nature,  so  long 
as  the  light-principle  is  not  set  free.  As  for  Ahura,  Mani, 
though  Mazdean  in  so  many  things,  does  not  mention  him 
as  a  sovereign  Will,  or  hesitate  to  set  aside  his  positive  com- 
mands,— ^such  as  marriage,  labor,  agriculture,  and,  in  gen- 
eral, reconcilement  with  the  physical  conditions  of  life. 

It  is  then  evident,  that  with  all  its  errors  Manich^ism  was 
a  rationalistic  criticism,  cutting  under  church,  creed,  and  es- 
tablished mediator;  an  attempt  to  substitute  ideas  {gjiosis) 
for  blind  faith  {pistis)  and  a  religious  philosophy  for  the 
worship  of  personal  Will.  This  was  equally  true  of  Gnos- 
ticism in  general,  of  which  Manichasism  was  an  offshoot,  — 
the  great  heresy  of  the  early  Church,  the  noble  witness 
that  reason  appeared  with  its  radical  claims  at  the  very 
earliest  steps  of  Christian  absorption  in  the  worship  of 
Christ.  But  the  Gnostics  were  never  persecuted  so  fiercely 
as  the  disciples  of  Mani ;  partly  because  they  affiliated 
more  perfectly  with  existing  mystical  systems,  Oriental 
and  Platonic,  from  which  they  derived  a  certain  prestige 
of  respect;  and  partly  because  some  of  the  doctrines  of 
Mani,  proceeding  chiefly  from  contempt  of  the  senses  and 
of  matter  in  general,  were  urged  with  a  logical  as  well  as 
a  practical  thoroughness  which  struck  out  the  whole  basis 
of  Christian  theology,  especially  the  Incarnation  and 
Atonement,  from  physical  and  social  reality.     Moreover, 

29 


450  PHILOSOPHIES. 

Other  doctrines  of  Mani  very  conspicuously  associated 
themselves  with  what  had  passed  for  heathen  idolatry,  — 
such  as  that  of  a  spiritual  presence  and  purifying  function 
in  the  sun  and  moon. 

A  detailed  study  of  Manichaiism  will  show  that,  notwith- 
standing its  important  differences  from  Mazdeism  as  well 
as  from  Christianity,  it  was  a  natural  product  of  those 
Iranian  qualities  which  we  have  traced  through  the  races 
and  religions  successively  appearing  on  Iranian  soil.  Ideal 
aspiration  was  indeed  much  more  characteristic  of  Mani- 
chaeism  than  the  worship  of  personal  Will.  Yet  both  these 
forms  of  Iranian  nerve-energy  had  their  share  in  its  origin 
and  history.  Its  recognition  of  ideal  principles  as  the 
substance  of  belief  was  enfeebled  by  anthropomorphic 
elements,  shared  with  both  these  religions,  though  by  no 
means  in  equal  degree  on  its  part.  Its  superiority  in  the 
line  of  the  ideal  explains  their  evil  treatment  of  it,  while 
the  modicum  of  personalism  inseparable  from  its  dramatic 
and  poetic  form  assisted  it  to  gain  influence  in  an  age 
which  was  drifting  towards  religious  monarchism  of  a  very 
positive  kind.  Of  all  heresiarchs,  none  perhaps  stands 
more  in  need  of  just  appreciation  than  Mani.  His  doc- 
trine, a  by-word  in  all  Christian  ages,  has  come  down 
only  in  fragments  and  in  the  writings  of  his  enemies, 
who  took  care  to  destroy  the  originals  from  which  they 
quoted  for  purposes  of  confutation  alone.  Beausobre,  the 
one  great  scholar  of  modern  times  who  has  ventured  to 
deal  with  Manicha^ism  in  detail,  was  far  from  sympathiz- 
ing with  it;  yet  his  minute  researches  resulted  in  finding 
Mani  in  almost  every  respect  superior  to  his  opponents, 
both  Pagan  and  Christian.  It  is  no  slight  honor  to  this 
despised  and  hated  creed  that  it  should  have  given  oc- 
casion, after  a  thousand  years'  eclipse,  for  a  work  of  such 
rare  learning  and  liberality,^  not  only  one  of  the  best  reha- 

'  Beausobre :   Histoire  du  Mankhceisme. 


MANICH^EISM. 


451 


bilitations  of  discredited  names,  but  a  firm  and  fearless  as- 
sertion of  the  rights  of  free  inquiry.  The  estimate  of  Baur, 
though  more  philosophical,  does  not  give  so  vivid  an  im- 
pression of  the  man  or  the  system  as  this  great  and  per- 
manent contribution  to  the  study  of  those  times.  To  this 
I  am  indebted  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  data  here- 
after adduced  in  support  of  my  own  views  on  aspects 
of  the  subject  into  which  Beausobre  hardly  enters,  —  its 
bearing  on  the  progress  of  religion  and  the  problem  of 
evil. 

As  a  recognition  of  the  strife  of  contrary  forces  in  the 
physical  and  moral  spheres,  Dualism  may  well  be  called  a 
universal  experience.  Its  symbols  are  everywhere,  —  God 
and  Satan,  Osiris  and  Typhon,  Ahura  and  Ahriman, 
Jove  and  the  Titans,  spirit  and  matter,  monad  and  dryad, 
order  and  chaos,  "  love  and  strife,"  ^  affirmation  and  ne- 
gation, polar  forces,  astrological  oppositions,  freedom  and 
force,  spiritual  and  sensual  tendency.  Diverse  as  are  these 
forms,  Dualism  is  nevertheless  the  promoter  of  pure  mono- 
theism, in  proportion  as  it  distinctly  emphasizes  the  radical 
opposition  of  good  and  evil.  For  in  the  same  proportion 
that  it  does  this,  it  forces  man  to  realize  that  supreme  mean- 
ing which  he  attaches  to  the  word  good,  which  in  the  last 
analysis  means  that  which  is  conformable  to  the  truth  of  his 
being,  and  commands  his  love  and  service.  In  treating  of 
the  Dualism  of  the  Avesta,  I  maintained  that  it  was  impos- 
sible for  men  to  worship  at  once  two  equal  and  essentially 
hostile  gods;  in  other  words,  that  strict  Dualism  belongs 
to  the  realm  of  philosophy  rather  than  to  that  of  religion. 
In  the  religious  sense,  one  cannot  serve  two  opposite  mas- 
ters ;  "  For  either  he  will  hate  the  one  and  love  the  other, 
or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other." 
There  are  of  course  incongruities  in  conduct  and  in  belief 
everywhere ;   polytheism  in  a  certain  sense  belongs  to  no 

^  Empedocles. 


452  PHILOSOPHIES. 

special  creed  or  age.  But  in  so  far  as  evil  is  distinctly 
conceived  as  a  power  hostile  to  good,  then,  however  it  may- 
be feared  or  detested,  it  is  not  worshipped  as  supreme ; 
because  as  evil  it  cannot  command  either  affection  or  re- 
spect. So,  whatever  the  form  under  which  good  is  con- 
ceived,—  whether  as  truth,  progress,  righteousness,  sacrifice, 
or  some  kind  of  happiness,  —  the  idea  of  its  right  and  ulti- 
mate destiny  to  be  supreme,  is  made  all  the  more  evident, 
the  more  clearly  the  conception  of  evil  is  brought  home, 
as  its  radical  opposite  and  negative.  When  what  is  held 
to  be  good  is  felt  to  lie  in  the  purpose  of  one  power,  and 
what  is  held  to  be  evil  in  the  purpose  of  another,  then  a 
dualistic  philosophy  necessitates  monotheistic  faith ;  or,  in 
other  words,  the  former  must  be  superior  and  substantially 
supreme,  and  so  God.  Ahura  was  superior  to  Ahriman, 
though  their  strife  lasted  to  the  end  of  the  present  visible 
world.  If  here  monotheism  was  not  complete,  it  was  be- 
cause of  the  strictly  personal  meaning  of  deity,  dividing 
the  conception,  so  that  an  inferior  person  could  bo  called 
a  god  as  well  as  a  supreme  one.  In  a  definition  by  prin- 
ciples, only  the  sovereign  good  in  the  universe  can  be 
called  God. 

In  this  respect  Manichaism  was  more  truly  monothe- 
istic than  Mazdeism.  Its  supreme  good  was  conceived  as 
a  principle  of  immaterial  light,  whereof  all  spiritual  forces 
of  good  were  emanations.  This  was  "the  Father;"  Son 
and  Spirit  were  inferior,  divine  only  as  partakers  of  this. 
But  so  entirely  did  it  subordinate  personality  to  essence, 
that  the  opposing  power  of  evil,  though  regarded  in  the 
same  way  as  a  living  agent,  was  defined  as  Matter;  as  if 
personification  of  a  principle  was,  in  this  dramatic  and 
poetic  system,  symbolical  only,  —  as  in  the  case  of  JMatter  it 
must  be.  The  dualism  here  is  not  a  division  of  deity  into 
two  persons,  but  a  distinction  of  principles;  only  one  of 
which  is  the  supreme  good,  and  therefore  God. 


MANICH^ISM.  453 

But  SO  absolute  is  this  supremacy  of  good,  that  the  very- 
key  to  Manichaiism  is  in  its  effort  to  avoid  all  intermixture 
of  matter,  or  evil,  with  the  nature  of  God  as  a  pure  and 
incorruptible  essence,  whose  unity  it  was  willing  to  express 
by  the  Christian  name  of  "  the  Father."  This  effort  is 
admitted  by  its  enemies.^  The  Platonists,  severe  critics 
of  the  Manichaeans,  conceded  that  they  had  "  invented 
their  monstrous  fables,  which  degrade  deity,  out  of  a  re- 
ligious reverence  for  God."  ^  As  it  would  have  contra- 
dicted the  absolute  purity  of  good  to  create  evil,  therefore 
evil  —  which  by  a  large  part  of  the  ancient  world,  Christian 
as  well  as  Heathen,-'^  was  identified  with  matter — must  be 
an  uncreated,  self-existent  principle.  This  was  Gnostic; 
Bardesanes,  for  instance,  had  said,  "  God  creates  the  world, 
but  evil  creates  itself."  But  the  Christians,  who  felt  the 
same  instinctive  sense  of  impurity  in  matter,  made  no 
such  effort  to  save  their  God  from  the  responsibility  of 
having  created  it.  Mani  quoted  against  them  on  this 
point  their  own  text,  "  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth 
evil  fruit,"  and  Paul's  doctrine  of  the  irreconcilableness 
of  the  flesh  with  the  spirit.  He  denied  their  explanation 
of  the  world  as  a  creation  out  of  nothing  by  the  will  of 
God;  since  "out  of  nothing,  nothing  can  come."  The 
world  of  light,  or  good,  flows  from  the  nature  of  God, 
which  is  light;  but  the  world  of  darkness,  or  evil,  can 
only  flow  from  its  own  nature;  hence  both  are  uncre- 
ated ;   and  the  good  is  only  good,  and  makes  good  only. 

The  reality  of  uncreated,  self-existent  principles  was  a 
common  tenet  in  ancient  philosophy,  as  distinguished  from 
religion.  Upon  the  same  requirement,  that  nothing  could 
come  from  nothing,  the  pre-Socratic  philosophers  of  Greece 
held  one  and  another  of  the  four  elements  to  be  without 


^  Epiphaniiis,  Jerome,  etc.     See  Beausobre :  Hist,  du  Mnnichirisnic,  ii.  147. 

^  Simplicius  in  Epictet.  cap.  xxvii. 

'  Sabellius  and  probably  Arnobius  believed  this,  as  well  as  the  Gnostics  generally. 


454  PHILOSOPHIES. 

beginning,  constituting  the  essential  nature  of  things.  So 
the  "  matter  "  of  Plato,  the  "  atoms  "  of  Epicurus,  the 
"strife  and  lov^e  "  of  Empcdocles,  the  Hellenic  "destiny" 
as  well  as  the  Gnostic  "  matter,"  were  principles  inherent 
and  primal,  beyond  the  will  of  the  highest  gods.  And 
the  "  mind  "  {nans')  of  Anaxagoras  was  a  principle  rather 
than  a  definite  person.  In  the  same  way  Mani,  urging 
the  traditional  belief  that  spiritual  freedom  consisted  in 
emancipation  from  the  bonds  of  sense,  in  an  intensely 
ethical  spirit  affirmed  the  impossibility  that  matter  should 
proceed  from  the  supreme  good  either  by  creation  or 
emanation,  because  it  was  the  principle  of  evil.  It  was 
therefore  out  of  jealousy  for  the  purity  of  the  religious 
ideal  that  he  pronounced  matter  to  be  eternal,  or  un- 
created, as  to  its  substance,  and  its  special  forms  to  have 
been  shaped  by  an  inferior  maker,  or  Demiurge,  out  of  pre- 
existent  materials.  So  Plato  is  at  pains  to  show  that  evil 
docs  not  come  from  the  gods ;  ^  and  is  as  little  the  work 
of  man,  since  it  was  necessitated  by  a  principle  of  disorder 
which  the  good  Demiurge  could  not  wholly  overcome. 
The  Platonic  Demiurge  represents  the  higher,  as  the  Mani- 
chaean  does  the  lower,  creative  force.  It  is  not  easy  to 
see  how,  upon  the  recognized  Christian  as  well  as  Gnostic 
ground  that  evil  was  real  and  positive,  and  that  it  was 
made  effective  through  the  solicitations  of  the  senses, 
Mani  could  have  so  well  recognized  in  any  other  way  the 
logic  of  reason  and  the  absolute  purity  of  the  highest 
good.  Certainly  not  in  the  method  of  his  great  opponent, 
Augustine,  the  father  of  Christian  theology,  who  says  with 
Plato  that  nothing  can  be  more  detestable  than  to  make 
God  the  author  of  evil ;  yet  who,  so  far  from  freeing  Him 
from  personal  responsibility  for  evil,  ascribes  it  to  the 
human  will,  whereof,  as  the  bitter  foe  of  Pelagianism,  he 
declares  God  himself  to  be  the  absolute  creator  and  con- 


MANICH^ISM.  455 

troller.  Certainly  not  in  the  way  of  Christian  theology, 
which  made  God  the  Creator  and  Father  of  all,  yet  cast 
the  victims  of  these  forces  of  evil,  which  are  part  and 
parcel  of  human  life,  into  eternal  punishment  by  the 
Father's  will. 

In  resorting  to  the  more  consistent  view  of  evil,  con- 
sidered as  real  and  essential,  that  it  must  be  thoroughly 
separated  from  the  nature  of  God,  and  from  the  ultimate 
destiny  of  spiritual  substance,  Mani  was  the  most  thor- 
ough protestant  against  the  irrationalities  of  the  Christian 
creed  in  that  whole  line  of  heresiarchs  who  founded  the 
Gnostic  schools  of  the  first  three  centuries.  He  followed 
out  the  same  substantial  ideas  as  Basilides,  Marcion,  Bar- 
desanes,  and  Valentinus,  and  had  many  points  of  sympathy 
with  those  minor  schools  which  formed  the  transition  from 
Jewish  Christianity  to  Gnosticism.  In  respect  to  the  na- 
ture of  evil  and  of  matter,  their  errors  are  obvious. 

As  supplying  a  rationale  (gnosis)  of  philosophy,  to  meet 
demands  which  the  blind  faith  {pistis')  of  the  Church 
not  only  failed  to  satisfy,  but  even  treated  as  sinful, 
they  occupy  a  position  much  higher  than  belongs  to 
their  solution  of  this  and  of  many  other  problems  of  life. 
Augustine  charges  Mani  with  attempting  to  reach  truth  by 
reason  without  faith ;  and  this,  taking  faith  in  Augustine's 
sense,  is  his  real  glory.  The  character  of  his  criticism 
both  of  the  creed  and  books  of  Christianity,  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New,  singularly  anticipates  many  of 
the  arguments  against  Biblical  and  doctrinal  authority 
which  modern  science  has  carried  into  details  then  unat- 
tainable, and  which  modern  rationalism  has  found  most 
satisfactory  in  disproving  the  genuineness  of  certain  books 
and  the  claims  of  internal  evidence.  His  use  of  texts 
shows  what  opposite  meanings  may  be  read  into  the 
same  words  by  a  system  of  philosophy,  and  by  a  system 
of  implicit  faith ;   but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  charge  of 


456  PHILOSOPHIES. 

corrupting  the  language  of  Scripture  has  any  other  basis 
than  his  choice  of  those  passages  only  which  served  his 
purpose  of  confutation  or  defence.  His  claim  that  reason 
was  the  emancipating  power,  that  the  strength  of  sin  was 
in  ignorance,  that  the  power  of  Christ  was  in  his  doctrine, 
not  in  his  life,  —  a  purely  spiritual  reality  not  at  all  re- 
vealed in  the  illusory  body  of  flesh  and  blood  which  men 
called  Jesus,  was  a  complete  repudiation  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Fall,  of  original  sin,  of  compulsory  belief 
through  miracle,  of  exclusive  incarnation,  and  of  the  whole 
scheme  of  salvation  based  thereon.  And  the  inspiration 
of  this  whole  effort  to  adjust  the  religious  traditions  of 
the  East  to  the  requirements  of  reason,  was  the  desire  to 
vindicate  the  ideal  purity  and  perfection  of  the  Supreme 
Good. 

This  is  the  substantial  motive  of  his  idea  of  a  Demiurge, 
or  subordinate  creator,  applied  to  Jahveh  as  the  God  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  framer  of  the  material  world. 
His  objections  to  this  Old  Testament  religion  were  based 
on  its  unworthy  anthropomorphisms ;  on  its  bloody  sacri- 
fices, which  he  held  to  be  of  demonic  origin  ;  on  its  wholly 
temporal  and  visible  meaning  of  reward  and  punishment; 
on  its  circumcision  and  ceremonialism ;  on  the  absence  of 
all  prophecy  concerning  the  real  Christ ;  on  the  absurdity  of 
using  its  types  as  authority  for  belief  in  a  divine  commis- 
sion ;  on  the  ground  that  a  maker  of  visible  light  could  not 
have  been  the  Infinite  God,  because  he  would  have  been  in 
darkness  previous  to  making  it.  Faustus,  the  Manichsean 
apologist,  could  not  believe  that  the  Son  of  God  should 
have  been  first  and  specially  sent  to  the  Jews;  nor  under- 
stand how  the  heathen  should  not  believe  that  he  had 
shown  his  grace  to  their  own  ancestors  as  well.-^  These 
objections  to  the  anthropomorphism  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  evidences  of  an  earnest  zeal  for  free  spirituality 

1  Beausobre  :  Hist,  du  Manichceisme,  i.  296. 


MANICH/EISM.  457 

and  ethical  purity  in  the  conception  of  God,^  similar  to 
that  which  Alexandrian  Judaism  itself  had  contributed 
more  than  a  hundred  years  before  to  the  earliest  Chris- 
tian belief 

In  the  same  interest  of  spiritualism  Mani  denied  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  —  a  heresy  both  to  Mazdeism  and 
Christianity;  and  it  was  for  this,  not  for  his  Dualism,  that 
he  was  put  to  death  by  Varahran. 

Let  us  now  examine  more  closely  the  meaning  of  the 
Manichaean  principle  of  evil.  "Matter,"  it  must  be  noted, 
is  not  here  what  the  common  speech,  still  less  the  science, 
of  modern  times  calls  by  that  name.  It  is  simply  a  term  for 
the  substance  of  those  forces  which  men  found  impossible 
to  reconcile  with  their  moral  and  spiritual  ideal.  It  was 
in  great  degree  identified  with  the  bodily  senses  and  their 
immediate  relations  to  man,  not  only  because  of  the  sen- 
sual appetites,  but  in  part  certainly  because  it  was  recog- 
nized that  the  ideal  world  is  not  revealed  physically,  by 
observations,  but  transcendentally,  from  within ;  because 
the  senses  do  not  really  account  for  the  sense  of  duty 
and  the  idea  of  God.  The  inexplicable  ground  of  physi- 
cal and  moral  imperfection  was  conceived,  with  some 
approach  to  philosophical  truth,  as  elementary  disorder, 
blind  chaotic  darkness  in  contrast  with  the  light  of  rea- 
son, order,  truth,  and  good ;  which,  according  to  Plato's 
noble  maxim,  was  only  suppressed  by  blindness,  and  only 
needed  being  seen,  to  be  loved.  This  is  substantially 
the  "necessity"  which  Plato  in  his  "  Timzeus  "  opposes  to 
the  principle  of  good,  and  which  limits  the  power  of  the 
Demiurge  to  shape  out  of  his  pre-existent  material  an 
orderly  world,  and  souls  conformable  to  the  best.  It  is 
a  principle  irreducible  to  permanent  form,  and  necessitates 
evil   in   man   and    Nature,  whose    organisms   spring    from 

*  So  in  Alexandrian  philosophy  and  the  translation  of  the  Septuagint  a  hundred  years 
previous. 


458  PHILOSOPHIES.. 

human  degeneracy.  This  elementary  darkness,  or  blind 
unreasoning  capability  of  evil,  was  called  "  matter  "  by 
ancient  thinkers,  —  Chaldean,  Egyptian,  Greek,  —  and  forms 
a  distinct  factor  in  all  their  cosmogony  and  ethics.  On  this 
principle  as  inherent  in  the  cosmos  Mani  took  his  stand 
in  opposition  to  the  Christian  theory,  which  had  made  the 
Supreme  Good  responsible,  as  a  personal  Will,  for  moral 
evil,  because  defining  it  as  a  product  of  that  human  will 
which  He  had  created.  As  a  principle  evil  was  eternally 
separate  from  the  principle  of  good,  and  could  not  be 
explained  by  anything  outside  of  itself,  least  of  all  by  its 
moral  opposite.  Now,  when  modern  thought  says  evil  is  a 
necessity,  as  the  imperfection  which  is  involved  in  the  very 
nature  of  finitencss,  and  which  no  Will,  however  exalted, 
could  prevent,  or  was  needed  to  create ;  when  it  says  crea- 
tion proper,  a  pure  beginning  of  principles  in  time,  is  con- 
trary to  the  law  of  evolution,  and,  in  truth,  inconceivable, 
—  what  is  it  but  to  reaffirm  that  ancient  doctrine  of  the 
"eternity  of  matter"  under  a  scientific  form? 

The  Manichaeans  criticised  the  first  verse  of  Genesis  by 
asking  what  God  was  doing  before  that  "  beginning  "  in 
which  he  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth. -^  Some  of 
the  Fathers  had  enough  of  heathen  philosophy  in  them  to 
reply,  —  after  Heraclitus  and  the  Stoics,  the  Alexandrians 
and  the  Cabalists, — that  the  present  system,  terrestrial  and 
celestial,  was  but  one  in  a  succession  of  systems ;  that  God 
was  eternally  producing  these ;  and  they  added,  with  less 
plausibility,  that  the  world  previous  to  this  present  world 
was  a  spiritual  one,  created  by  instant  fiat,  and  that  it 
was  to  this  that  Moses  referred,  as  created  "  in  the  begin- 
ning." But  it  is  obvious  that  this  doctrine  of  successive 
creations  was  as  far  from  giving  the  meaning  of  the  verse 
in  question,  as  it  was  from  meeting  the  Manichsean  objec- 
tion to  its  theory  of  creation  out  of  nothing.     Nor  was  the 

^  Aiigiisline  :  Agai>ist  the  Manicheeans,  i.  2. 


MANICH/EISM.  459 

matter  improved  by  the  further  attempt  of  Augustine  and 
Clement  of  Alexandria  to  read  into  the  poetic  phrase  of 
Genesis  their  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  by  explaining  ev  ap-x^rj 
("  in  the  beginning  ")  to  mean  "  by  the  principle,"  —  that 
is,  the  "  Word,"  or  "  Son  of  God  "  !  ^ 

It  was  natural  for  the  orthodox  advocate  to  ask  how  it 
was  possible,  if  evil  (or  matter)  was  so  wholly  apart  from 
the  will  of  God,  that  he  should  exert  any  influence  to 
redeem  those  under  its  power.  But  Mani  could  at  least 
have  replied  that  this  was  quite  as  conceivable  as  it  was 
that  the  Christian  God,  being  infinitely  good,  should  have 
created  matter,  and  its  involved  evil,  by  his  perfect  will. 
Moreover,  the  mingling  of  good  and  evil  in  the  world  was 
not  an  interfusion  of  principles  at  all,  but  a  contact  and 
external  pressure,  of  the  nature  of  two  hostile  and  in- 
compatible substances  at  war,  —  a  mutual  imprisonment, 
necessitating  final  separation  and  release. 

In  the  dramatic  spirit  of  their  system  the  Manichaeans 
personified  their  Evil  Principle,  as  we  have  said.  But  their 
Prince  of  Darkness  was  not  a  form  of  rationality,  for  this 
belonged  only  to  light;  nor  had  he  so  much  freedom  and 
intelligence  as  Ahriman  in  the  Mazdean  system,  who  is 
outwitted  by  Ahura,  and  sees  no  danger  till  it  is  too  late 
to  escape;  nor  was  he  so  genuinely  personal  as  the  Chris- 
tian Satan,  who  prescribes  the  conditions  of  life  and  the 
fate  of  men  by  personal  presence  and  direct  volition.  He 
is  simply  the  poetic  personification  of  that  blind  chaotic 
substance  which  needs  no  will  to  move  it,  but  is  itself 
active,  productive,  —  a  push  and  tendency  of  things.  To 
give  a  soul  to  this  element  was  quite  according  to  Orien- 
tal psychology ;  since  soul-life  was  traditionally  conceived 
as  of  three  orders,  —  rational,  psychical,  and  animal  or  ma- 
terial, —  and  all  the  world  as  animated  in  every  detail  of 
element  and  form.^     The  Talmud  also   had   its  Prince  of 

'  Beausobre  :  Hisi.  du  ManichcBtsme,  ii.  284.  ^  Ibid.,  369. 


460  PHILOSOPHIES. 

Matter,  opposed  to  God.  And  the  early  Christians  thought 
that  in  repelhng  matter  they  were  fighting  off  the  evil  de- 
mons, who  were  its  effective  constituent  force. 

But  there  was  a  stronger  reason  for  giving  to  the  ma- 
terial principle  opposed  to  good  a  soul,  in  Manichaean 
jealousy  for  the  purity  of  the  principle  of  good.  If  evil 
were  wholly  dead  and  impersonal,  then,  how  account  for 
its  presence  as  conscious  motive  in  the  heart  and  will 
of  man?  It  must  have  proceeded  either  from  a  spirit- 
capacity  in  matter,  or  else,  which  was  impossible,  from  a 
capacity  for  evil  in  that  spiritual  principle  which  was  held 
to  be  the  Supreme  Good.  And  so  the  dark  world  of  the 
material  principle  must  in  a  sense  be  spiritual,  and  pro- 
ductive of  living  forces,  which  people  chaos  and  make 
war  on  the  light.  The  opposite  realms  are  in  contact 
only  at  the  border,  and  the  dark  world  is  at  the  south, 
as  with  the  Orientals  generally.  Unlike  their  being,  as 
opposites,  which  is  eternal,  their  strife,  the  grand  drama 
of  which  creation  and  human  destiny  are  incidents,  has  a 
beginning  in  time,  as  it  has  an  end.  This  tragedy  is  ex- 
pressed by  Mani,  as  by  all  religious  teachers,  in  a  mythic 
form,  which  must  not  be  too  literally  interpreted. 

In  this  mythus  he  is  consistent  with  his  Platonic  idea  of 
the  origin  of  moral  evil,  not  in  inclination,  but  in  ignorance ; 
and  vindicates  the  all-sufficiency  of  light  (or  reason)  to 
deliver  the  soul.  Like  Basilides,  and  in  accord  with  the 
Avestan  Magi,^  he  ascribed  the  war  to  the  effort  of  dark- 
ness to  find  light,  led  by  a  necessity  to  mingle  with  it. 
The  darkness  is-  not  intentionally  hostile  to  the  light  as 
light,  but  simply  does  not  know  the  light.  An  internal 
schism,  plainly  suggesting  the  deeper  Dualism  in  the 
bosom  of  evil  which  portends  its  destruction,  caused  it  to 
transcend  its  own  limits  and  overflow  into  the  world  of 
light,  not  from  sympathy  indeed,  but  from  necessity,  as  the 

^  Beausobre,  ii.  23.     Archelaus  :  Disptitatio  cum  I^tanete,  c.  55. 


MANICH^ISM.  ^^^^.        461 


only  relief.  I  shall  leave  unanswered  the  natural  question, 
How  far  does  this  doctrine  involve  what  it  certainly  hints, 
—  the  psychological  truth  that  evil,  through  its  self-con- 
tradiction, conies  to  know  the  right,  and  sees  it  clearly, 
only  after  vainly  struggling  to  overcome  it? 

Blindly  flowing  into  the  light,  unable  to  hide  from  it, 
evil  cannot  refuse  the  conflict,  whose  sure  issue  is  its 
defeat.  Now,  the  very  substance  of  the  human  —  not  the 
human  body,  which  comes  of  dumb  demons,  according  to 
Mani  —  is  shaped  from  the  substance  of  the  Supreme  Light, 
by  what  the  myth  calls  the  Mother  of  Life  (in  other 
words,  the  principle  or  power  of  life  proceeding  from  it), 
purely  to  repel  this  flooding  of  its  world  by  the  darkness, 
this  raid  of  chaos  upon  order,  this  blind  push  of  lower 
tendency  beyond  its  bounds.  So  exalted  is  the  human  in 
its  ideal  significance,  in  its  nature  and  its  purpose, — pure 
light-essence  in  finite  form  ! 

And  when,  in  the  unequal  conflict,  this  finite  image  of 
God  is  like  to  fail,  the  Living  Spirit  is  at  hand  with  the 
boundless  resources  of  the  Father  to  rescue  him.  The 
demonic  forces  are  subdued,  and  many  of  them  bound  in 
stars  or  in  planets,  the  evil  powers  of  Oriental  cosmogony. 
Or  does  the  choice  of  stars  signify  their  imprisonment  in 
light  f —  the  sign  of  that  crippled  condition  of  evil  in  the 
world  which  constantly  guarantees  the  final  triumph  of  good. 

All  this  is  in  the  ideal  world,  not  that  of  human  history. 
The  Mother  of  Life  is  the  Wisdom  {Sophia)  of  the  Gnos- 
tics ;  but  who,  instead  of  falling  like  her  from  the  bosom 
of  God,  an  yEon  wandering  in  the  darkness,  goes  forth  to 
resist  the  darkness,  yet  does  not  enter  its  impure  domain. 
And  her  offspring,  the  ideal  type  of  man  (the  Adam- 
Kadmon  of  the  Cabala,  Gaybmard  of  the  Avesta),  who 
contends  with  evil  directly,  is  saved  by  the  Living  Spirit 
to  the  world  of  essential  light.  But  now  a  portion  of  this 
divine  humanity,  made  captive,  is  imprisoned  in  the  lower 


462  PHILOSOPHIES. 

world,  and  pervades  it,  —  the  perpetual  stress  of  the  spirit 
therein  towards  deliverance  into  native  light.  This  is  the 
Son  of  Man,  the  "Jesus  passibilis,"  of  Manichasan  Chris- 
tianity; the  free  ideal  of  which,  a  portion  (or  child),  is 
enthroned  serene  in  the  perfect  visible  light  of  the  sun 
and  moon,  to  draw  all  purified  intelligences  out  of  the 
world  of  evil  into  the  gates  of  light.  The  Avestan  Mithra 
becomes  the  Manichaean  Christ.^ 

Now  opens  the  proper  history  of  man,  —  the  sequel  of  a 
strife  already  substantially  decided.  Not  a  blind  conflict 
of  uncertain  issue,  not  one  fore-ordained  by  an  arbitrary 
decree  of  Divine  Will  to  be  half  deliverance  and  half  doom, 
but  a  sublime  foregone  conclusion,  based  on  the  elements 
of  being. 

Out  of  the  issues  of  that  first  hostile  intermixture  of 
good  and  evil,  comes  the  visible  actual  world,  —  sun  and 
moon  from  the  elements  purest  from  darkness;  stars  from 
those  less  pure ;  plants  and  inorganic  substances  from 
those  still  more  corrupted;  then  Man,  the  actual  human 
race,  not  the  ideal,  male  and  female,  with  body  of  dark- 
ness and  soul  of  light,  in  whose  composition  centres  that 
most  pertinent  question.  Why  was  permitted  such  inter- 
mixture of  evil  in  all  we  are  and  see?  —  and  the  Mani- 
chrcan  answer,  namely.  That  something  great  and  good 
should  come  of  the  inherent  antagonism  of  good  and  evil 
in  the  nature  of  things.  The  natural  enmity  of  matter  to 
spirit  should  by  their  conjunction  in  man  be  made  to 
work  out  the  triumph  of  good.  The  dark  powers^,  fearing 
to  lose  the  captive  light,  form  a  body  in  the  image  of  the 
ideal  man,  in  which  they  imprison  it,  ignorant  that  in  the 
very  law  of  its  nature  it  must  struggle  to  escape  these 
bonds,  until  darkness  should  be  penetrated  by  order,  and 
disciplines  yield  victory  over  the  flesh.  This  is  Adam 
the  microcosmic  man,  —  evil  in  body,  good  in  soul. 

*  Neander:  Church  History, — "Man!  and  the  Manicheans." 


MANICH^ISM.  463 

Thus  did  Manichaeism  follow  out  logically  the  doctrine 
of  the  impurity  of  the  senses,  deeply  rooted  in  the  religions 
of  the  time,  not  less  in  the  Christian  than  in  the  heathen  ; 
not  less  in  the  call  of  the  one  to  renounce  a  doomed  world 
for  the   kingdom   of  God,  than   in  the  old   philosophy  of 
spirit  and  matter.     Now,  the  significance  of  Judaism  was, 
that  it  was  the  effort  of  the  dark  power  concerned  in  crea- 
tion to  prevent  man  from  escaping  these  material  bonds : 
first,  by  forbidding  him  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge 
(and  here  he  is  saved  by  a  good  angel  in  the  form  of  the 
serpent)  ;  and  next  by  making  him,  through  Eve,  the  subject 
of  sexual  concupiscence,  that  the  element  of  light  might  by 
generation  be  divided  and  so  impaired,  and  the  memory  of 
his  original  home   in  spiritual  light  be  effaced.     But  this 
effacement  was  impossible,  and  the  undying  affinity  forever 
prompts  to  freedom.     This  redeeming  idea  Mani  did  not, 
it  is  probable,  develop  into  Platonic  "  reminiscence ;  "  but 
the  system  seems  to  involve  something  like  that  principle 
of  the  immanent  life  of  the  ideal  in  man.     Instead  of  the 
transmission  of  the  sin  of  Adam  as  federal  head  of  the 
human  race,  placing  all  under  the  ban  of  moral  impotence, 
Mani  seems  to  have  asserted  a  power  in  each  of  his  de- 
scendants to   resist  the  ever-repeated  first  temptation,  by 
virtue  of  the  light-element  which  constitutes  his  spiritual 
nature.     Thus  the  whole  history  of  mankind  before  Jesus, 
became  lighted  up  with  personal  sainthood  ;   and  in  a  larger 
sense  than  that  of  the  Christian  creed  of  redemption,  the 
light  shone  from  the  East  unto  the  West.     Mani  recog- 
nized  the   continual   renewal   of   the   holy  flame   through 
prophets  in  every  age  and  religion,  the  greatest  of  whom 
he,  as  a  Christian,  of  course  found  in  Jesus  Christ,  but  with- 
out regarding  him  at  all  in  the  Christian  sense.     Although 
the  very  genius  of  light,  coming  into  the  darkness  from  the 
heaven  of  the  primal  ideal  Man,  to  teach  men  the  way  to 
the  light,  his  work  was  not  to  bring  any  atoning  or.vicari- 


464  PHILOSOPHIES. 

ous  salvation  by  his  life  or  death,  but  simply  to  revive  the 
forgotten  light  in  darkened  eyes,  and  show  the  science 
{gnosis)  of  deliverance  from  the  snares  of  evil.^  Here  is 
a  marvellous  conjunction,  —  Buddha's  "  ignorance  "  as  the 
root  of  misery,  with  the  "  light  shining  in  darkness"  of  the 
Gospel  of  John. 

This  was  a  total  rejection  of  the  function  of  Christ  in 
view  of  the  Christian  idea  of  the  nature  and  consequences 
of  sin;  but  there  was  even  a  more  fatal  heresy  in  the 
denial  of  the  reality  of  his  incarnation.  For  the  pure 
Hght  to  assume  a  real  fleshly  body  was  impossible.  The 
Manichaian  Christ  could  neither  eat,  drink,  suffer,  nor 
die;  the  Jesus  of  the  creed  was  therefore  no  incarnate 
God,  but  an  illusory  phantasm  only ;  the  work  of  the 
Christ  was  invisible  and  spiritual ;  and  the  "  Jesus  pas- 
sibilis,"  or  all  pervading  light-element  imprisoned  in  Na- 
ture, was  an  effort  to  escape  matter,  not  an  assumption  of 
its  forms. 

To  say  the  least,  the  Docetic  Christ  of  Mani  was  not 
more  irrational  than  the  transmutation  of  the  eucharistic  ele- 
ments into  the  actual  flesh  and  blood  of  deity.  Although 
he  did  not  escape  the  absurd  notion  of  a  phantasmal  organ 
proclaiming  real  and  saving  doctrine,  and  probably  had 
no  clear  idea  whether  the  miracles,  sufferings,  and  other 
phenomena  declared  to  be  phantasmal  were  pure  illu- 
sion, or  whether,  being  objectively  real,  they  were  merely 
unreal  as  concerning  the  light-principle  which  could  not 
take  bodily  form, — the  meaning  of  Mani  w^as  evidently 
this:  that  as  "flesh  and  blood  could  not  inherit  the  king- 
dom of  God,"  nor  the  light-beam  of  the  spirit  be  cut  off 
from  its  fountain  by  absorption  in  matter,  so  the  supposed 
incarnation  in  the  person  of  Jesus  was  no  exception  to  this 
law,  and  that  the  reality  of  Christ's  coming  to  save  men 

^  "  Mani's  world  history,  not  Jewish  nor  Persian,  but  apparently  Babylonian." —  Spiegel  : 
Eran.  Altirth.,  ii.  p.  222. 


MANICH/EISM.  465 

was  a  fact  of  the  invisible,  spiritual  world  alone.  This,  not- 
withstanding all  the  ascetic  extravagance  we  may  find  in  its 
Christian  premises,  was  at  least  sounder  in  its  conclusion 
than  the  opposite  extreme  of  faith,  which  broke  away  from 
that  premise  by  an  astounding  form  of  miraculous  person- 
ality, and  announced  this  overwhelming  exception  to  be  the 
most  supremely  real  thing  in  human  history.  Taking  the 
Christian  belief  that  the  visible  world  was  under  doom  of 
speedy  destruction,  and  that  the  kingdom  of  its  Christ  was 
not  of  it,  but  of  another  world, —  was  not  Mani  right  in 
counting  it  an  illusion,  and  the  coming  of  the  Christ  into 
subjection  to  its  bonds  the  greatest  illusion  of  all?  The 
protest  of  Mani  was  at  least  timely  as  against  those  ten- 
dencies in  Christianity  towards  a  belief  in  the  corporeality 
of  God,  of  which  the  natural  development  led  to  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence. 

But  he  did  not  deny  an  apparent  assumption  of  the 
flesh.  He  even  found  a  purpose  in  the  illusions,  so  far 
as  he  accepted  them  as  historical ;  they  represented,  by 
way  of  figure,  the  relations  and  duties  of  those  who  really 
were  bound  in  the  flesh, — the  crucifixion  showing  that 
man  must  mortify  the  body,  the  resurrection  suggesting 
his  immortality,  and  the  ascension  his  return  to  his  native 
light.  But  the  Incarnation  being  denied,  there  could 
have  been  no  miraculous  birth  of  the  man  Jesus,  and  no 
resurrection  of  his  physical  body,  —  an  evidence  of  the 
freedom  with  which  the  Christian  records  were  read  and 
criticised  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Church.^  Faustus, 
the  Manichaean  bishop,  deemed  it  the  height  of  unreason 
that  one  born  of  a  woman,  circumcised  as  a  Jew,  baptized 
as  a  disciple,  led  into  the  desert  to  be  tempted  of  the  Devil 
in  ordinary  human  ways,  should  yet  be  called  the  only  be- 

1  Faustus,  Augustine's  opponent,  denied  the  authenticity  of  many  of  the  New  Testament 
books,  and  referred  them  to  a  post-apostolic  date.  The  main  ground  of  the  charge  brought 
against  their  contents  iiy  this  school,  that  they  were  corruptions  of  earlier  writings,  was  their 
anthropomorphic  character. 

30 


466  PHILOSOPHIES. 

gotten  Son  of  God,  one  with  the  Father,  and  Life  of  the 
World.i 

The  Manich^an  Jesus  was  that  portion  of  the  hght- 
substance  of  the  ideal  Man  which  had  remained  captive 
in  the  world  of  darkness,  or  matter,  when  that  soul  had 
been  rescued  by  the  Living  Spirit  and  exalted  to  the  sun. 
This  was  the  "  Jesus  passibilis,"  pervading  the  visible 
world  for  the  mystical  imagination,  with  the  presence  of 
a  divine  endeavor  to  ascend  out  of  the  flesh  into  the  spirit. 
"  This  Jesus,"  said  the  Manichaean,  "  was  not  crucified  on 
Calvary;  he  hangs  on  every  tree."  In  what  manner  he 
pervaded  Nature  does  not  seem  clear,  but  doubtless  invisi- 
bly only;  and  yet,  as  captive  in  matter,  very  differently 
from  the  free  descent  of  the  Son  of  Man  from  his  Sun- 
world  to  bring  his  doctrine  (or  gnosis)  in  a  merely  appar- 
ent form  of  humanity.  But  the  meaning  is  plain  enough. 
Man's  own  ideal  life,  like  the  Fravashi  of  the  Avesta,  suffers 
and  strives  for  and  with  him  in  every  element  of  Nature, 
out  of  which  he  must  wrest  his  lost  liberty  and  light. 

For  emancipation  was  the  recovery  of  a  lost  heaven,  the 
reunion  of  the  divine  light  in  man  with  the  supreme  light, 
of  which  it  came.  This  belief,  common  to  all  the  ideal 
schools  of  antiquity  and  the  mystics  of  all  ages,  is  an 
expression  of  that  cyclic  movement  ascribed  by  man  to 
whatever  he  holds  to  be  inherent  and  eternal.  Principles, 
virtues,  truth  and  good,  tend  through  all  changes  of  human 
experience  to  bring  us  back  to  themselves,  and  reaffirm  for 
us  in  the  end  what  they  affirmed  in  the  beginning,  abiding 
as  they  have  always  been  till  the  world  comes  round  to 
them  again.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  homelike  sense  of 
essential  relation,  of  inmost  affinity,  of  inalienable  right  to 
truth  and  good,  which  can  thus  absorb  all  distinctions  of 
time,  and  make  them  appear  at  once  as  remembrance  and 
prophecy,  as  what  we  were  at  the  first  and  what  we  shall 

'  Beausobre,  ii.  509. 


MANICIL^ISM.  467 

be  at  the  last.  The  ideal  in  man  seeks  only  what  belongs 
to  it,  its  home,  its  nature,  which  it  can  never  lose  but  by- 
annihilation.  The  historical  cyclic  form  assumed  by  this 
feeling,  the  sense  of  a  lost  heaven  to  be  recovered,  may  be 
only  a  mythological  symbol.  But  even  an  age  which  looks 
not  backwards  but  forwards,  and  conceives  of  life  purely 
as  ascending  evolution,  will  not  escape  this  necessity  of 
ideal  aspiration  to  transcend  all  time-conceptions,  —  this 
sense  of  unchangeable  identity  with  the  principles  which 
attract  it  as  its  own  natural  and  only  home.  The  dream 
of  an  ante-natal  lapse  from  spiritual  light,  and  a  predes- 
tined recovery  of  the  same,  which  haunted  antiquity,  was 
the  measure  of  its  loyalty  to  the  ideal  as  inherent  and  eter- 
nal reality.  Nothing  can  be  more  significant  than  the  find- 
ing of  this  doctrine  in  dualistic  schools  like  that  of  Mani, 
which  held  evil  to  be  an  eternal  principle ;  a  doctrine  which 
at  first  sight  seems  almost  pure  pessimism.  That  it  was 
as  far  as  possible  from  this  has  already  become  apparent. 
For  Mani,  as  for  Plato,  and  for  many  of  the  Christian 
Fathers,  immortality  implied  pre-existence,  and  pre-exist- 
ence  required  immortality.  The  soul  should  recover  the 
use  of  her  wings,  now  folded  and  bound,  and  resume  the 
lost  power  of  flight.  In  ancient  thought,  the  evil  of  mat- 
ter was  generally  combined  with  the  loss  and  recovery  of 
spiritual  wings.  On  the  other  hand,  the  doctrine  of  evil 
as  inherent  in  the  spiriUial  nature  of  man,  tended  to  that 
of  an  entire  destruction  of  these  wings  implied  in  the 
notion  of  eternal  punishment,  from  which  no  scheme  of 
redemption  could  save.  Thus  in  the  Christian  dogma 
immortality  lost  its  connection  with  pre-existence.  It  is 
remarkable  that  the  two  great  advocates  of  pre-existence 
in  early  Christian  history  (Origen  and  Mani),  both  held 
to  be  heretics,  though  in  different  degrees,  should,  while 
differing  strongly  in  general  belief,  both  have  insisted  that 
immortality  involved  the  restoration  of  every  soul.     It  was 


468  PHILOSOPHIES. 

related  of  Mani  that  when  his  system  was  charged  with 
cruelty  in  imprisoning  souls  in  matter,  he  replied  that 
all  the  lost  sheep  would  be  restored  to  their  folds.  "  God 
forbid  the  soul  should  be  lost.  It  is  the  lion  that  is  taken 
in  the  net  by  the  shepherd  who  has  thrown  him  a  sheep ; 
as  for  the  soul,  God  will  preserve  it."  ^ 

This  illustration  opens  a  curious  chapter  in  religious 
history.  There  were  other  ways  in  which  the  delusion  of 
a  natural  depravity  of  the  senses  delivered  the  Manichaeans 
from  irrational  Christian  dogmas,  which  are  deserving  of 
notice.  They  accepted  the  outer  darkness  and  penal  woes 
of  the  last  judgment  by  fire,  but  denied  the  resurrection  of 
the  body  and  the  millennial  fictions  of  the  Apocalypse  and 
the  Fathers.  Even  while  clothing  spirits  in  the  splendors 
of  the  sun,  they  would  have  denied  that  these  were  in  any 
sense  material,  or  had  any  affinity  with  the  flesh  and  blood 
in  which  these  souls  had  dwelt  while  in  life ;  thus  leaving 
the  whole  question  of  spiritual  form  in  the  vagueness 
which  properly  belongs  to  it.  They  admitted  that  death 
was  separation  from  the  pleasures  of  sense,  but  for  that 
very  reason  denied  that  it  was  a  primal  curse,  or,  in  fact, 
an}-thing  but  a  deliverance  and  second  birth.  They  al- 
lowed transmigration  into  plant  and  tree,  and  sun  and 
moon,  as  a  purifying  process,  but  had  no  harrowing  pic- 
tures of  pits  or  lakes  of  fire  for  the  wicked.  They  paid 
honors  to  the  sun  and  moon,  thus  happily  escaping  the 
logical  consequences  of  their  hatred  of  matter,  and  erect- 
ing the  noblest  strictly  material  forms  in  the  universe  into 
symbols  of  the  divine  light.^  But  the  idolatry  of  which 
the  orthodox  accused  them  on  this  account,  even  if  real 
to  some  extent,  was  certainly  not  so  pronounced  as  that 
w^hich  was  embodied  in  the  worship  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
as  such,  or   in  that  of  the   consecrated   bread  and   wine 

*  Gregi  :  Aci.  Disp.     See  Beausobre,  ii.  338. 

2  For  other  views  of  future  punishment,  see  Spiegel,  Eran.  Alterth.,  ii.  195-232. 


MANICH/EISM.  469 

as  its  equivalent,  or  in  that  of  the  relics  of  saints  and 
martyrs,  through  prayers,  offerings,  and  vows.  If  idolatry 
it  could  be  called,  this  solar  cult  was  at  least  rational 
enough  to  take  for  its  objects  familiar  blessings  and  natu- 
ral laws.  The  Manichaeans,  however,  repelled  the  charge. 
Faustus  replied  to  his  opponent,  "  God  forbid  I  should 
blush  for  the  reverence  I  pay  to  the  divine  luminaries. 
We  have  the  same  veneration  for  all  elements  which  you 
have  for  the  elements  of  the  Eucharist."  ^  The  sun  was, 
indeed,  no  less  than  the  radiant  company  of  purified  souls, 
in  the  glow  of  their  garment  of  praise,  ascending  to  that 
"  Pillar  of  Splendor  "  which  was  to  be  their  eternal  home. 
Origen  regarded  the  heavenly  bodies  as  living  souls,  shining 
in  the  light  of  good,  and  endowed  with  freedom  of  will, 
whereby  they  prayed  to  God  through  Christ.^  But  the 
Manichaeans  did  not  prostrate  themselves  before  the  sun, 
nor  offer  it  sacrifices  as  to  God.  They  did  not  fall  into 
that  image-worship  which  carried  away  the  Church  in  the 
fourth  century.  They  placed  an  empty  seat  in  their  halls 
of  meeting  in  memory  of  their  great  teacher,  but  they  did 
not  invoke  him.  In  their  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  they 
used  water  instead  of  wine,  and  were  regarded  with  horror 
by  the  orthodox  for  this  cause. 

As  the  union  of  spirit  and  matter  in  the  nature  of  man 
involved  a  moral  bondage  of  soul  by  sense,  his  sin,  in  the 
Manichaean  mind,  was  a  result  of  his  nature  rather  than 
of  his  will.  The  orthodox  attempt  to  reconcile  these  two 
almost  incompatible  grounds  of  sin  by  definitions  which 
made  them  absolutely  incompatible,  —  defining  man's  natu- 
ral sin  to  be  the  organic,  inevitable  love  of  evil  as  evil  and 
hate  of  good  as  good,  and  his  voluntary  sin  to  be  the 
exercise  of  deliberate  choice  in  being  and  doing  what  he 
had  just  been  declared  as  being  and  doing  under  irresist- 
ible necessity, — was  rejected  by  Mani.    Human  nature  was 

1  Augustine :  Against  Faitstus,  xx.  i,  2.  '  De  Principiis. 


470  PHILOSOPHIES, 

far  from  being  wholly  depraved.  Every  soul  was  forever 
prompted  to  free  itself  from  the  desires  of  the  flesh  through 
its  original  participation  in  the  divine  light-nature  of  the 
"  primitive  Man,"  or  ideal  Humanity.  This  spiritual  es- 
sence, shrouded  in  self-ignorance,  cannot  wholly  forget 
itself;  and  the  Manichaean  could  repeat  Augustine's  noble 
saying  with  a  clearer  right  than  its  author:  "Thou  hast 
made  us,  O  God,  for  thyself,  and  our  souls  are  restless 
till  they  return  to  thee."  For  the  great  creed-maker  of 
Christendom  would  fain  have  combined  with  this  endless 
aspiration  in  the  convert  a  moral  and  spiritual  impotence 
which  would  have  made  conversion  impossible.  He  pro- 
fessed to  find  in  this  morally  impotent  human  nature  the 
possibility  of  a  yearning  for  Christ  throughout  all  religions 
previous  to  his  coming,  which  no  rational  logic  could  de- 
duce from  the  premises.  If  the  Church  could  hold  to  the 
existence  of  a  conscience  in  face  of  its  own  theory  of  total 
depravity,  surely  Mani  might  maintain  its  authority  in  spite 
of  his  theory  of  man's  structural  relation  to  an  ante-natal 
bondage  to  the  Darkness. 

W'c  must  guard  against  interpreting  Mani  as  holding  to 
the  unrighteousness  of  matter  in  our  own  broad  sense  of 
that  word.  It  is  a  proof  of  the  simplistic  notions  of  m.oral 
evil  in  his  day,  as  well  as  of  the  predominance  of  one  form 
of  vice  over  others  in  the  ancient  world,  that  this  system 
gives  such  emphasis  to  the  sin  of  concupiscence,  as  if  it 
were  the  only  or  the  chief  form  in  which  the  senses  led 
mankind  astray.  This  was  the  sin  of  the  first  parents. 
For  Mani  interpreted  the  Fall  as  of  a  nature  which  the 
Mosaic  writer  himself  did  not  understand,  because  he 
wrote  in  the  service  of  the  Demiurge,  not  of  the  Supreme 
Father.  The  tree  of  knowledge  was  a  figure  of  Christ  as 
the  true  gnosis  ;  the  prohibition  to  eat  of  it  came  from  the 
Prince  of  Darkness, who  sought  to  keep  man  from  the  light; 
the  serpent  was  a  divine  voice  which  thwarted  the  scheme. 


MANICH.EISM.  471 

Mani  could  not  have  failed  to  see  that  physical  generation 
was  indispensable  to  the  continuance  of  the  race.  But 
existence  in  the  body  was  in  comparison  with  his  essential 
ideal  life  a  lapse  and  loss,  since  the  soul  was  really  super- 
sensuous.  And  in  judging  these  now  exploded  theories 
of  the  ancients  concerning  the  inherent  impurity  of  the 
sensible  world,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  they  did 
not  imply  the  repudiation  of  all  physical  relations  for  all 
human  beings,  but  the  comparative  imperfection  of  those 
who  are  involved  in  these  relations.  A  secular  world 
was  recognized  to  be  necessary,  as  well  as  a  religious 
world  ;  and  since  religion  itself  consisted  in  the  struggle 
to  throw  off  these  implications,  there  could  reall\'  be  for 
man  no  religion  without  them.  Buddhism  had  its  place 
for  the  busy  laity  as  well  as  for  the  absorbed  saint ;  nay, 
distinguished  itself  more  than  any  other  ancient  faith  by 
the  institution  of  practical  good-will  in  visible  earthly 
forms.  Mani  was  no  exception.  Celibacy  and  ascetic  re- 
straint from  property  were  in  his  system  also  only  for 
those  who  had  consecrated  themselves  to  purely  spiritual 
aims,  the  advanced  believers,  who  saw  and  pursued  the 
highest  gjiosis.  It  is  not  true  that  he  forbade  the  social 
conditions  to  his  converts  generally,  or  that  he  believed 
society  to  be  possible  without  sexual  ties.  It  would  be  far 
less  unjust  to  suppose  that  Jesus,  when  he  called  men  to 
leave  all  and  follow  him,  to  divide  their  goods,  and  shake 
off  the  dust  of  a  world  of  flesh  and  blood  that  could  not 
inherit  his  kingdom,  sought  to  abolish  homes,  trades,  gov- 
ernment, and  society  itself.  For  Jesus  really  seems  to  have 
regarded  the  visible  world  as  on  the  verge  of  destruction, 
and  the  judgment  day  close  at  hand.  Jesus  preached  a 
practical  love  quite  as  hard  to  reconcile  with  his  condem- 
nation of  the  visible  world,  as  a  full  acceptance  of  secular 
and  social  interests  upon  lower  planes  would  be  with  Mani's 
contempt  of  matter  as  impure.     Even  Plato  treats  the  love 


472  PHILOSOPHIES. 

of  the  sexes  as  evil ;  his  ideal  citizens  of  a  republic,  male 
and  female,  are  not  allowed  voluntary  unions,  but  solely 
under  laws  executed  by  public  officials  for  the  public 
benefit. 

It  is  the  pride  of  modern  thought  to  have  rehabilitated 
the  material  form  in  which  all  human  experience  must  find 
its  expression.  The  boundless  physical  and  social  opporr 
tunity,  the.  breadth  and  complexity  of  human  relations, 
have  immeasurably  increased  the  estimate  of  what  the 
senses  are,  and  can  do  for  man.  Not  even  the  authority 
of  the  New  Testament  can  commend  the  old  negations  to 
the  lips  of  modern  Christians,  But  the  old  religions  had 
to  take  the  world  as  it  was  in  their  day.  That  ideal 
capacity  which  makes  religions  did  not  denounce  the 
world  which  we  now  sec;  it  rather  asserted  one  quite  con- 
trary to  the  world  which  it  saw,  and  which  could  neither 
receive  nor  contain  its  own  world.  Its  necessity  was  to 
overcome  this  world,  either  by  living  above  it  in  ascetic 
separation,  or  by  expecting  its  supersedure  by  the  higher 
life  of  the  spirit.  It  struggled  against  the  bonds  of  the 
organism  whence  brutal  possibilities  seemed  to  flow.  It 
was  because  the  sense-world  is  omnipresent  that  it  seemed 
to  stand  so  obstinately  in  the- way  of  the  perfection  that 
the  eye  never  saw  nor  the  ear  heard.  It  was  the  heart 
of  Plato's  creed  that  so  long  as  beauty  and  truth  were 
seen  only  in  their  embodied  forms,  however  high  these 
might  be,  the  soul  of  beauty,  by  and  through  which  they 
were  beautiful  or  true,  was  not  perceived.  Not  the  con- 
crete body  but  the  universal  principle  was  divine.  Yet 
Plato  could  see  that  to  one  who  had  perception  of  eternal 
archetypal  ideas,  the  world  w^ould  become  their  divine 
expression.  Philo,  again,  the  Platonizing  Jew  of  Alexan- 
dria, was  looking  only  at  the  power  of  bodily  seductions 
to  blind  the  soul  to  ideas,  when  he  said,  "  Matter  plots 
against  the  soul,  lifeless  and  dead  as  it  is.    For  when  the 


MANICH^ISM.  473 

mind  is  busied  on  sublime  contemplation,  it  judges  the  body 
to  be  a  hostile  and  evil  thing;  for  the  soul  of  the  athlete 
and  the  soul  of  the  philosopher  differ."  ^  "  The  body," 
says  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  "  weigheth  down  the  mind  that 
museth  upon  many  things."  "  There  is  a  law  in  my  mem- 
bers," said  Paul,  "  that  wars  against  the  law  of  my  mind." 
It  was  certainly  natural  that  the  devotee  of  ideal  virtue  and 
knowledge,  in  ancient  times,  should  dwell  much  upon  the 
distractions  and  perplexities  woven  about  him  by  the  actual 
world,  —  material,  social,  political,  institutional.  "  Invin- 
cibly urged  to  believe  in  justice,  and  cast  into  a  world 
which  is  injustice  itself,  needing  eternity  to  vindicate  its 
dealings,  and  sharply  arrested  by  the  chasm  of  death, — 
what,"  says  Renan,  "would  you  have  him  do?"  In  the 
absence  of  those  practical  resources  which  science  has 
developed  in  every  human  relation,  the  noblest  emotions 
required  something  more  than  a  foothold  in  the  super- 
sensual  world,  —  even  an  attraction  to  the  claims  and  in- 
terests of  that  world  amounting  to  repulsion  from  all  phy- 
sical limitations. 

What  has  most  contributed  to  the  ennobling  of  the 
senses,  the  rehabilitation  of  matter  in  modern  times,  is  the 
scientific  discovery  that  all  thought  is  so  closely  related 
to  the  action  of  the  senses  and  the  brain  that  the  old  line 
between  matter  and  spirit  as  distinct  worlds  is  effaced,  and 
we  are  open  to  the  conviction  that  we  cannot  honor  any 
form  of  virtue  or  truth  without  reverence  for  those  phy- 
sical conditions  and  laws  by  which  alone  it  can  become 
effectual  for  good.  Therefore  it  is  evident  that  the  words 
"  body  "  and  "  matter  "  could  only  have  been  used  in  the 
older  systems  to  cover  a  much  narrower  ground  of  cosmic 
meaning  than  with  us.  And  it  will  be  found,  curiously 
enoucfh,  that  those  who  were  most  hostile  to  matter  treated 
the  most  important  material  forms  with,  veneration  ;   as  the 

1  Philosophical  Allegory  of  the  Sacred  Laws,  bk.  ili.  22. 


474  PHILOSOPHIES. 

Manichaeans  did  the  sun  and  moon,  and  as  the  Christians 
did  the  reahty  of  Christ's  flesh  and  blood,  the  resurrection 
of  the  Body,  and  the  Millennial  Kingdom  with  its  visionary 
mixture  of  physical  elements  with  supernatural  and  impos- 
sible conditions,  which  involved  no  less  than  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  world.  Even  the  crown  of  Christian  thought, 
the  Gospel  of  John,  did  but  modify  this  curious  discrep- 
ancy; since  it  resorted  to  the  physical  world  for  its  whole 
symbolism  of  the  descent  of  the  Logos  as  Light  into  the 
Darkness  of  the  Flesh,  wherein  even  "  its  own  "  could  not 
comprehend  it.  And  even  such  men  as  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, Origen,  Jerome,  who  were  hostile  to  the  materialism 
of  the  Apocaly4)se,  did  not  rise  above  this  inconsistent 
delight  in  sensuous  images  of  ideal  truths.  With  a  few 
marvellous  exceptions  like  the  poet-prophet  of  science 
Lucretius,  the  thinkers  of  that  earnest  time  believed  the 
material  world  to  be  at  war  with  the  highest  aims  of  man ; 
while  yet  every  one  of  them  employed  the  material  world 
as  symbol,  allegory,  parable,  or  apologue,  to  express  his 
highest  thought.  These  facts  are  sufficient  to  warn  us 
against  giving  too  literal  or  too  modern  an  interpretation 
to  the  old  Dualism  of  spirit  and  matter;  so  that  it  might 
almost  seem  reasonable  to  substitute  such  other  terms  for 
these  as  active  and  passive,  higher  and  lower,  living  and 
dead,  perfect  and  imperfect. 

But  we  should  especially  err,  if  we  regard  Dualism  as 
atheism.  To  assume  the  reality  of  an  eternal,  uncreated 
principle  of  matter  outside  of  God,  while  yet  finding  a 
basis  for  aspiration  and  duty  in  a  supreme  principle  of 
good,  was  not  to  deny,  so  much  as  to  affirm,  God.  And 
however  limited  the  conception  of  deity  which  was  not 
inclusive  of  matter,  it  could  hardly  be  more  so  than  that 
intense  monotheism  of  Judaism  and  Christianity  which 
surrounded  a  supreme  personal  Will  with  finite  condi- 
tions and  anthropomorphic  defects. 


MANICH.EISM. 


475 


The  charge  of  immorality  brought  by  Augustine  and 
other  Church  Fathers  against  the  Manichaeans  is  not 
Hkely  to  be  admitted  by  any  candid  student  who  is 
famiHar  with  the  mode  of  deaHng  with  heretics  adopted 
by  the  great  apologists  for  Christianity.  The  confuta- 
tion of  heresies  by  Irenaeus  and  Origcn  rested  upon  the 
assumption  that  the  denial  of  orthodoxy  inevitably  led  to 
immorality.  Even  the  doctrines  of  opponents  were  inva- 
riably ascribed  to  the  worst  motives,  and  presented  as 
unfavorably  as  possible.  It  is  always  natural  for  religious 
dogmatism  to  infer  immoral  results  from  the  rejection 
of  opinions  which  the  critic  has  come  to  regard  as  the 
foundation  of  his  own  virtue  and  peace.  The  accusations 
brought  by  Cyril  and  Augustine  against  the  Manichaeans 
were  in  accordance  with  this  traditional  method.  They 
were  the  more  improbable  from  the  fact  that  the  hostility 
of  this  sect  to  the  material  world  led  naturally  to  the  sup- 
pression of  every  sensual  tendency.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
possible  that  the  Gnostic  conceit  of  being  the  elect  among 
believers  might  lead  in  some  instances  to  fanatical  perver- 
sion of  the  text,  "to  the  pure  all  things  are  pure."  But 
the  danger  was  quite  as  great  in  the  similar  conceit  of  the 
orthodox,  whose  morals,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  admo- 
nitions and  reproofs  of  the  chief  apostles,  had  also  their 
perverted  leaven  in  the  abuse  of  church  membership  for 
vanity  and  vice.  Augustine,  who  is  the  principal  witness 
in  proof  of  the  practice  of  horrible  and  obscene  rites  in 
the  meetings  of  the  Manichaeans,  continued  to  be  a  hearer 
in  the  sect  for  nine  years.  He  admits  that  they  earnestly 
exhorted  their  disciples  to  guard  against  sensuality,  and 
that  he  himself,  loving  pleasures  of  this  kind,  was  not 
willing  to  become  anything  more  than  a  hearer,  through 
fear  of  binding  himself  to  purity  by  their  vows  of  member- 
ship. Nor  does  he  anywhere  pretend  that  they  had  secret 
rites,  though  he  brought  everything  he  could  against  them. 


476  PHILOSOPHIES. 

in  his  letter  to  induce  a  friend  to  leave  them  for  the  Chris- 
tian communion.  Cyril,  who  makes  similar  charges,  was 
the  most  unscrupulously  intolerant  of  Christian  priests. 
Foolish  and  incredible  maxims  were  ascribed  to  Mani ; 
and  Augustine's  preposterous  charge  that  he  imagined 
almsgiving  and  other  acts  of  humanity  to  be  sacrifices  to 
demons,  is  answered  by  his  letter  to  Marcellus,  which  be- 
gins with  praising  this  person  for  his  charity.^  Almsgiving 
seems  to  have  been  the  duty  of  the  Manichaean  laity  to 
their  ascetic  devotees,  who,  like  the  Buddhist  bonzes, 
lived  on  pious  gifts,  after  the  apostolic  ideal,  or  according 
to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  to  be  without  thought  for  the 
morrow,  like  the  birds  of  the  air  or  the  flowers  of  the  field. 
The  vows  of  the  elect  were  at  least  ethically  creditable. 
They  were:  (i)  Of  the  mouth,  —  not  to  eat  forbidden  food, 
nor  utter  anything  untrue,  unkind,  or  base;  (2)  Of  the 
hands,  —  to  be  pure  from  all  violence  or  crime;  (3)  Of 
the  bosom,  —  to  keep  out  all  evil  thoughts.^  Was  not  this 
the  old  Avestan  formula,  —  "  purity  of  thought,  word,  and 
deed  "?  According  to  Clement  of  Alexandria,  who  is  not 
friendly  to  them,  their  principal  precept  was  self-respect.^ 
Libanius  commended  them  to  the  governor  of  Pales- 
tine, as  a  people  who  mortified  the  flesh  and  regarded 
death  as  a  release ;  who  harmed  none,  yet  were  every- 
where harassed  and  persecuted.  They  are  reported  by 
some  to  have  thought  war  indefensible,  and  music  a  gift 
from  Heaven.  Their  hymns,  which  were  called  lascivious 
and  polytheistic  by  their  opponents,  seem  to  have  been 
descriptive  of  Paradise  and  of  divine  yEons,  of  the  mysti- 
cal union  of  believers  with  Christ,  and  contained  such 
imagery  of  devotion  as  was  familiar  to  religious  feeling  in 

*  Archelaus :  Disfiuiatio  cum  Matute,  5.  This  work  is  of  uncertain  historic  value,  but 
very  ancient ;  and  at  least  shows  what  was  thought  of  Mani  at  a  period  much  earlier  than 
Augustine. 

2  Beausobre  :  Hist,  du  Manichizisme,  ii.  791. 

^  Stromata,  ii.  20. 


MANICHyEISM.  477 

their  time.^  In  turn  they  charged  the  orthodox  with  hav- 
ing reinstated  pagan  sacrifices  in  their  love-feasts  {jigapcB)^ 
idolatry  in  their  service  of  martyrs,  and  the  heathen  cal- 
endar in  their  festival-days ;  and  even  with  having  re- 
tained the  morals  of  the  heathen  unchanged.  As  for  the 
charge  of  polytheism,  they  might  have  retorted  that  the 
angelology  of  the  Christians  was  essentially  similar  to  their 
own,  quite  as  complicated  a  system  of  guardian  spirits  to 
be  invoked,  consecrating  every  object  in  Nature  or  art, 
presiding  over  nations  and  cities,  a  host  of  saints  and  mar- 
tyrs lifted  into  thrones,  and  served  with  sacrifice  and  vow. 
In  truth,  both  systems  were  natural  developments  of  the 
old  Persian  mythology,  —  the  one  on  Jewish,  the  other  on 
heathen  ground.  As  for  demonology,  the  dualist's  belief 
in  an  essential  principle  of  evil  was  not  more  prolific  of 
Satanic  powers  than  the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament 
and  the  whole  Church  of  the  first  five  centuries,  in  which 
the  doctrine  of  demons  ruled  without  an  exception  among 
its  greatest  names. 

Here  is  the  reply  of  a  Manichsean  bishop  to  Augustine's 
invective :  — 

"  You  ask  if  I  receive  the  gospel.  Is  that  a  question  to  ask  a  man 
who  observes  all  its  commands  ?  It  is  I  who  should  ask  you  if  you 
receive  the  gospel,  since  you  show  no  signs  of  receiving  it  effectually. 
I  have  left  father,  mother,  children.  I  have  renounced  all  that  the  gos- 
pel commands  me  to  renounce,  and  you  ask  if  I  receive  the  gospel. 
I  see  that  you  do  not  know  in  what  the  gospel  consists.  I  have  re- 
nounced gold  and  silver.  I  am  content  each  day  with  the  food  suffi- 
cient for  it.  I  am  not  anxious  about  to-morrow's  clothing.  You  see 
in  me  those  beatitudes  which  comprehend  the  gospel.  You  see  me 
poor,  meek,  peaceful,  of  pure  heart.  You  see  me  suffering  persecu- 
tion for  righteousness'  sake.     Yet  you  doubt  if  I  receive  the  gospel. 

1  Tlie  song  of  St.  Thomas,  on  the  marriage  of  the  Church  with  Christ,  has  been  supposed 
to  be  of  Manichaean  origin,  substituting  divine  for  earthly  nuptials,  after  the  manner  of  the 
Solomonic  Canticles  of  the  Old  Testament.  Other  similar  productions  mentioned  by  Augustine 
(Against  Faustus)  have  been  traced  to  the  same  source,  but  without  certainty.  See  Fabricius, 
Codex  Apocryphus  Novi  Tesiamenti. 


4/8  PHILOSOPHIES. 

You  charge  me  with  pagan  idolatry.  Pagans  worship  by  temples, 
images,  altars,  victims,  perfumes.  I  do  otherwise :  and  I  have  a 
different  opinion  of  the  service  agreeable  to  God.  I  myself,  if  I  am 
worthy  of  it,  am  the  rational  temple  of  the  Divinity ;  Jesus  Clirist  is 
the  living  image  of  his  living  majesty.  A  wise  soul  is  the  truth,  is  his 
altar.     And  true  sacrifice  is  pure  and  simple  prayer."  ^ 

Here  is  the  Manichee's  ethical  ideal,  comparing  favor- 
ably enough  with  the  best  claims  of  his  opponents.  It 
would  hardly  have  found  its  way  down  to  us  through  the 
writings  of  an  antagonist,  had  it  not  sufficient  foundation 
in  history  to  deserve  our  credence. 

The  two  main  charges  against  Manichaeism  were  Magic 
and  Gnosticism.  The  first  associated  it  with  Persian  ori- 
gins, the  second  with  Egyptian  and  Greek.  With  the 
growth  of  orthodoxy,  and  the  conflicts  of  nascent  Chris- 
tianity with  the  other  religions  of  the  world,  the  old  sym- 
pathy for  Persia,  naiVely  hinted  in  the  story  of  the  Magi 
bringing  their  willing  gifts  to  the  infant  Christ,  became 
transformed  into  dislike,  and  the  name  of  Magi,  standing 
for  the  Dualism  of  the  East,  was  chiefly  known  through 
its  derivative,  magic,  the  art  of  controlling  invisible  powers 
to  forbidden  ends.  Mani  was  by  origin  and  training  a 
Magus;  but  only  in  this  fact  was  there  any  color  in  the 
charge  brought  against  him  of  magical  practices.  The 
word  magic  has  in  fact  a  nobler  meaning  and  descent. 
The  Greeks  ascribed  it  to  Zoroaster  and  his  priests,  and 
held  it  in  profound  respect.  Pliny  says  the  Magus  Ostha- 
nes,  who  accompanied  Xerxes,  "  inspired  the  Greeks  with 
a  rage  for  the  art  of  magic ;  and  that  in  the  most  ancient 
times,  and  indeed  almost  invariably,  men  sought  in  it  the 
highest  renown."  ^  "  What  crime,"  asks  Apuleius,  "  in 
being  a  Magus  (or  priest)  and  knowing  ceremonial  laws 
and  rites?  "^     Pythagoras,  Democritus,  Empedocles,  and 

*  Fiustus  {a/jtd  Au£-usiinum,  v.  ii.)  -  Natural  History,  bk.  xxx.  chap.  2. 

•''  Apologia,  I. 


MANICH^ISM.  479 

Plato  crossed  the  seas  to  learn  it,  and  returning  home 
expatiated  upon  it  as  "  one  of  their  grandest  mysteries."  ^ 
ApoUonius  Tyanaeus  called  Persia  the  land  of  wisdom,  and 
sought  the  Magi  as  its  exponents.^  Originally  the  word 
magic  seems  to  have  been  used  to  designate  religious 
functions,  independently  of  all  secret  or  dangerous  arts. 
Persian  Magianism  meant  that  or  something  even  higher. 
Suidas  says  that  philosophers  and  lovers  of  God  are  called 
Magi  among  the  Persians.  Ammianus  calls  Magic  the 
purest  worship  of  divine  things.  Diogenes  Laertius  quotes 
authors  who  place  the  Magi  as  fathers  of  ancient  philoso- 
phy, Hindu  and  Jewish,  and  ascribes  to  them  exalted  at- 
tainments.^ It  is  curious  that  he  adduces  Aristotle  in 
proof  that  they  were  ignorant  of  all  kinds  of  divination  by 
magic.^  Dio  Chrysostom  says  those  whom  the  Persians 
call  Magi  were  the  persons  most  fitted  by  nature  for  truth 
and  for  religious  wisdom.^  Philo  Judaeus  also  describes 
their  love  of  investigation ;  calls  them  "  a  numerous  body 
of  virtuous  and  honorable  men;"  and  adds  that  "whoever 
is  virtuous  is  free." 

It  is  evident  that  in  the  various  phases  of  meaning  under- 
gone by  this  word,  we  have  a  confession  of  the  great  indebt- 
edness of  the  Greek  and  Roman  mind  to  Asiatic  culture, 
and  a  reflection  of  complete  changes  in  the  sense  of  re- 
lationship to  it  produced  by  religious  hostilities.  When 
we  contrast  the  respect  with  which  the  Greek  writers  speak 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  Magi,  and  the  willingness  of  Pliny  to 
collect  the  results  of  their  physical  speculations  and  pre- 
scriptions of  occult  powers  in  herbs  and  stones,  with  the 
discredit  ecclesiastically  attached  to  the  name  of  Zoroaster 
through  the  Middle  Ages,  as  prime  teacher  of  whatever  se- 
cret mastery  over  natural  powers  had  been  either  achieved 


*  Pliny:  Natural  History,  xxx.  i.  2  Ibid.,  xxxiv.  17. 

^  Diogenes  Laertius;  Lives  of  Philosophers,  Introduction.  *  Ibid. 

^  Oratio  Borysthenitica. 


480  PHILOSOPHIES. 

or  pretended  to,  and  which  was  persecuted  by  the  Church 
cis  the  work  of  the  Devil  down  to  the  time  when  the  first 
essays  of  modern  free  physical  inquiry  were  crushed  out, 
so  far  as  possible,  under  the  name  of  Magic  or  the  "  Black 
Art,"  — we  obtain  some  conception  of  the  power  of  special 
religious  interests  to  pervert  the  historic  relations  and  obli- 
gations of  the  race.  But  it  is  important  to  observe  that  this 
narrowness  of  a  special  religion  does  not  prevent  the  laws 
of  continuous  evolution  from  pursuing  their  way  across  its 
exceptional  claims,  in  spite  of  every  such  denial  of  its  share 
in  the  delusions  of  the  past.  In  this  point  of  view  the 
relations  of  Christianity  to  what  it  called  the  Zoroastrian 
Magic  of  Manichaeism  are  deserving  of  study. 

There  was  certainly  ample  foundation  in  the  demonic 
world  of  the  Avesta,  and  the  incantations  and  sorceries  to 
which  the  Mazdean  priests  were  led  by  their  dualistic  ex- 
perience, for  the  general  belief  of  the  Christian  world  in 
the  Persian  origin  of  magic  in  this  inferior  sense.  The 
invisible  realm  of  powers  inferior  or  hostile  to  God  was, 
however,  just  as  real  to  the  Christian  believer  in  the  mys- 
tical powers  of  the  name  and  cross  of  One  who  came  to 
conquer  Satan  and  his  hosts,  and  who  had  driven  devils 
out  of  men  into  swine,  as  it  was  to  the  Zoroastrian,  who 
met  the  hosts  of  Ahriman  at  every  turn,  and  used  against 
them  the  holy  Honover  cr  the  staff  of  power.  The  pseudo- 
science  of  controlling  demons  is  but  the  u.itaught  effort  to 
resist  threatening  forces  in  Nature,  conceived  under  human 
analogies,  and  requires  quite  other  than  religious  influences 
to  emancipate  it  into  positive  knowledge  and  mastery  of 
things.  It  was  as  real  to  Origen  as  to  Jamblichus  or  to 
Mani,  or  to  the  Chaldean  diviners  of  the  Roman  empire. 
It  was  real  to  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  and  to  the  whole 
early  Church.  It  was  not  any  special  propensity  in  the 
Persian  Magus  to  the  use  of  occult  powers  to  evil  ends 
that  moved  the  hatred  of  the  Christian  Church  to  him; 


MANICH^ISM.  481 

not  his  mere  belief  in  demonic  possession  or  demonic 
function  in  the  government  of  this  world,  —  it  believ^ed 
in  these  as  firmly  as  he,  —  but  his  interference  with  the  ex- 
clusive claim  of  its  own  God  and  Saviour.  His  rival  God 
and  creed  in  whose  interest  his  war  against  demons  was 
waged  was  a  pretension  which  made  his  angels  and  demons 
alike  detestable.  The  only  difference  between  the  magic 
practised  by  the  Church  and  that  which  it  held  blasphe- 
mous in  the  pagan  or  heretic  was  that  the  power  which 
both  sides  claimed  to  have  acquired  over  the  elemental 
world,  was  exercised  by  the  one  through  talismans,  relics, 
holy  formulas,  and  symbols  centring  in  the  orthodox 
Christ,  and  by  the  other  through  analogous  instrumen- 
talities centring  in  a  false  or  heretical  system.  As  the 
Manichsean  inherited  from  Mazdeism  the  belief  that 
everything  in  Nature  and  human  life  had  its  guardian 
spirit  and  its  ensnaring  demon,  so  the  Christian  inherited 
a  similar  conception  from  the  Judaism  which  had  drunk 
deeply  at  Persian  springs,  and  in  the  time  of  Christ  had 
a  demonology  far  more  minute  and  elaborate  than  the 
Avesta  itself.^  With  that  control  over  the  spirits  good  or 
evil  in  which  magic  consisted.  Monotheism  was,  in  fact, 
far  more  in  accordance  than  Dualism,  since  it  brought 
the  natural  and  supernatural  worlds  into  closer  relation 
through  a  common  origin  and  dependence.  The  Sibyl- 
line oracles,  falsely  ascribed  to  early  heathen  prophetesses 
inspired  to  testify  in  the  interest  of  the  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian religions,  but  belonging  to  the  centuries  immediately 
before  and  after  Christ,  abound  in  evidence  of  the  strength 
of  this  element  in  both  religions.  The  Apocalypse  of 
John,  pervaded  by  the  magic  of  numbers,  of  satanic  and 
guardian  powers,  possession  and  exorcism,  ministering 
spirits  of  all  kinds  subject  to  faith,  brings  Christian  Testa- 
ment  and  Jewish  Talmud   to    one  plane.     Every  one  of 

^  Supernatural  Religion,  pt.  i.  chap.  iv. 
31 


482  PHILOSOPHIES. 

the  Church  Fathers  accepted  in  substance  the  data  of 
magic.  Those  diabolic  powers,  which  they  held  to  be 
in  special  collusion  with  the  heathen,  they  never  thought 
of  denying  as  unreal,  but  lifted  them  into  their  mytho- 
logical series,  associating  them  with  the  Fall  of  man  and 
the  bad  giants  of  the  elder  world.  The  witchcraft  de- 
lusion of  the  whole  Church  down  to  recent  times,  the  me- 
diaeval mania  for  transactions  with  Satan  about  the  soul, 
were  but  the  mighty  survival  of  that  early  Christianity 
which  down  to  the  tenth  century  believed  that  a  grand 
transaction  of  Christ  with  Satan,  wherein  the  latter  was 
tricked  by  the  former  out  of  his  real  property  in  the  soul 
of  man,  constituted  the  substance  of  the  Atonement.  All 
gifts  of  healing  and  of  tongues,  by  which  sinners  and 
heathen  were  converted,  all  miraculous  deliverances  from 
evil,  all  vows  to  guardian  saints  and  angels,  were  so  many 
occult  powers  of  good  to  control  the  evil  ones  which 
swarmed  everywhere  under  the  direct  command  of  the 
Prince  of  Darkness,  throughout  the  depraved  world  of 
matter  and  mind.  It  is  true  that  with  the  Christian  or 
Jew,  one  God  had  created  both  good  and  evil,  while  with 
the  Manichaean,  evil  was  uncreated,  and  a  principle  essen- 
tially different  from  good  ;  but  this  distinction,  which 
might  be  expected  to  give  to  Christian  supernaturalism 
a  better  hope  of  converting  the  powers  of  evil,  and  so 
inspire  its  magic  with  a  nobler  spirit,  produced  no  such 
effect.  The  Mazdean  looked  for  the  final  conversion  of 
demons ;  the  Manichaean,  for  something  very  like  their  an- 
nihilation, leaving  a  barren  principle  of  darkness  only;  the 
Christian  was  satisfied  only  with  their  eternal  misery. 
/  It  must  also  be  observed  that  Manichaeism  in  reality 
rejected  from  the  three  religions  from  which  it  was  in 
large  degree  derived  a  considerable  amount  of  material 
for  magic.  It  discarded  many  of  the  superstitions  of  im- 
plicit faith.     By  its  comparative  freedom  from  mysticism 


MANICH/EISM.  483 

it  avoided  the  gulf  of  thaumaturgy,  into  which  Neopla- 
tonisni  at  last  fell.  Its  substitution  of  reason  for  revelation, 
its  aim  at  an  intellectual  elevation  above  physical  miracles, 
its  repulsion  of  all  contact  with  evil,  or  matter,  as  a  prin- 
ciple eternally  separate  from  spirit,  were  of  themselves 
tendencies  hostile  to  the  coarse  passion  for  wonder-work- 
ing so  prevalent  in  the  early  Christian  ages.  It  was  on 
these  very  grounds  that  Mani  was  persecuted  by  the  great 
religions  out  of  which  he  had  gathered  so  much  for  his 
own.  He  became  the  victim  of  Sassanide  intolerance  be- 
cause he  denied  that  typical  form  of  magic  on  which 
Zoroastrian  rites  were  founded,  —  the  resurrection  of  the 
body ;  and  his  followers  were  everywhere  hunted  down 
by  the  Christians,  because  they  would  not  believe  the 
Supreme  God  to  have  been  born  of  a  virgin  and  im- 
prisoned in  a  body  of  real  flesh  and  blood.  Yet  because 
he  could  not  fully  emancipate  himself  from  the  Christian 
tradition  and  creed,  he  sought  to  reconcile  them  with  his 
loftier  conception  of  the  Infinite  by  the  only  possible 
theory,  that  of  Docetism  ;  and  Docetism  —  the  theory  that 
a  spiritual  essence  could  take  a  purely  illusory  bodily 
shape,  and  deceive  the  eyes  of  men  by  phantom  images 
of  a  great  life  and  death — was  to  accept  the  doctrine  of 
magic  in  one  form  at  least,  and  that  the  completest. 

Notwithstanding  this  common  ground  of  Christian  and 
Heathen  in  the  conception  of  angelic  and  demonic  powers, 
the  earliest  recorded  hate  of  the  apostles  of  Christ  was 
directed  against  the  great  representative  of  thaumaturgy 
in  their  vicinity, —  Simon  of  Gitton,  otherwise  called  "Si- 
mon Magus."  His  pretences  to  exercise  magical  powers 
over  Nature  apart  from  the  name  and  following  of  Jesus 
so  stirred  the  Christian  imagination  of  the  first  four  cen- 
turies that  he  became  a  gigantic  nebulosity  of  legend. 
He  was  a  master   of  magic  powers,^   the  favorite  of  de- 

1  See  especially  the  Clementine  Recognitions,  ii.  9. 


484  PHILOSOPHIES. 

mons,  and  instigated  by  them  to  proclaim  himself  a  god. 
He  succeeded  in  causing  himself  to  be  "  worshipped  as 
the  first  god,"  and  "  in  persuading  men  that  he  should 
never  die."  ^  He  caused  himself  to  be  buried  alive,  in  ex- 
pectation that  he  would  rise  on  the  third  day.^  He  was 
the  founder  and  father  of  all  the  great  heretical  schools 
which  went  under  the  name  of  Gnostics.^  He  was  the 
teacher  of  every  kind  of  vice.  He  was  the  pest  of  man- 
kind, and  his  godhood  was  dethroned  by  Peter  at  Rome.* 
The  doctrines  of  this  theological  monster,  if  we  may  form 
a  judgment  from  the  confused  exposition  of  his  "  gospel  " 
by  Irenaius  and  Hippolytus,  neither  of  whom  seems  to  have 
had  either  the  disposition  or  the  power  to  unfold  its  mean- 
ing, contained  nothing  to  justify  all  this  denunciation.  It 
must  have  been  an  evolution  of  psychological  attributes 
from  the  idea  of  God  conceived  as  the  immutable,  eternal, 
yet  forever  self-projecting  reality;^  and  this  dramatically 
and  allegorically  presented  as  a  descending  series,  ending 
in  the  latest  revelation,  through  himself,  for  making  the 
universe  one  in  God  and  emancipating  the  human  soul  from 
material  bonds.  He  was  eclectic,  and  held  heathen  teach- 
ing to  be  sufficient  without  Christ,  if  rightly  understood.*^ 
Of  any  dualistic  theor}^  or  special  demonic  system,  even 
his  enemies  seem  to  have  brought  no  charge ;  but  every 
feature  of  later  Gnosticism,  Dcmiurgism,  and  Docetism 
especially,  was  seen  reflected  in  its  germs  in  the  Samaritan 
Antichrist,  whose  chief  sins  seem  to  have  been,  "  inter- 
preting the  books  of  Moses  as  he  pleased,"'  and  usurping 
the  place  of  Jesus  as  image  of  God.^     The  sin  of  Simon  is 

1  This  charge  of  claiming  to  be  God  is  elaborated  in  the  pseudo  Clemoitine  Recognitions, 
a  romance  of  the  tiiird  century,  bk.  ii.  Justin  Martyr:  Apology,  i.  26,  56.  Origen :  Phi- 
losopJtv,  vi.   I. 

'  Hippolytus  :  Philosophy,  vi.  i. 

^  Irenasus :  Against  Heresies,  bk.  i.     Eusebius  :  Hist.  Eccl.,  ii.  13. 

*  Eusebius,  ii    13,  14.  °  Hippolytus:  Philosophy,  vi.  1,  17. 

*  Matter  :  Histoire  critique  du  Gnosticisine,  ii.  iii. 

T  Hippolytus :  Philosophy,  vi.  v.  19.  8  Irensus,  i.  23. 


MANICH^ISM.  485 

not  apparent  to  critical  study.  To  the  eyes  of  Paul  and 
Peter,  according  to  the  Book  of  Acts,  it  consisted  in  con- 
ceiving the  power  of  Christ  as  working  miracles  through 
them  for  mercenary  motives ;  and  in  mistaking  their  gift  of 
healing  for  a  magic  secret  which  he  wanted  to  buy.  But 
the  story  refutes  itself  Simon  could  have  seen  no  miracle 
wrought  by  the  apostles  ;  and  if  he  saw  anything  which  they 
claimed  to  be  miraculous,  it  could  only  have  been  some- 
thing akin  to  magical  illusion,  and  involves  them  in  the 
very  delusion  they  would  fasten  upon  him.  His  doctrine 
of  a  fallen  ^on  whom  his  ministry  was  to  restore  to  the 
Pleroma  of  God,  and  in  her  the  world,  led  to  the  story  of  his 
leading  about  a  reformed  prostitute,  —  according  to  some, 
far  from  reformed,  —  whom  he  styled  "  the  lost  sheep;  "  ^ 
and  still  further,  to  charges  of  licentiousness  against  his 
whole  school.2  Yet  it  was  conceded  that  Simon  had  re- 
deemed this  Helena  from  slavery.^  To  take  her  with  him 
as  a  type  of  that  divine  power  which  he  wished  to  deliver 
in  every  soul,  might  be  the  act  of  a  lunatic  in  our  days, 
but  certainly  no  more  implied  improper  relations  than  did 
similar  typical  actions  recorded  of  the  Hebrew  prophets ; 
and  her  presence  might  have  served  to  emphasize  his 
doctrine  and  to  illustrate  its  practical  power  over  conduct. 
If,  as  the  Fathers  assert,  it  was  his  purpose  to  counterfeit 
or  rival  Jesus,  he  could  point  to  a  prototype,  beyond  all 
suspicion  of  guilt,  in  the  female  friend  out  of  whom  the 
Messiah  had  cast  seven  devils,  and  who  loved  to  sit  at 
his  feet.  Nor  was  any  type  of  sin  and  recovery  more 
frequently  employed  in  those  days  than  the  sexual  one. 
It  was  an  "  adulterous  and  sinful  generation,"  which  the 
Messiah  was  to  redeem. 

Whether  Simon's  thaumaturgic  gifts  were  exercised,  if 
he  possessed  them,  in  the  interest  of  his  own  claims  to  be 

*  Hippolytus  :  Philosofihy^  vi.  i,  19.     Irenaeus,  i.  23.     Matthew,  xviii.  12. 

'  Hippolytus:  Philosophy,  vi.  i,  19.  ^  Irenxus,  i.  23, 


486  PHILOSOPHIES. 

the  Paraclete  or  Advocate,  or  in  some  other  way  the  power 
of  God,  may  be  difficult  to  determine.  But  the  evidence 
of  his  imposture  comes  entirely  from  his  enemies ;  and 
there  seems  to  be  no  more  reason  for  crediting  it  than 
for  regarding  the  whole  great  Gnostic  movement  of  the 
first  four  centuries  as  imposture,  as  the  same  writers  would 
have  us  believe  that  it  was.  Whatever  motives  his  reli- 
gious claim  may  have  supplied,  they  were  not  necessarily 
selfish  ones,  any  more  than  those  which  arc  represented 
as  actuating  the  apostles  of  the  Book  of  Acts.  Their 
magic  w^as  of  a  character  similar  to  his,  —  it  was  a  means 
of  proving  supernatural  gifts  as  the  prerogative  of  believers 
in  Christ.  But  the  magic  of  the  Gnostics  generally,  and 
of  Mani  in  particular,  was  a  part  of  their  psychological 
symbolism ;  it  ascribed  to  certain  elements  in  Nature  con- 
stant virtues  and  vices  as  inherent  in  their  being,  according 
to  that  essential  Dualism  which  was  the  law  of  the  universe. 
It  was  therefore  of  the  nature  of  science  as  much  as  of 
superstition ;  or  rather  it  was  incipient  science  in  the 
leading-strings  of  superstition. 

In  this  point  of  view  it  was  the  precursor  of  that 
•'  magic "  which  enclosed  the  germs  of  modern  science 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  —  that  original  study  of  physical 
Nature  which  was  persecuted  by  the  Church  because  it 
foreshadowed  some  other  solution  of  the  problems  of  life, 
some  other  salvation  for  the  mind  of  man,  than  the  Chris- 
tian Trinity  and  Atonement.  It  is  true  that  in  common 
with  the  Church,  Manichaism  had  rejected  the  material 
world  ;  not,  however,  as  under  the  curse  of  God,  but  as  pro- 
ceeding from  a  principle  antagonistic  to  God.  But  it  had 
at  least  subordinated  arbitrary  will  to  positive  principles 
and  laws,  and  sought  to  test  the  books  and  traditions  of 
religious  belief  by  them,  in  the  name  of  reason.  And  it 
was  in  a  similar  though  more  consistent  spirit  that  the 
fathers  of  modern  science  faced  the  curse  that  "  revealed 


MANICH.'EISM.  487 

religion  "  laid  upon  Nature,  and  with  earnest  faith  in  free- 
dom and  in  law  strove  to  rehabilitate  man's  dwelling-place, 
as  the  Manicha^ans  had  sought  to  deanthropomorphize 
God.  This  was  the  forbidden  magic  with  which  they  con- 
fronted the  magic,  or  miracle,  of  papal  consecrations  and 
holy  signs  and  talismans,  which  for  centuries  gathered 
about  the  pious  trust  and  daily  life  of  men.  As  the  Gnos- 
tic traced  his  hierarchy  of  psychological  yEons  from  the 
highest  spirit  down  to  the  lowest  emanation,  and  made  re- 
ligion consist  in  the  restoration  of  their  unity  in  God,  so 
these  new  Gnostics  of  Nature  carried  the  purpose  a  step 
farther,  and  strove  to  bring  about  the  unity  of  the  physi- 
cal and  spiritual  cosmos,  as  the  Gnostic  had  done  with  the 
spiritual  alone.  Astrology  and  alchemy  —  the  magic,  not 
of  stars  and  metals  only,  but  of  all  elements  —  were  inspired 
by  the  idea  that  all  things  are  in  natural  sympathetic  rela- 
tion, —  from  the  atom  to  the  perfect  soul ;  that  lines  of 
dynamic  influence  are  traceable  through  correspondent 
forms,  and  that  the  power  to  bring  forth  ideal  fruits  from 
these  hitherto  unexplored  relations  was  to  be  secured  by 
the  right  knowledge  of  their  inherent  laws  and  unselfish 
obedience  to  their  commands.  Ignorant  as  children,  they 
took  fanciful  resemblances  for  real  relations ;  but  they  an- 
ticipated many  scientific  truths,  and  were  led  by  that  first 
condition  of  science,  —  the  instinct  of  the  permanent  and 
universal.  The  instant  this  trust  in  Nature  as  the  great 
teacher  appeared,  it  was  treated  by  the  Church  as  an  alien 
and  rival  authority;  and  for  this  reason,  —  the  Church  rested 
upon  exclusive  Will ;  science  rested  upon  positive  natural 
law.  The  supernatural  magic  of  the  Church  aimed  at 
the  destruction  of  the  natural  magic  of  the  scientist,  as  it 
had  a  thousand  years  before  at  the  natural  magic  of  the 
heretic  and  heathen,  who  put  their  thaumaturgy  against 
its  miracles ;  and  so  the  birthday  of  our  liberty  saw  the 
martyrdom    of  its    prophets    as    masters    of  the    "  Black 


488  PHILOSOPHIES. 

Art."  But  persecuted  *'  magic "  has  evolved  modern 
science,  and  science  has  in  turn  exorcised  the  Church. 
It  is  noticeable,  therefore,  that  in  this  hated  name  of 
magic,  preserving  the  memory  of  Zoroaster  and  his  priest- 
hood, has  descended  a  flame  of  freedom  which  the  Aryan 
kindled,  three  thousand  years  ago,  on  the  heights  of  Iran, 
for  his  struggle  against  the  powers  of  darkness  in  the  name 
of  Ahura,  the  self-created  light.  The  word  acquired  a 
nobler  meaning  with  time.  The  darkness  which  the  me- 
diaeval Magus  had  to  master  was  ignorance,  ecclesiasti- 
cism,  a  theology  of  arbitrary  will  and  slavish  fear.  The 
Dualism  of  the  Persian  is  lost  in  a  strife  of  powers  deeper 
than  that  which  divided  Ormuzd  from  Ahriman,  or  the 
believer  in  two  hostile  principles  from  the  believer  in  one 
All-creating  God. 

A  modern  writer,^  using  the  word  in  its  supernatural 
sense,  regards  magic  as  a  result  of  Dualism.  If  he  is  right, 
it  cannot  be  that  the  Dualism  from  which  magic  results  is 
a  belief  in  two  gods  instead  of  one ;  but  rather  some  such 
recognition  of  the  power  of  evil  in  life  and  the  world  as  be- 
longed to  Christian  monotheism  in  common  with  what  is 
commonly  supposed  to  have  been  Dualism  proper,— the 
religion  of  the  Avesta.  Christianity,  in  its  conception  of 
evil,  simply  put  God  and  Lucifer  for  Ahura  and  Ahriman. 
But  it  did  not  merely  inherit  that  conception  from  Persia, 
—  it  seized  and  developed  it.  The  implication  of  Ahriman 
in  creation  was  more  than  equalled  by  the  master-stroke 
of  Satan  in  effecting  the  full  surrender  of  mankind  through 
Adam's  fall  to  a  metaphysical  hatred  of  good  far  beyond 
the  simple  ethical  conceptions  of  the  Avesta.  This  mono- 
theistic Dualism  extended  the  sovereignty  of  evil  into  eter- 
nal relations,  making  hell  a  positive  permanent  fact,  which 
the  Avesta  did  not  do.  The  New  Testament  really  gives 
more  scope  to  the  Prince  of  Darkness  than  the  Bundehesh. 

'  Rydberg  :  Magic  of  Middle  Ages. 


MANICILEISM.  489 

The  Church  of  One  God  was  more  dualistic  than  the 
doctrine  of  Two  Principles.  It  beheved  in  the  existence 
of  the  "  father  of  hes  and  the  founder  of  oracles  "  as  ab- 
solutely as  in  that  of  the  P'ather  of  Jesus.  Early  Chris- 
tianity regarded  the  whole  heathen  world  as  diabolic. 
Catholics  added  all  heretics  to  the  category,  and  the  fe- 
male sex  in  special,  burning  millions  at  the  stake  for  sor- 
cery. The  Reformers  added  all  past  Catholicism  to  the 
list;  and  Luther,  who  had  the  sharpest  eyes  for  devils  of 
any  man  in  his  day,  held  the  Church,  as  an  institution,  to 
have  been  an  invention  of  Satan.  So  that  a  monotheistic 
religion  has  actually  made  the  whole  history  of  man  a 
diabolic  drama,^  which  the  Incarnation  alone  illumines 
with  its  Divine  interference.  Scarcely  a  voice  was  raised 
in  orthodox  Christendom  for  centuries  against  those  horri- 
ble practical  deductions  from  the  dogma  of  depravity  and 
the  power  of  Satan  over  Nature  and  man  which  were  bath- 
ing all  Europe  in  innocent  blood.  It  cannot  be  pretended 
that  Dualism  proper,  according  to  the  common  meaning 
of  that  term,  is  more  guilty  than  monotheism  of  the  bar- 
barous forms  of  belief  in  magic  as  the  instrument  of  evil. 
Nothing  could  more  clearly  show  that  man's  treatment  of 
the  problem  of  moral  evil  is  independent  of  the  lines  which 
separate  positive  religions,  than  to  compare  the  supersti- 
tious precepts  and  customs  prevailing  in  mediaeval  Chris- 
tianity on  this  subject,  —  the  omens  and  precautions  and 
anathemas  relating  to  witchcraft  and  sorcery,  with  those 
of  a  similar  nature  in  the  Avesta.  It  would  be  found  that 
the  former  list  largely  outnumbers  the  latter,  and  reaches 
through  the  details  of  life  with  at  least  equal  thorough- 
ness.^ The  popular  notion  that  heathenism  is  responsible 
for  Christian  magic  is  therefore  an  error. 

The  Christian  sense  of  the  power  of  evil,  like  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  eternal  punishment,  was  in  fact  the  recoil 

1  Rydberg:  Magic  of  Middle  Ages,  p.  19S.  '  Ibid.,  210,  211. 


490  PHILOSOPHIES. 

of  man's  conscience  from  nature  in  himself  and  the  world, 
which  in  Christianity  took  the  form  of  self-contempt  and 
self-rejection,  which  turned  the  back  upon  the  whole  past 
of  human  progress,  and  laid  the  whole  burden  of  human 
misery  on  the  constitution  of  Nature  and  the  soul ;  whose 
great  interpreter  for  ages  has  been  that  strange  compend 
of  the  savage  and  the  saint,  that  child  of  African  passion 
and  Roman  legalism,  —  Augustine. 

The  historical  dev^elopmcnt  of  Dualism  under  the  mono- 
theistic system  of  Christianity  Reserves  closer  treatment. 
Under  this  system,  evil  is  either  directly  the  result  of  God's 
will,  —  that  is.  He  is  alike  the  creator  of  good  and  evil;  or 
else  indirectly,  —  that  is,  through  the  free  will  which  he  has 
bestowed  on  man,  with  full  knowledge  of  the  consequences 
of  the  gift.  The  former  of  these  solutions  was  derived 
from  Judaism,  which  had  imbibed  from  Mazdeism  in  the 
Captivity  the  distinct  personality  of  an  adversary,  —  Satan, 
as  the  inciter  to  wickedness,  appearing  for  the  first  time  in 
the  post-exilian  Book  of  Chronicles.^  The  growth  of  Jew- 
ish demonology  was  extremely  rapid  ;  and  its  fallen  angels, 
its  swarming  devils,  its  hierarchy  of  evil  powers,  pervading 
the  worship  of  Jahvch,  went  over  bodily  into  Christianity, 
which  was  really  but  a  reform  in  the  bosom  of  Judaism, 
working  over  its  higher  and  lower  elements  in  the  in- 
terest of  indivdduahty  and  ethical  purity.  It  ascribed  to 
Satan,  the  roaring  lion,  the  father  of  lies,  all  diseases  of 
mind  and  body,  all  heathen  dogmas,  rites,  and  conduct. 
If,  as  many  modern  Christians  suppose,  Jesus  did  not 
believe  in  such  a  personal  enemy  to  God  and  good,  why 
the  repeated  allusion  to  him,  in  the  Temptation,  and  in  the 
expulsion  of  demons,  while  Jesus  is  nowhere  presented  as 
rebuking  the  almost  universal  belief  of  his  countrymen  in 
such  a  power?  What  idea  Jesus  had  of  his  origin  or  of 
the  extent  of  his  power  nowhere  appears,  except  that  he 

1  I  Chronicles,  xxi.     Compare  2  Kings,  xxiv. 


MANICH^ISM.  491 

believed  him  subject  to  the  power  of  God,  and  through 
God  to  his  own.  But  Paul  distinctly  adheres  to  the  old 
Jewish  idea  that  Jahveh  is  the  creator  of  evil  in  man,  as 
the  potter  moulds  his  clay.^  The  Christian  Fathers  had 
the  harder  task  of  reconciling  their  Christian  monotheism 
with  the  existence  of  this  inconvertible  evil  Will,  whose 
power  over  man  was  due  to  a  corresponding  tendency  in 
the  will  of  man.  In  Satan  and  in  man  evil  was  traceable, 
not  to  the  will  of  God,  but  to  disobedience  and  revolt  in 
their  own  wills;  as,  however, they  were  created  and  endowed 
by  the  omniscience  of  God,  evil  was  indirectly  his  work. 
Lactantius  in  the  fourth  century,  in  fact,  speaks  of  God  as 
creating  two  spirits,  —  one  that  should  hold  to  good,  and 
one  that  should  fall  and  become  evil ;  ^  showing  that  Chris- 
tian monotheism  moved  in  the  same  track  with  Persian 
Dualism.  And  this  was  the  primitive  doctrine  which  went 
on  demonizing  the  creed  and  conduct  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
overturning  all  reason  by  the  internecine  conflict  of  God 
and  the  Devil.  Hermogenes,  a  Christian  Father  in  the 
second  century,  who  anticipated  Mani,  making  matter 
eternal  and  the  source  of  evil,  Justin  Martyr,  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  and  Origen,  who  did  the  same,  still  threw  evil 
back  on  God,  as  creator  of  matter  from  eternity. 

Out  of  that  primitive  doctrine  which  connected  evil  in- 
directly with  God  as  conscious  creator  of  the  will  and  its 
results,  came  the  Christian  article  of  original  sin  and  its 
expiation.  The  attempt  to  escape  the  revolting  conse- 
quences of  this  belief,  the  monstrosity  of  ascribing  sin 
deserving  infinite  wrath  to  the  purest  as  well  as  to  the 
worst  of  mankind,  led  to  Origen's  kindly  semi-Platonic 
theory  of  antenatal  sin,  —  a  weak  shifting  back  of  the 
tragedy  of  Adam's  fall,  without  accounting  for  it.  But 
the  old  logical  necessity  of  throwing  the  whole  responsi- 

1  Romans,  ix.  17. 

2  histitutiones  Divinos,  ii.  8.     Hauteville  :  Morale  ct  VE^lise,  p.  22. 


492  PHILOSOPHIES. 

bility  for  evil  on  Him  who  made  man  free  to  choose  it, 
was  not  to  be  escaped  in  this  way.  Equally  vain  was  the 
theory  that  Adam  and  Eve  were  created  pure;  for  how 
could  that  be,  if  they  had  received  a  capacity  for  sin  which 
made  them  able  to  involve  all  their  posterity  in  total  de- 
pravity and  eternal  wrath,  and  to  curse  the  world  with 
physical  death  and  moral  impotence,  so  that  the  incarna- 
tion of  God,  the  atonement,  and  redemption  through 
Christ  became  necessary?  How  could  the  very  first  act 
of  pure  beings  involve  such  immeasurable  crime  and  con- 
sequence as  Augustine  saw  in  that  earliest  exercise  of  free 
will?  No  such  prodigy  was  wrought  out  of  the  first  dis- 
obedience, in  the  Bundehcsh ;  none  out  of  the  fall  of 
Yima,  in  the  Avesta.  This  was  the  terrible  triumph  of 
Evil  in  a  more  intensely  monotheistic  faith. 

This  monstrous  deduction  was  slowly  evolved.  Neither 
the  Gospels  nor  Paul  reached  it.^  The  older  Fathers  gen- 
erally admit  the  counteracting  power  of  frec-M-ill  to  save, 
as  it  had  wounded,  man,  —  some,  like  Mani,  laying  sin 
at  the  door  of  eternal  matter  as  "  the  flesh."  It  was  in 
the  fifth  century  that  the  consequences  of  the  theory 
burst  into  full  flower  in  Augustine,  whose  protest  against 
Pelagius  argued  logically  that  the  denial  of  an  utter  per- 
version and  ruin  of  the  will  through  Adam's  sin  struck  at 
the  foundations  of  the  Christian  system  by  taking  away 
the  necessity  for  atonement  and  salvation  by  Christ. 
Nothing  could  serve  the  purpose  but  the  conjunction  of 
absolute  impotence  of  man  for  good,  and  eternal  wrath 
against  him  for  doing  evil,  as  results  of  the  free-will  which 
God  himself  had  given  him.  What  premise  of  human 
thought  has  ever  brought  such  monstrous  results  from 
the  act  of  an  omnipotent  W'ill,  bestowing  on  its  children 
the  power  of  free  choice  involved  in  its  own  being? 

Yet  this  is  the  natural  result  of  the  theory  which  traces 

1  Romans,  v.  12,  is  mistranslated.     Hauteville,  p.  33. 


MANICHiEISM. 


493 


evil  to  a  personal  will.  Such  a  theory  cannot  solve  the 
problem.     Epicurus  stated  the  case  fairly  when  he  said: 

"  Either  God  wishes  to  abohsh  evil  and  cannot,  and  then  He  is  not 

omnipotent ; 
Or  He  cannot  and  does  not  wish  to,  and  then  He  is  both  imperfect 

and  wiclved  ; 
Or  He  can  and  does  not  wish  to,  and  then  He  is  wicked  ; 
Or  He  both  wishes  to  and  can,  and  if  so,  How  comes  evil  to  exist 

at  all?" 

That  which  is  worshipped  as  infinite  in  its  perfection 
must  also  be  infinite  in  its  perversion;  and  the  tracing  of 
evil  to  so  pervertible  a  thing  as  will  in  God  or  man  must 
issue  in  some  such  exaggerated  conclusion  as  the  orthodox 
dogma  above  stated.  In  the  same  way,  man's  free-will 
being  made  responsible  for  evil,  the  issue  will  be  an  abso- 
lute denial  of  all  human  responsibility  whatever.  And 
this  step  is  taken  in  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of  divine 
"  Decrees  from  all  Eternity."  It  comes  to  this,  and  this 
only :  at  the  beginning,  as  at  the  end,  God  alone  is  respon- 
sible for  sin.  One  infinite  personal  Will  in  the  universe 
excludes  all  other  responsibility  for  the  results. 

It  would  have  been  better  to  remember  Bion's  saying, 
"  that  God's  punishing  the  children  for  the  sin  of  their 
fathers  is  like  a  physician  giving  medicine  to  the  son  or 
grandson  of  his  patient."  ^  It  were  wiser,  surely,  not  to 
exalt  a  personal  Will  to  the  throne  of  the  universe,  if  the 
conditions  are  that  it  shall  behave  irrationally  in  propa- 
gating its  own  freedom. 

Men  have  reached  a  solution  of  evil  which  is  not  com- 
plicated by  theological  difficulties  like  these,  by  confining 
themselves  to  the  facts  of  human  consciousness ;  a  solu- 
tion which  rests  on  natural  and  necessary  relations,  the  only 
real  rest  for  the  spirit  of  man,  —  not  on  the  contingencies 
of  will.     The  Stoic  Chrysippus  said,  that  in  the  nature  of 

1  Plutarch :  De  Sera.  Numinis  Vindicta,  xix. 


494  PHILOSOPHIES. 

things  evil  is  necessary  to  good ;  that  the  knowledge  of 
good  involves  the  knowledge  of  its  opposite ;  and  Euripi- 
des has  the  same  idea.  That  evil  is  good  in  the  making 
is  the  foundation  of  the  great  consolations  of  the  ancient 
teachers,  and  stands  by  virtue  of  that  conduct  which  of  itself 
makes  good  the  law.  The  thinker  sees  that  evil  must  exist, 
if  only  as  imperfection,  as  the  condition  of  progress,  as 
the  correlative  of  that  finitencss  which  is  the  ground  of  all 
individual  being.  The  war  against  evil,  moral  and  physical, 
is  the  education  of  all  greatness  and  all  goodness ;  and 
power  is  measured  by  resistance.  Evil  is  the  contrast  of 
the  actual  stage  on  which  we  stand,  with  the  ideal;  whicii 
represents  a  ceaseless  advancing  power  in  man  to  be- 
come at  one  with  the  universe  and  its  divine  order.  Only 
this  abiding  hope  of  the  ideal  as  the  goal  can  make  en- 
durance of  the  steps  possible.  The  dark  side  of  Nature 
and  life  cannot  be  justified  as  we  justify  the  works  or  ways 
of  personal  will.  No  conscious  moral  foresight  or  choice 
can  be  rationally  conceived  as  devising  or  intending  the 
wrong  and  suffering  which  have  befallen  the  innumerable 
millions  of  mankind.  No  anthropomorphic  deity  can  stand 
under  the  burden  of  such  responsibility.  The  Platonic 
Demiurge,  commissioned  to  organize  and  shape  the  neces- 
sities of  crude  substance  into  a  perfect  cosmos  of  souls  and 
bodies,  working  it  all  out  teleologically,  a  pure  system  of 
final  causes,  is  a  confessed  failure,  and  Plato  does  not 
allow  his  responsibility  for  the  evil  of  the  world.  The 
whole  theology  of  a  fore-and-after-Iooking,  predetermin- 
ing God,  a  time-conditioned  demiurgic  will,  breaks  down 
before  the  problem  of  evil  which  attends  every  step  of 
human  and  even  cosmic  growth.  The  Life  of  the  Uni- 
verse, the  unity  of  substance,  to  which  alone  belongs  the 
highest  Name,  is  wholly  incommensurate  with  the  neces- 
sary moulds  of  finite  consciousness,  the  limited  phenome- 
nal relations  of  time  and  space.    Whatever  mythological 


MANICH^ISM.  495 

forms  of  speech  may  be  unavoidable  in  religion,  the  per- 
plexities which  beset  this  fact  of  evil,  especially  in  its  moral 
aspect,  will  only  be  multiplied  with  the  advance  of  knowl- 
edge, so  long  as  we  attempt  to  explain  it  by  a  divine  power 
acting  by  intention,  motive,  purpose,  after  the  manner  of 
men.  No  wiser  are  we,  with  all  our  religious  systems,  than 
that  oldest  of  true  philosophers,  Xenophanes,  who  taught 
the  Greeks  that  truth  lay  beyond  their  mythic  tales  of  the 
gods,  and  sought  to  hint  what  none  can  yet  express  :  "  God 
is  not  like  to  mortals,  in  body  or  mind,  since  with  the 
whole  of  him  he  sees,  with  the  whole  of  him  he  thinks, 
with  the  whole  of  him  he  hears,  forever  abiding  the  same." 
Till  we  can  comprehend  essential  Being,  eternal  Substance, 
let  us  not  impose  upon  it  the  conditions  of  human  will. 
The  highest  philosophy  is  to  know  the  laws  of  our  being 
in  themselves ;  the  highest  religion  is  to  trust  them  as  the 
best,  because  they  are  our  nature;  the  highest  morality  is 
to  work  loyally  upon  the  facts  of  life,  transforming  them 
into  the  liberty  and  humanity  of  the  ideal ;  and  where  we 
cannot  do  this,  to  accept  our  limits  without  losing  our 
faith  and  hope  in  the  best.  There  is  great  help  towards 
this  achievement  in  recognizing  those  limits  in  ourselves 
which  we  refrain  from  ascribing  to  God  as  the  substance 
of  the  whole.  As  seeing  growth  but  in  fragments ;  as 
knowing  the  world  not  as  it  is  in  itself,  but  under  the  con- 
ditions of  our  actual  stage  of  progress  ;  as  making  the  world 
what  it  is  to  us,  by  ever  transforming  it  anew  into  the  like- 
ness of  ourselves,  —  we  may  well  apply  to  evil  the  deeper 
insight  of  the  optimist,  which  perceives  It  to  be  illusion ; 
not  in  so  far  as  our  duty  or  our  emotions  are  concerned, 
but  in  so  far  as  it  seems  to  contradict  the  promise  of  the 
ideal,  by  covering  past,  present,  and  future  alike  in  un- 
changeable gloom.  We  have  seen  that  this  was  the  endur- 
ing truth  in  the  old  Hindu  conception  of  Maya  and  in  the 
Buddhist  doctrine  of  life.     Some  of  the  Christian  Fathers 


496  PHILOSOPHIES. 

(even  Augustine),  in  the  same  spirit,  spoke  of  evil  as  un- 
reality, as  something  imagined  by  man  through  his  ignor- 
ance and  immaturity,  and  passing  away  in  proportion  as 
he  comes  nearer  to  seeing  things  as  a  whole.  Combining 
this,  as  they  did,  with  a  theological  anthropomorphism 
which  as  Christians  they  could  not  escape,  they  betrayed 
at  least  a  desire  to  save  the  will  of  God  from  responsi- 
bility for  evil;  which  they  could  only  do  by  denying  its 
reality. 

To  believe  in  the  unreality  of  evil  seems  to  require  a 
certain  mystic  elevation  of  faith ;  but  it  is  not,  as  we  have 
seen,  without  foundation  in  the  facts  of  experience  and  the 
laws  of  growth.  This  is  indubitable.  Our  conception  of 
evil  changes  with  our  changing  mood,  our  growing  insight, 
our  mastery  of  the  laws  of  life.  It  changes  as  we  look 
back  on  the  things  that  looked  so  rigid  in  ugliness,  and 
see  what  it  has  brought  about,  what  necessitated  it,  what 
compensated  it.  The  charitable  judgment  that  grows  with 
our  experience  is  found  to  be  not  charity  so  much  as  truer 
justice;  the  sympathies,  taught  by  science  to  enter  more 
objectively  into  the  pain  of  past  conditions  of  the  world 
or  the  race,  learn  the  law  that  ills  are  relative ;  that,  sub- 
stantially, the  strength  is  according  to  the  day.  How  the 
old  severities  of  judgment,  the  old  sense  of  curse  and 
blight,  melt  away  with  the  better  knowledge,  the  freer 
study  of  the  world,  into  trust 

"  that  somehow  good 
Will  be  the  final  goal  of  ill. 
To  pangs  of  nature,  sins  of  will, 
Defects  of  doubt  and  taints  of  blood ; 


"That  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet ; 
That  not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 
When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete." 


MANICH^ISM.  497 

Science  helps  to  change  the  old  rigid  conception  of 
positive  evil  by  proving  the  law  of  antagonism  to  be  a 
necessity  of  existence  and  growth.  So  that  evil,  seen  in 
its  broader  relations,  becomes  a  part  of  that  polarity  which 
runs  through  all  life,  organic  or  inorganic,  and  results  in 
structure,  progress,  beauty,  order,  good.  Science  is  uni- 
tary ;  yet  here  is  Dualism  as  its  central  law.  And  while 
the  conception  of  evil  is  thus  removed  from  the  region 
of  theological  intention  into  that  of  constructive  law,  the 
moral  sense  is  made  all  the  freer  to  repudiate  evil  choice 
by  escaping  the  influence  of  a  creed  which  gives  to  moral 
and  physical  evil  alike  the  sanction  of  a  deliberate  purpose 
of  Divine  Will.  For  the  necessity  of  evil  in  some  form 
to  all  progress  does  not  make  it  attractive,  though  it  may 
render  the  moral  judgments  of  good  men  more  charitable 
to  the  evil-doer.  But  the  recognition  that  moral  evil  in 
itself  is  the  ever-existing  opposite  pole  to  good,  and  that 
progress  consists  in  constant  strife  to  overcome  it  by  the 
force  of  good,  is  the  very  pith  of  principle,  the  ground  of 
moral  conviction  and  practical  consecration  to  duty. 

It  is  true  that  the  elements  of  this  polarity,  the  strife  for 
survival,  the  struggle  for  existence,  the  sacrifice  of  the  in- 
nocent for  the  guilty,  the  impermanence  of  ties,  may  be 
interpreted  in  the  interest  of  pessimism.  And  especially 
does  science  tend  that  way  when  it  is  concerned  only  with 
the  understanding  of  phenomena,  and  exalts  the  senses  as 
sole  origin  of  knowledge,  under  the  name  of  experience, 
ignoring  the  ideal  and  even  the  personal  factor,  without 
which  it  cannot  really  take  a  step  in  the  discovery  of  uni- 
versal order.  So  limited  is  the  understanding,  so  essential 
is  ideal  insight  and  faith,  that  science  is  demoralized  by 
such  conditions,  and  becomes  a  sterner  tyrant  than  the- 
ology has  ever  been,  holding  man  fast  to  the  lower  aspects, 
the  discouraging  concrete  details,  the  power  of  outward 
circumstances  over  man's  hope   and  faith.     There  arises, 

32 


498  PHILOSOPHIES. 

even  on  these  new  fields  of  physical  science,  an  incon- 
sistency not  unlike  that  of  those  early  Christian  sects,  both 
orthodox  and  heretical,  who  declared  matter  impure  and 
evil,  while  raising  it  to  a  rank  in  the  universe  which  con- 
ditioned and  largely  determined  the  activity  of  God.  But 
the  true  function  of  science  is  altogether  different.  It 
substitutes  universal  law  for  supernatural  interference  and 
caprice.  It  fearlessly  explores  the  real  conditions  of  life, 
the  facts  of  human  destiny,  and  reconciles  man  to  his  re- 
lations in  the  order  of  the  world ;  so  educating  him  to 
accept  these  inevitable  conditions  of  existence,  whether 
seemingly  good  or  evil,  as  the  best  for  him,  because  they 
lift  him  into  the  higher  morality  of  free  obedience  and  the 
serener  life  of  natural  trust. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  old  Greek  drama  aims  at 
depicting  the  destinies  of  men,  and  the  modern  at  evolving 
their  characters :  such  is  the  difference  in  the  treatment 
of  ethical  and  spiritual  problems.  The  only  solution  of 
evil  must  be  found  in  the  facts  of  experience  themselves. 
The  inevitable  laws  of  antagonism,  of  contradiction,  of 
irony,  of  wrong  conditions,  and  bad  uses  of  pain  and  loss, 
must  be  accepted  through  an  absolute  trust  in  the  integrity 
of  the  moral  universe,  and  solved  by  disinterested  labor, 
not  for  personal  happiness,  not  for  utilitarian  successes, 
but  to  fulfil  the  inward  prompting  to  serve  the  ideal,  the 
purest,  and  the  best. 


II. 

GNOSTICISM. 


GNOSTICISM. 

IT  was  the  connection  of  ManicIiEism  with  the  great 
Gnostic  schools  that  rendered  it  so  obnoxious  to  the 
Christian  Church.  It  was  built  on  the  foundations  laid  by 
that  line  of  heretical  teachers  of  the  second  century,  — 
Carpocrates,  Basilides,  Valentinus,  Marcion,  Bardesanes, — 
who  had  gathered  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  idealism 
of  the  older  religions  into  rationalistic  systems,  destructive 
of  implicit  faith.  The  large  scope  of  Gnosticism,  in  its 
effort  to  save  the  traditions  of  human  reason  from  being 
swept  away  by  an  exclusive  revelation,  may  be  seen  in  the 
fact  that  its  elements  have  been  traced  in  such  reactions 
against  the  Old  Testament  law  and  faith  as  the  Essenic 
rejection  of  the  Temple  service,  the  Septuagint  conver- 
sion of  Jahveh  into  a  more  spiritual  God,  the  Apocryphal 
Book  of  Wisdom,  and  the  Logos  of  Philo ;  in  the  Platonic 
Ideas  and  Emanations ;  in  the  Dualism  of  Zoroaster  and 
Empedocles ;  in  the  Buddhist  doctrine  of  Illusion,  of  the 
soul's  imprisonment  in  the  senses,  and  its  release  there- 
from ;  as  well  as  in  its  non-Christian  conception  of  a  re- 
deeming Christ.  It  has  been  supposed  that  Marcion,  one 
of  the  more  learned  "Gnostics,  synthesized  the  three  great 
religions  in  the  three  principal  factors  of  his  system ;  find- 
ing his  God  in  Christianity,  his  Demiurge  in  Judaism,  his 
Evil  Principle  in  Heathenism. ^  It  is  entirely  true  that 
Gnosticism  was  the  product  of  an  effort  to  combine  the 
best  elements  of  all  these  religious  and  philosophical  be- 
liefs under  a  single  principle,  of  which  the    appropriate 

^  Baur:   Gnosis,  p.  zyy. 


502  PHILOSOPHIES. 

name  was  Gnosis,  or  ideal  knowledge.  It  is  not  meant  by 
this  explanation  that  there  was  nothing  original  in  the 
thought  or  method  of  these  men  who  built  with  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  world ;  that  their  work  was  a  conscious  syn- 
cretism only.  In  the  mighty  ferment  of  that  age  the  whole 
past  was  seething,  and  its  elementary  forces,  loosed  from 
special  combinations,  had  entered  into  the  unconscious 
circulations  of  mind.  The  new  systems  that  were  shaped 
out  of  these  materials  were  the  natural  products  of  the 
time,  which  called  forth  its  own  prophets ;  and  they  must 
clothe  in  these  symbols  their  sense  of  its  demands.  These 
efforts  of  the  speculative  intellect  to  solve  the  mystery  of 
moral  and  physical  evil,  and  bridge  the  passage  from  the 
infinite  to  the  finite,  from  the  perfect  to  the  imperfect,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  without  detriment  to  the  truth  of 
either  term,  were  therefore  not  mere  scholastic  pedantry. 
The  reproductions  of  the  old  conceptions  and  methods, 
which  we  can  now  trace  in  so  many  systems  that  preceded 
them,  were  fresh  obedience  to  the  eternal  laws  of  thought. 
They  serve  to  show  the  sincerity  and  depth  of  those  earlier 
endeavors,  and  point  us  to  those  elements  in  them  which 
could  not  die  with  their  makers.  The  very  name  by 
which  they  designated  their  common  aspiration  for  the 
deeper  meaning,  the  ideal  solution  of  life, — gnosis,  —  was 
anticipated  ages  before,  in  thajnajia  of  the  Hindu  philoso- 
phers, chosen  for  a  precisely  similar  purpose ;  and  it  still 
stands  in  our  word  agnosticism,  to  prove  by  implication  at 
least,  even  now  at  the  end  of  the  Christian  centuries,  the 
immortality  of  that  very  aspiration  which  is  thus  declared 
to  be  a  fruitless  dream.  So  far  was  Gnosticism  from  being 
a  servile  adherence  to  ancient  names  and  dogmas,  a  mere 
eclectic  farrago  of  accepted  traditions,  that  by  its  very 
nature,  as  well  as  by  the  variety  and  freedom  of  its  forms, 
it  was  an  organic  protest  against  implicit  faith,  —  a  recur- 
rence to  the  rights  of  reason,  when  they  were  threatened, 


GNOSTICISM.  503 

as  never  before  or  since  in  history,  with  entire  suppression, 
by  the  claims  of  a  special  revelation.  Itself  not  free  from 
supernaturalistic  elements,  it  resisted  that  passive  recep- 
tion of  dogmatic  and  personal  absolutism  which  is  the 
essence  of  supernaturalistic  faith.  It  refused  to  drop  the 
constructive  powers  of  the  intellect,  which  twenty  centuries 
had  slowly  evolved,  before  a  creed  which  pronounced  the 
intellect  sinful  and  vain  ;  to  surrender  its  rights  of  criticism 
before  old  and  new  scriptures  which  bore  on  their  face  cor- 
ruption and  delusion  amidst  all  the  better  features  which 
these  had  obscured.  If  the  Christian  Church  could  main- 
tain that  the  masses  of  mankind  required  an  incarnate 
God,  Gnosticism  also  could  insist  that  the  present  and 
future  alike  demanded  that  reason  should  not  be  de- 
throned by  putting  a  historic  personage,  a  man  of  flesh 
and  blood,  on  the  throne  of  the  universe.  No  exclusive 
religion  should  reign  by  the  denial  of  all  that  other  reli- 
gions had  contributed  to  human  thought.  Especially  a 
Hebrew  deity,  fettered  in  mind,  ignoble  in  spirit,  sup- 
planted by  the  progress  of  man,  could  be  only  a  Demi- 
urge, a  blind  instrument  of  the  God  who  is  all  in  all. 
Egypt,  Syria,  Persia,  India,  Greece,  had  not  toiled  merely 
to  prepare  the  way  for  a  word  of  God  that  should  come 
down  all  new  from  heaven  to  silence  them  forever,  and 
begin  man's  life  and  hope  afresh  as  if  they  had  never 
been.  And  the  progress  of  humanity,  which  drops  no 
thread  in  the  web  of  history,  and  perpetuates  all  forces 
through  all  changes  of  name,  to  live  in  the  great  currents 
of  social  evolution,  whose  marvellous  analysis  reveals  that 
no  past  service  of  thought  or  good  has  ever  died,  pro- 
nounces the  Gnostic  right,  —  in  that  claim  for  universal 
history  at  least. 

Gnosticism  accepted  the  name  of  Christian,  and  many 
of  the  terms  by  which  Christians  expressed  their  faith ; 
but  the  distinctive  substance  of  that  faith  it  rejected,  as 


504  PHILOSOPHIES. 

these  pages  have  already  shown.  The  Elkesaites^  re- 
garded the  New  Testament  Christ  as  but  one  of  many 
forms  of  the  Christ  who  had  appeared  again  and  again  in 
human  history,  transformed  from  body  to  body,  after  the 
manner  of  the  Hindu  incarnations  of  Vishnu  the  Pre- 
server. The  Carpocratians  beHeved  that  the  soul  of  Jesus 
was  like  all  other  souls,  reaching  its  power  over  the  world 
by  overcoming  the  "  world-archons,"  and  that  all  who 
were  similarly  victorious  over  evil  would  have  similar  gifts; 
and  so  they  put  him  among  the  great  men  of  history,  and 
honored  all  alike.^  "  Valentinus,"  says  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, "makes  the  truth  common,  whether  it  be  the  Jewish 
writings  or  those  of  the  philosophers."  ^  Clement,  by 
whose  waitings  mainly  it  is  that  we  discover  the  nobler 
side  of  the  Gnostics,'*  quotes  Valentinus  as  saying  that  it 
is  only  by  the  presence  of  God  that  the  heart  becomes 
pure  from  evil,  and  that  he  who  possesses  a  pure  heart 
shall  see  God.^  Marcion  affirmed  that  the  New  Testament 
Christ  was  not  the  Christ  predicted  in  the  Old  Testament, 
who  was  yet  to  come  and  restore  the  Jewish  State.**  It 
was  clearly  recognized  by  the  Church  that  revelation 
could  not  endure  the  rivalry  of  reason;  the  question  was 
no  incidental  and  temporary  one,  but  rooted  in  the  ele- 
ments of  progress ;  and  this  war,  waged  by  typical  posi- 
tive religion,  has  no  cessation,  scarcely  a  truce.  As  it  be- 
gan in  the  struggle  with  Gnosticism,  so  it  has  lasted  to  the 
present  day,  and  is  now  a  struggle  with  science.  But  was 
the  Gnostic  altogether  in  the  right?     By  no  means. 

What  the  Christians  could  not  understand,  so  exacting 
was  their  own  worship  of  Christ  as  a  revealer  of  positive 

1  Hippolytus :  Philosophy,  x.  xx.  2  Irenaeus,  vii.  20. 

5  Clement  of  Alexandria  :  Stronicita,  vi.  6. 

^  Baur  (Gnosis,  520)  allows  this,  though  admitting  that  Clement  believed  that  the  Gnostics 
thought  all  heathen  truth  stolen  from  Christianity,  which  was  not  true  of  the  Gnostics,  only 
of  Clement  himself. 

s  Clement  of  Alexandria  :  S/romata,  ii.  20. 

^  Tertullian  :  Against  Marcion,  iv.  vi. 


GNOSTICISM.  505 

divine  commands,  was  this, — that  the  Gnostic  was  con- 
structing a  mythology  around  the  idea  of  God,  just  as  they 
were  themseh^es  constructing  a  mythology  around  the  name 
ot  Christ;  that  he  was  seeking  to  explain  the  fact  of  evil 
by  a  crude  philosophy  of  matter,  just  as  they  were  by  a 
crude  theory  of  Satanic  will ;  and  just  as  they  were  search- 
ing for  allegories  and  types  of  Christ  in  the  Biblical  rec- 
ords, and  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  testimonies  of  heathen 
blindness,  so  the  Gnostic  was  searching  out  fanciful  alle- 
gories and  types  of  a  divine  personal  process  in  the  whole 
material  of  human  experience,  past  and  present.  The  one 
structure  was  a  work  of  the  imagination  as  well  as  the 
other.  That  of  the  Christians  possessed  the  advantage 
of  a  simplicity,  concentration,  and  exclusiveness  which 
made  its  appeal  effective  with  the  multitudes  who  were 
seeking  rest  from  the  confusion  of  systems  and  the  press- 
ing sense  of  ignorance  and  isolation.  None  the  less  real, 
however,  was  that  want  of  the  age,  and  of  all  ages,  which 
was  to  be  met  only  by  students  of  the  intellectual  bearings 
of  spiritual  truths,  —  by  those  who  could  not  silence  the 
deep  problems  of  experience  by  the  magic  of  a  miracle, 
or  the  rebuke  of  a  revelation,  or  by  anything  short  of 
the  witness  of  the  laws  of  thought.  In  the  great  cosmic 
drama,  or  epos,  of  Gnosticism,  spiritual  principles,  psy- 
chological qualities,  ethical  forces,  figured  as  persons,  in 
true  Iranian  fashion.  The  processes  of  emanation  became 
successive  ^ojis,  —  genealogical  periods,  or  stages  of  spir- 
itual descent,  —  further  conceived  as  male  and  female, 
combined  in  syzygies,  in  whose  opposition  lay  a  real 
conjunction  and  completeness.  By  this  emanative  series, 
this  descent  of  principles,  not  in  time,  but  in  the  order  of 
psychological  function,  the  Pleroma,  or  fulness  of  Being, 
was  supposed  to  become  the  basis  of  changes  and  de- 
scending degrees,  by  which  the  existence  and  experience 
of  man  were   intellectually  explicable  without  separating 


5o6  PHILOSOPHIES. 

him  from  the  life  of  God.  All  this  mediation  was  of  course 
an  elaborate  symbol,  which  could  only  stand  for  reality  to 
the  eyes  of  anthropomorphism.  In  the  same  way  Evil, 
conceived  as  a  principle  as  far  as  possible  removed  from 
God,  uncreated  and  unchangeable,  could  only  become 
the  ground  of  the  soul's  imprisonment  and  release  by  the 
interaction  of  ethical  forces  in  dramatic  personal  action. 
On  the  other  hand,  how  far  this  was  believed  with  mytho- 
logical faith,  how  far  recognized  by  the  reason  as  poetic 
symbol  of  rational  truth,  it  is  not  easy  to  say.  But  it  is 
certain  that  the  whole  process  rested  on  philosophical  foun- 
dations ;  that  the  yEons  and  the  powers,  however  personi- 
fied, me2in\.  principles,  and  followed  the  logic  of  principles. 
J^on  was  ael-oi',  everlasting  reality,  like  the  Platonic  Idea, 
lifted  above  all  personal  conditions  and  limitations ;  as  in 
the  Persian  Ameska-^pentas,  the  personal  garb,  with  which 
language  was  obliged  to  clothe  them,  was  transparent  to 
the  abstract  quality  they  represented,  and  served  but  to 
make  this  quality  more  real.  The  Church,  which  had  car- 
ried anthropomorphism  to  the  extent  of  regarding  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  as  the  flesh  and  blood  of  God,  and  personified 
evil  in  an  everlasting  kingdom  of  Satan  and  his  hosts,  held 
this  Gnostic  epos  to  be  blasphemy.  It  was  perfectly  true 
to  its  claim  of  an  exclusive  revelation,  in  calling  this  pro- 
duct of  human  reason  "  vain  babblings  and  antitheses  of 
a  spurious  gnosis ;  "  i  "  rudiments  of  the  cosmos,  not  after 
Christ;"^  "  fables  and  genealogies  ministering  questions, 
rather  than  building  up  in  faith;  "^  "antichrist,  denying 
Christ  come  in  the  flesh ; "  *  "  commandments  and  doc- 
trines of  men ;  "  ^  "  opinions  read  from  what  is  not  written  ;  " 
"  adaptations  of  the  oracles  of  God  to  baseless  fictions."^ 

Apart  from  all  these  matters  in  dispute,  in  which  both 
parties  seem  far  enough  from  the  religious  science  of  our 

1  I  Timothy,  vi.  20.  '  Colossians,  ii.  8.  ^  i  Timothy,  i.  4. 

*  I  John,  iv.  3.  ®  Colossians,  ii.  22. 

^  Irensus :  Against  Heresies,  i.  viii.  i. 


GNOSTICISM.  507 

time,  the  main  question,  on  which  really  hinged  all  others, 
was  whether  reason  goes  behind  revelation  and  tests  it. 
For  the  Christian,  revelation  had  settled  all  questions, 
and  reason  must  begin  and  end  with  implicit  faith  in  Christ 
as  centre  and  sum  of  all.  It  was  the  heresy  of  the  Gnostic 
that  he  put  Christ  among  the  ALons,  in  a  chain  of  Being, 
so  that  it  was  only  in  a  secondary  sense  that  he  was  the 
fulness  (^Plerovia)  of  God.  To  attempt  philosophizing 
on  his  relations  with  the  Father  beyond  his  own  positive 
teaching,  to  make  the  Only  Begotten  (^Monogcnes)  a  sepa- 
rate ^on  from  the  Christ,  and  the  Wisdom  {^Noiis)  of 
God  yet  another  ^on,  and  to  deny  that  the  man  Jesus 
was  either  of  the  three,  was  to  Christian  simplicity  to  put 
vain  babbling  for  an  all-sufficient  and  authoritative  faith. 
It  was  not  the  use  of  these  and  other  terms  familiar  to 
Gnostic  reasoning  that  the  Church  found  so  mischievous, — 
they  all  belonged  to  the  familiar  intellectual  phraseology  of 
the  age,  —  but  simply  the  use  of  them  for  other  purposes 
than  to  celebrate  the  incarnation  of  God  in  the  man  Jesus. 
Paul  and  John  had  already  appropriated  them,  and  the 
early  Fathers  are  greatly  concerned  to  show  that  they  have 
found  their  only  meaning  in  Jesus.  They  shall  no  longer 
retain  their  free  relation  to  philosophical  thought.  Plero- 
ma.  Logos,  Grace  {Charts'),  Truth  {Alcthcia),  Life  (^Zoc), 
Only  Begotten  {Mo7wge7ies') ,  - — these  Gnostic  powers  are  all 
in  the  proem  of  John's  Gospel  confidently  appropriated  to 
Jesus.i  Paul  had  taught  the  Wisdom  {Sophia)  of  God  "  z« 
a  mystery,"  "before  all  ^ons,"  that  centred  in  the  humanity 
of  Jesus ;  ^  yet  he  would  not  allow  the  Gnostics  also  to 
humanize  Wisdom,  by  making  their  own  Sophia  learn  by 
experience  the  lesson  of  trust  in  limit  {Horos),  and  in  the 
fulness  of  God,  which  was  her  home.  Clement  of  Alexan- 
dria says   the  true  Gnostic  condemns  lust,  and  is  patient 

^  See  rlso  Ephesians,  iii.  14.    i  Timothy,  i.  17.    i  John,  ii.  i  ;  iii.  16. 
2  I  Coiinthians,  ii.  7. 


508  PHILOSOPHIES. 

under  trial. ^  Inconsistencies  like  these  are  part  of  the 
traditional  method  of  Christian  apologists  in  dealing  with 
heresy  down  to  the  present  moment,  even  among  the  most 
enlightened  of  the  class.  They  belong  to  the  necessities 
of  the  revelation  doctrine. 

Irenaeus,  who  abhors  the  dramatic  personifications  and 
genealogical  fictions  of  the  Gnostics,  can  indulge  in  Old 
Testament  types  and  prefigurations  of  Christ,  of  the  most 
fanciful  description.'-^  Hippolytus,  who  charges  these  here- 
tics with  gross  superstition,  has  a  hell  prepared  for  them 
worthy  of  Dante,  with  fiery  lake  and  eyes  of  demons, 
and  worms  that  prey  on  the  corruption  that  breeds  them.^ 
The  power  of  working  miracles,  raising  the  dead,  and  cast- 
ing out  demons,  which  the  orthodox  called  blasphemous 
and  lying  magic  in  Simon  Magus  and  his  successors,  they 
did  not  hesitate  to  adduce  as  conclusive  evidence,  in  the 
case  of  their  Master  and  his  apostles,  that  their  religion 
was  true  and  their  commission  divine."^  The  charge  that 
the  Gnostics  despised  the  multitude  as  incapable  of  hear- 
ing and  receiving  the  higher  gnosis,  came  with  ill  grace 
from  the  followers  of  Paul  teaching  the  wisdom  of  God 
"  in  a  mystery,"  ^  addressing  his  own  converts  "  not  as 
spiritual  but  as  carnal,  and  to  be  fed  with  milk  and  not 
with  meat;  "^  and  describing  the  gospel  as  2l gnosis,  whose 
possession  raised  one  above  the  weaker  minds  around  himj 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  more  self-exalting  contempt 
for  the  spiritual  capacities  of  all  who  were  outside  of  the 
pale  of  a  special  faith  than  is  found  in  the  writings  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  early  Christian  centuries ;  the  broadest  and 
freest  of  whom,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  pronounces  the 
multitude  "  swinish,"  so  that  after  the  example  of  his  Mas- 
ter he  fears  to  cast  his  pearls  before  them,  and  like  Paul 

1  Stromata,  ii.  20.  '  Irenjeus :  Against  Heresies,  bk.  iii.  chap.  xi. 

2  Hippolytus  :  Refutation  of  all  Heresies,  x.  30. 
*  Iren^us :  Against  Heresies,  ii.  xxxi.  2. 

^  I  Corinthians,  ii.  7.  "^  i  Corinthians,  iii.  i,  2.  ^  Ibid.,  viii.  10. 


GNOSTICISM.  509 

holds  it  "  requisite  to  hide  in  a  mystery  the  wisdom  spoken 
by  the  Son  of  God,"  because  "  to  the  natural  man  the 
things  of  God  are  foohshness."  ^  "  The  wise  do  not  utter 
with  the  mouth  what  they  reason  in  councih"  It  cannot 
be  said  that  this  csotericism  was  incidental  in  these  teach- 
ers of  the  Christian  gospel.  It  belonged  to  the  spirit  of 
their  Master  to  speak  in  parables,  as  to  those  who  "  having 
ears,  could  not  hear,"  and  to  confine  the  naked  truth  to  the 
chosen  few.  That  this  distinction  was  to  a  certain  extent 
indispensable,  is  not  to  be  doubted ;  but  the  Gnostic  had 
certainly  an  equal  right  with  the  orthodox  to  recognize 
the  necessity.  The  implicit  faith  (^pistis)  of  the  latter  was 
at  least  as  marked  by  spiritual  pride  as  the  gnosis  of  the 
other  by  intellectual.  It  demanded  of  the  convert  a  most 
difficult  renunciation  of  religious  traditions  and  worldly  in- 
terests and  cares,  and  fostered,  for  this  reason  alone,  an 
intense  feeling  of  self-complacency  and  exaltation  above 
the  carnal  world.  Think  for  a  moment  with  what  spir- 
itual conceit,  far  more  absolute  than  is  now  possible  for  the 
most  confident  orthodox  church-member,  the  baptized  and 
elected  member  of  Christ's  body  must  have  regarded  the 
outside  millions,  in  view  of  the  speedy  approach  of  the 
end  of  the  world  and  the  coming  of  Christ  in  judgment, 
to  separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats.  If  the  Gnostic  had 
his  elect,  separated  by  initiations  and  harder  vows  from  the 
class  of  hearers,  like  the  antique  mysteries  of  Mithra  and 
of  Zeus,  the  Christian  erected  the  same  method  into  an 
institution  which  has  survived  to  the  present  day,  and  re- 
sisted every  assault  but  that  of  scientific  law.  There  was 
certainly  no  more  contempt  of  human  capacity  involved 
in  the  Gnostic  saying  that  "  not  one  in  a  thousand  persons 
could  understand  the  mysteries  of  divine  knowledge"^ 
(which   saying  Irenaeus   totally  misrepresented),^  than  in 

1  Clement :  Stromata,  i.  xii.  ^  Clement :  Stromata. 

3  Irensus :  Against  Heresies,  i.  xxiv.     See  Renan  :  P Eglise  Chrctienne,  165. 


5IO  PHILOSOPHIES, 

the  orthodox  Christians  saying  that  the  truths  of  their 
revelation  were  beyond  the  unaided  reason  of  mankind 
itself,  and  appropriable  only  through  the  supernatural 
mission  of  their  Scriptures  and  their  Christ. 

In  the  harsh  sketches  of  the  opinions  and  life  of  the 
Gnostics,  drawn  by  their  enemies,  who  signalized  their 
victory  by  destroying  the  writings  in  which  we  might 
have  read  what  the  accused  had  to  say  in  their  own  de- 
fence, we  find  not  a  few  things  laid  to  their  charge  which 
seem  to  us  highly  creditable  to  their  freedom  and  sense. 
Their  belief  that  the  resurrection  day  was  of  the  past,  not 
in  the  future,  which  struck  the  orthodox  with  horror,  was 
evidently  a  spiritualized  definition  of  resurrection  as  a 
new  birth  of  the  soul  out  of  the  old  body  of  darkness 
and  evil,  rather  than  a  common  mechanical  rising  of  all 
bodies  at  once  on  a  judgment  day,  to  receive  Divine  sen- 
tence upon  their  mere  flesh  and  blood, —  all  which  could 
not  but  seem  to  the  anti-materialism  of  the  Gnostic  a 
pure  absurdity.  He  could,  indeed,  point  to  a  doctrine 
substantially  similar  to  his  own  in  the  noblest  production 
of  the  Christian  Church,  —  the  Gospel  of  John.  Clement 
quotes  Basilides  as  saying,  "  I  will  affirm  anj^thing  rather 
than  call  Providence  evil ; "  ^  in  which  his  meaning  (con- 
fusedly interpreted,  and  as  confusedly  refuted  by  the 
critic)  seems  to  ha\e  been,  that  even  in  the  sufferings 
of  good  men  there  must  be  some  ground  of  compensa- 
tion, or  justice,  that  makes  the  ways  of  Providence  less 
dark.  After  wading  through  the  tangled  logic  of  the  refu- 
tation, one  can  nowise  help  siding,  so  far  as  the  contro- 
versy is  concerned,  with  the  spirit,  at  least,  of  the  Gnostic's 
sentence. 

Irenaeus  declares  it  to  be  malignant  in  the  Gnostics  to 
argue  from  the  orthodox  premise,  that  heaven  is  God's 
throne  and  the  earth  His  footstool,  that,  if  this  be  so,  then 

•  Clement :  Stroiiiaia,  iv.  12. 


GNOSTICISM  511 

God  will  pass  away  when  these  pass  away,  and  that  this 
God  cannot  therefore  be  the  highest,  but  only  an  inferior 
or  world-building  one.^  He  thinks  it  proof  of  their  im- 
morality that  they  visit  theatres  and  shows,  and  eat  meats 
offered  to  idols ;  ^  of  their  impiety,  that  they  put  up  im- 
ages of  Christ  by  the  side  of  images  of  Plato,  Pythagoras, 
and  Aristotle,^  and  that  they  declared  themselves  to 
have  abandoned  Judaism,  yet  without  becoming  Chris- 
tians.* These  data  would  rather  indicate  that  their  tenden- 
cies were  to  a  more  natural  and  rational  philosophy  than 
that  of  their  opponents.  So  strongly  were  they  persuaded 
that  the  Mosaic  religion,  by  reason  of  its  anthropomor- 
phism, was  the  product  of  blindness  or  perverseness,  or  of 
imperfection  of  some  kind,  that  some  of  them  interpreted 
it  by  contradiction,  and  defended  the  personages  repre- 
sented in  it  as  evil,  —  such  as  Cain,  Esau,  Korah,  the 
Sodomites,  whom  they  declared  to  have  been  misrepre- 
sented, and  stretched  the  same  canon  so  far  as  to  cover 
the  Judas  of  the  New  Testament  writers.  How  they  in- 
terpreted the  Fall  of  Adam  and  Eve  has  already  been 
noticed.  Marcion  called  the  Old  Testament  ideal,  justice 
without  goodness ;  wherein  there  was  a  degree  of  truth, 
at  least  as  he  understood  the  words.  Other  Gnostics  re- 
pudiated it  as  evil  in  a  more  positive  sense,  and  all 
regarded  it  as  inferior,  and  its  God  as  unintentionally  sub- 
serving a  higher  will.  On  the  other  hand,  the  earliest 
Christian  Gnosticism  (to  which  also  Mahometanism  is  be- 
lieved by  Sprenger  to  go  back)  seems  to  have  been  a 
Judaistic  rejection  of  that  growing  tendency  to  deify  the 
man  Jesus,  which  was  contrary  to  the  whole  genius  of 
traditional  Judaism;  and  out  of  this  gradually  grew  a  com- 
plete Docetic  theory,  explaining  the  New  Testament  life 
of  Jesus,  so  far  as  the  incarnation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  was 

*  Irenaus :  Against  Heresies,  iv.  3.  ^  Ibid.,  i.  vi.  3. 

^  Ibid.,  i.  XXV.  6.  *  Ibid.,  i.  xxiv. 


512  PHILOSOPHIES. 

concerned,  as  an  illusion.^  Docetism  is  not  an  easy  thing 
for  us  to  comprehend.  Probably,  as  has  been  already  said, 
it  was  not  a  very  clear  matter  to  the  Gnostics  themselves, 
but  hovered  in  a  mystic  dream,  as  illusory  in  its  way  as 
that  flcsh-and-blood  Christ  which  it  denied.  The  Gnostics 
differed  widely  among  themselves  as  to  the  person  of  Jesus, 
—  from  Carpocrates,  who  regarded  him  as  simply  human, 
and  Basilides,  who  regarded  him  as  a  man  on  whom  the 
true  Christ  alighted,  but  without  really  becoming  one  with 
him,  to  the  pure  Docetism  of  Valentinus  and  Marcion, 
who  held  that  his  whole  external  appearance  was  dramatic 
and  illusory,  because  the  spirit  could  have  no  conjunction 
whatever  with  flesh  and  blood.^  But  all  refused  to  deify 
the  person  of  Jesus,  as  they  refused  to  accept  the  Mosaic 
God.  This  they  did  in  order  to  exalt  their  "  Christ  of  the 
Spirit,"  in  whom  they  found  the  deliverer  of  the  fallen 
Wisdom  of  God  imprisoned  in  the  outside  darkness  of 
matter,  and  so  the  redeemer  of  man  and  of  the  world.  So 
far  as  this  had  they  accepted  Christianity  in  an  ideal  and 
mystical  form.  But,  then,  this  ideal  Christ  was  simply  an 
ALon,  though  representing  the  Pleroma ;  and  the  vast  chain 
of  cosmical  causes  and  effects  of  which  his  person  and 
function  proved  but  a  step  was  welded  by  the  rationalistic 
logic  of  necessary  law. 

We  have  here  the  essence  of  the  claim  of  reason,  on 
the  part  of  the  Gnostics,  to  determine  religious  conviction. 
They  pursued  therein  an  aspiration  to  maintain  the  perfect 
purity  of  the  idea  of  God  as  an  offset  to  their  profound 
sense  of  evil  in  the  world  of  matter  and  man.  This  con- 
sciousness of  evil  as  positive  and  overwhelming  was  the 
great  burden  of  the  age,  analogous  to  the  transmigration 
dogma  whose  reaction  was  Nirvana  in  the  remoter  East. 

^  See  Basilides  in  Beausobre,  ii.  25.  Marcion  in  Hippolytus,  vii.  ig.  Tertullian : 
Against  Marcion^  iii.  viii.  Bardesanes  in  Beausobre,  ii.  157.  Saturninus  in  Irenaeus, 
j.  xxiv.  *  See  Baur:  Gnosis. 


GNOSTICISM.  513 

The  dualistic  religions  of  Gnosticism  and  Christianity  were 
indeed  varied  expressions  of  this;  and  with  all  their  differ- 
ences, it  was  this  that  determined  them  to  a  common  pur- 
pose, —  that  of  emancipating  humanity  from  its  apparent 
doom.  While  Christianity  concentrated  its  hope  on  an 
incarnation  of  God  as  the  only  sufficient  refuge  for  man, 
Gnosticism,  anticipating  the  final  decision  of  the  ages  on 
the  question,  clung  to  the  pure  idea  of  perfection  in  God ; 
and  by  jealously  guarding  this  at  every  point,  found  in  it 
the  all-sufhcient  guarantee  for  a  divine  process  of  restora- 
tion, whose  steps,  following  the  law  of  the  ideal,  should  in 
nowise  invalidate  that  rest  for  the  soul.  The  Gnostic  mind 
was  bent  on  maintaining  the  absolute  separation  of  the 
ideal  Supreme  from  all  implication  in  moral  and  physical 
evil,  as  a  fixed  inviolable  centre  through  which  all  spiritual 
problems  could  find  solution.  Its  philosophy  of  Dualism 
was  a  mystical  flight  out  of  evil  to  the  bosom  of  God,  as 
orthodoxy  was  an  equally  mystical  descent  of  God  into 
the  limitations  and  imperfections  which  were  the  con- 
ditions of  evil.  But  Gnosticism  further  affirmed  that 
neither  the  ascent  nor  the  descent  was  conceivable  as  an 
instant  fiat;  that  man  could  not  enter  the  Highest,  nor 
the  Highest  be  transformed  into  humanity,  without  inter- 
mediate gradations  of  being,  and  the  sacred  transitions  of 
psychical  law.  To  express  these,  it  aimed  to  bring  the 
free  play  of  the  religious  imagination,  which  had  filled 
these  spaces  of  the  ideal  with  innumerable  mythic  beings 
and  the  boundless  license  of  poetic  legend,  representing 
every  phase  of  human  feeling  in  the  earlier  religions  of 
Greece,  Egypt,  and  Persia,  under  strict  conditions  of  ration- 
ality. Thus  to  their  religious  reason  the  principle  of 
emanation  had  a  very  similar  necessity  to  the  principle  of 
evolution  in  modern  science.  They  refused  to  sacrifice 
this  law  of  continuity  to  the  catastrophe  of  miracle.  The 
super-sensual  was  not  super-rational.    The  goodness  of  God 

33 


514  PHILOSOPHIES. 

must  be  justified,  not  by  sacrificing  reason,  but  by  making 
it  divine.  So  early,  in  muffled  tones,  pealed  the  death- 
knell  of  supernaturalism,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  contro- 
versy of  the  Christian  Church. 

But  this  jealousy  for  the  purity  of  the  Ideal  intensifies 
the  opposite  pole,  and  Evil  is  all  the  more  concentrated  in 
the  Gnostic  conception  of  "  matter,"  —  as  by  Plato  in  an 
analogous  force  of  "  necessity,"  a  principle  of  disorder,  — 
in  which  the  divine  element  of  the  soul  finds  itself  impris- 
oned, not  indeed  in  essential  union  with  it,  which  is  im- 
possible, but  by  a  kind  of  external  contact  or  immersion. 
For  the  finite  soul,  escape  from  these  bonds  alone  is  its 
real  nature  and  life;  and  the  assumption  of  them  by  the 
Infinite  (or  Plcroma)  is  and  must  be  unreal,  and  all  appear- 
ance of  it  an  illusion.  At  the  very  moment,  then,  when 
Jesus  was  coming  to  be  regarded  as  God  in  the  flesh,  arose 
the  Gnostic  affirmation  that  the  thing  was  impossible ;  a 
human  personal  body  of  God  was  a  fiction.  If  the  deliver- 
ing Christ  seemed  to  walk  and  work  in  living  shape  in 
Judea  and  Galilee,  it  was  a  phantasm ;  the  reality  was  no 
visible  life,  suffering,  and  death,  but  invisible,  in  the  soul 
of  the  believer,  who  received  the  saving  gnosis,  which  did 
not  come  by  observation. 

Thus  the  Docetic  Christ  of  the  Gnostic  and  the  super- 
natural Christ  of  the  Church  are  alike  impossible  schemes 
for  bringing  God  in  the  form  of  a  personal  saviour  into 
relation  with  man  as  fallen  and  alienated  from  good,  —  the 
one  by  illusion,  the  other  by  miracle ;  and  both  are  signs 
of  the  entire  absence  of  a  genuine  historical  sense  in  that 
period,  the  rapid  evaporation  of  positive  fact  into  nebulous 
mists,  which  took  such  shape  as  best  suited  the  cravings 
of  reason  or  faith.  It  is  curious  to  observe  that  the  diffi- 
culty of  reconciling  the  records  of  Jesus'  life  and  death 
with  the  rights  of  rational  science  in  modern  times  has 
given  rise  to  an  obscuration  of  historical  facts  and  laws 


GNOSTICISM.  515 

very  similar  to  ancient  Docetism.  There  is  a  semi-mystical 
school  of  "  Christian  rationalists "  who  speak  of  the  re- 
corded life,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  if  they  were 
to  be  considered  merely  as  facts  of  the  spiritual  experience, 
treating  the  question  of  their  historical  validity  as  of  no 
importance ;  in  other  words,  as  if  they  were  phantasmal, 
while  at  the  same  time  claiming  the  Christian  name  and 
dogma,  which  rests  upon  their  historical  reality  alone. 

Nor  did  either  the  Gnostic  or  Christian  form  of  Dualism 
suffice  to  bring  under  one  solution  the  opposing  principles 
of  moral  and  physical  good  and  evil.  According  to  the 
Christian,  evil  was  the  work  of  Satan,  possessing  and  per- 
verting the  will  of  man,  and  Nature  through  the  fall  of 
man.  According  to  the  Gnostic,  it  was  the  cosmic  preter- 
human energy  of  the  principle  of  darkness  aroused  to 
creative  work  by  the  fall  of  the  youngest  of  the  yEons  from 
the  pure  Pleroma,  through  ambition  to  expand  from  her 
proper  sphere.  In  both  alike  the  principle  of  evil  remains 
at  last  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  —  unchanged,  and  fast  in 
its  inherent  antagonism  to  good.^  But  there  still  remains 
a  hint  of  instinctive  psychological  science  in  this  myth  of 
the  wandering  ^on,  whose  blind  ambition  to  drop  her  true 
functions  for  a  vaster  sovereignty  led  to  the  sorrows  and 
sins  of  the  world.  She  is  that  inferior  Wisdom  {Sophia), 
who  signifies,  after  all,  that  the  vice  in  human  faculties  is 
not  in  essence,  but  in  excess.  Thus  the  worship  of  Reason 
proved  itself  able  to  combine  with  a  jealous  care  for  the 
exaltation    of  the   ideal   an    equal   recognition   of   human 

1  Plato's  conception  of  evil  in  Timirus  is  not  unlike  the  Gnostic  idea  of  the  roots  of  that 
scheme  of  things,  —  an  antagonism  of  order  and  disorder,  creation  and  necessity,  the  unor- 
ganizable  or  lawless  element  in  substance,  — which  the  good  Demiurge  can  only  partially  work 
up,  and  which  mixes  with  the  souls  he  makes,  each  out  of  an  immortal  with  two  mortal  ones 
and  a  bodv,  thus  foredooming  it  to  corruption  and  stupidity  so  far.  (See  Grote's  Plato,  chap, 
xxxvi.)  Positive  evil  is  also  for  Plato  in  sexual  love  ;  since  he  allows  none  of  it  in  his  guar- 
dians (Reptiblic),  who  must  be  coupled,  for  generative  purposes,  according  to  prescribed 
rules,  by  officials  of  the  State,  of  course  without  mutual  affection.  Thus  the  whole  scheme 
of  creation  fails,  though  the  cosmos  is  all  beauty.  Women  and  animals  are  the  result  of 
degenerate  men. 


5l6  PHILOSOPHIES. 

limitations.  While  worshippers  of  Reason,  the  Gnostics 
beheved  that  Reason  was  separated  from  her  native  hght 
so  long  as  she  failed  to  accept  the  guidance  of  Horos,  — 
personification  of  limit.  In  other  words,  it  is  the  sense  of 
her  ignorance  {agnoia)  that  brings  her  (even  the  intellect, 
not  the  passions  and  pride  of  man  alone)  back  to  the 
bosom  of  the  Pleroma,  — ■  that  sense  of  ignorance  which  is 
the  beginning  of  real  knowledge  and  salvation  for  the 
highest  philosophy  and  sainthood  of  every  age  and  faith. 
The  new-coined  modern  word,  "  Agnosticism,"  already  re- 
ferred to,  conveys  a  similar  charge  of  pride  and  self- 
sufficiency  against  the  ancient  Gnostics  with  that  brought 
by  the  early  orthodox  Christians;  but  the  myth  of  the 
wandering  JEon,  on  which  Gnostic  philosophy  turns,^  points 
to  the  postulate  of  scientific  inquiry,  —  that  grand  secret 
of  wisdom  through  humility,  which  belongs  alike  to  the 
ancient  Socratic  confession  and  to  every  honest  and 
thoughtful  modern  admission  of  doubts  insoluble  on  long- 
recognized  foundations  of  religious  belief  The  spirit  of 
this  myth  pervades  all  the  Gnostic  writings.  The  evil  in 
the  world  is  due  to  blindness.  The  Demiurge  is  blind ; 
the  Old  Testament  is  delusive.  Error  troubles  even  the 
superhuman  yEon  world.  The  mighty  drama  of  the  wan- 
dering and  passion  of  Wisdom  is  solved  in  the  restoration 
of  a  knowledge  of  the  Father,  that  brings  joy  to  every  JEon 
in  its  place  and  work.  The  very  symbol  of  Evil  is  the 
darkness  in  which  the  soul  cannot  see ;  that  of  Good  is  the 
light  which  scatters  every  shadow  of  sin.  In  Christian  eyes 
it  was  the  crime  of  these  New  Testament  Magi  that  they 
did  not  bring  the  pride  of  reason  to  the  feet  of  the  child 
Jesus.  They  adored  instead  the  Christ-star  in  the  heaven 
of  thought.     Their  Christ  was  a  divine  ideal  hovering  over 


'  See  especially  the  system  of  Valentinus  in  Hippolytus,  Philosophy,  vi.  ii.  31.  Renan  : 
L'Eglise  Chritienne,  chap.  ix.  Irenseus,  bk.  iii.  Matter  ;  Hisioire  du  GnoUicisme,  bk.  ii. 
chap.  iii.  —  ''  Simonianism." 


GNOSTICISM.  517 

Jesus  indeed,  as  over  the  world,  but  not  identical  with  him, 
and  of  course  only  temporarily  called  by  the  name  of 
Christ,  —  the  star  of  their  active  reason,  not  of  a  blind, 
implicit  faith.  They  refused  to  impoverish  the  intelligible 
world  by  leaving  but  a  single  intermediate  being  between 
the  Highest  and  the  spheres  of  recognized  bondage  and 
limitation.  Protesting  against  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
systems  for  ascribing  human  and  physical  attributes  to  the 
highest  God,  they  assigned  all  lower  grades  of  emanation  to 
anthropomorphic  personages,  and  imported  into  the  Ple- 
roma  the  human  elements  of  generation  and  sex;  not, 
however,  as  the  Christian  writers  understood  them,  in  any 
literal  sense,  but  as  the  only  types  imaginable  for  that  con- 
tinuity of  being  by  which  they  sought  to  bridge  the  spirit- 
ual immensities  between  God  and  man.  In  the  most  de- 
veloped systems  every  grade  of  the  descent  was  a  union 
{syzjgia)  of  male  and  female  yEons ;  in  the  less  elaborated 
ones,  and  in  some  form  in  all,  a  primal  representative  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  or  a  central  figure  in  the  mighty  drama  of 
fall  and  renovation,  was  of  the  female  sex.^  But  this  was 
scarcely  less  characteristic  of  heathen,  and  of  orthodox 
Christian,  mythology  than  of  the  Gnostic ;  and  in  all  alike 
the  highest  functions,  the  creative  and  redeeming,  belonged 
to  the  male,  —  all  of  which  shows  how  entirely  ancient 
mythology  and  theology  were  a  reflection  of  actual  human 
institutions  and  relations. 

Of  Gnostic  Dualism,  and  its  analogy  both  with  the  Dual- 
ism of  early  and  mediaeval  Christianity,  and  with  the 
Dualism  of  modern  science,  we  have  already  spoken  in 
the  exposition  of  Manichaeism,  as  well  as  in  the  present 
chapter.  Of  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  characteris- 
tic feature  of  Gnosticism,  -~  the  endeavor  to  express  the 


1  The  Gnostic  hymns  of  Bardesanes,  celebrating  the  mythic  marriage  of  the  restored 
Sophia  with  Christos,  were  analogous  to  those  of  the  Christian  fathers  in  honor  of  the  union 
of  Christ  with  the  Church,  also  symbolized  as  a  female.     See  account  of  Manichsan  system. 


5l8  PHILOSOPHIES. 

idea  of  God  as  an  active  process,  a  series  of  processes, 
in  terms  of  the  intellect,  —  we  need  only  say,  that  it  was 
a  development  of  the  manifold  intellectual  traditions  of 
the  age.  Such  an  age  could  not  but  combine  with  its  pro- 
found aspirations  towards  unity  and  fulness  in  Deity  the 
need  of  gathering  into  the  life  of  this  divine  Plcroma 
the  ideal  meaning  of  all  those  spiritual  relations  which 
polytheism  had  put  into  mythological  forms.  The  con- 
versation on  divine  and  human  things  which  had  been 
scattered  through  the  mouths  of  the  unnumbered  gods 
of  old  was  refined  and  concentred  within  the  living  fulness 
of  one  all-embracing  Reason,  communing  with  itself  of 
eternal  truths  and  laws.^  What  the  Amesha-^pentas  and 
the  Ferouers  were  to  Ormuzd,  what  the  Olympians  were 
to  Zeus,  —  the  Platonic  ideas,  the  Alexandrian  emanations, 
and  the  Gnostic  ^ons  were  to  these  pantheistic  forms  of 
deity  from  which  they  certainly  and  naturally  flowed ;  with 
this  difference,  that  they  did  not  stand  outside  of  the  all- 
containing  Deity.  They  were  the  intelligible  forms  and 
relations  of  his  interior  life,  ideal  types  of  those  processes 
which  seemed  essential  to  the  rational  conception  of  God. 
This  concentration  was  itself  one  step  of  intellectual  abstrac- 
tion ;  and  the  power  which  swept  the  gods  of  antiquity 
into  a  higher  and  purer  unity  in  the  religious  conscious- 
ness was  akin  to  the  processes  of  modern  science ;  that  is, 
it  was  essentially  intellectual.  For  in  Platonism,  still  more 
in  Neoplatonism,  this  abstraction  went  so  far  as  substan- 
tially to  substitute  ideas  for  persons.     With  the  Gnostics,  it 


1  "  The  Gnostic  schools  of  Egypt  found  in  the  old  doctrines  of  that  country  all  the  funda- 
mental ideas  of  their  system,  — supreme  unknown  Being,  hidden  in  mystery  at  the  beginning, 
successively  revealing  himself  by  a  series  of  spirits  emanating  in  syzygies,  from  his  bosom  or 
from  one  another,  and  who  govern  in  his  name  the  visible  world  ;  spirits  one  of  whom,  his 
particular  agent,  is  the  creator,  and  the  others  share  with  him  the  government  of  the  world, 
while  others  still  conduct  mortals  to  whom  they  have  imparted,  in  creating  their  souls,  some 
rays  of  the  divine  life.  Next,  they  found  a  mass  of  secondary  theories,  myths,  traditions, 
a-..d  symbols,  which  they  worked  up  as  their  Qwn."  -^  Matter :  Histqire  critique  du  Gtios- 
iicisme,  i.  chap,  v. 


GNOSTICISM.  519 

allowed  the  qualities  and  relations  that  were  idealized  to  re- 
clothc  themselves  in  an  imaginative  dramatic  form,  and  the 
life  of  God  glowed  with  the  tragedy  of  human  experience. 
Plato,  too,  adds  to  his  Ideas  a  quasi  existence  of  all  the 
Greek  gods,  in  his  demiurgic  cosmos.^  Analogous  to  this 
was  the  Christian  trinity,  itself  a  dramatic  gnosis,  in  which 
three  persons  in  one  God,  —  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  — 
conceived  under  the  old  figure  of  generation,  though  every 
member  is  male,  consult,  create,  decree,  divide  their  func- 
tions into  infinite  and  finite,  and  the  relations  between 
them,  and  enact  the  great  tragedy  of  human  condemna- 
tion and  redemption  in  as  completely  anthropomorphic 
a  manner  as  the  Gnostic  ^Eons  themselves.  And  around 
this  vast  personal  drama  —  into  which,  as  in  the  Gnostic 
Mother  of  Life,  or  Sophia,  a  female  element,  a  "  Mother 
of  God"  or  of  Christ,  enters  as  an  essential  figure — have 
revolved  the  hopes  and  fears  of  sixteen  centuries  of  believ- 
ing Christendom.  This  Christian  gnosis  has  retained  its 
dependence  on  the  play  of  personal  figures  to  the  vh^ 
last.  It  ultimates  in  the  religio-philosophical  formulas  of 
modern  Hegelianism  (a  mechanical  synthesis  of  Gnostic 
and  Christian  analogies),  in  which  the  supposed  laws  of 
absolute  thought  are  presented  in  their  fullest  abstraction, 
and  then  identified  with  the  distinctly  personal  and  eccles- 
iastical traditions  of  Christianity.  Instead  of  preserving 
their  validity  as  intellectual  abstractions,  they  are  deliber- 
ately swamped  in  the  utterly  imperfect  personalities  of  a 
special  religion,  which  was  formed  at  a  period  previous  to 
the  most  important  steps  in  the  development  of  individual 
and  social  humanity,  and  is  incapable  of  representing  its 
ultimate  collective  powers. 

If  the  Alexandrian  philosophy, — that  of  Plotinus,  for  ex- 
ample,—  after  pursuing  the  track  of  speculative  intellect  to 
the  sublimest  abstractions  of  pure  Being  possible  to  man, 

1    TintcEus.     Grote  :  History  0/  Greece,  i.  chap.  xvi.  p.  410,  n. 


520  PHILOSOPHIES. 

and  approached  only  by  those  of  the  highest  thinkers  of 
India,  had  not  only  retained  pure  and  perfect  faith  in  these 
results  as  intellectual  verities  in  proportion  to  their  all- 
embracing  pantheism,  their  exaltation  above  human  limi- 
tation, but  had  furthermore  pursued  with  equal  earnestness 
the  ethical  and  practical  side  of  the  logical  polarity,  the 
human  as  Jiuvian,  the  two  worlds  would  have  flowed  to- 
gether, as  they  do  in  Nature,  and  a  thoroughly  free  religion, 
at  once  scientific  and  intuitive,  would  have  been  the  neces- 
sary result  of  these  free  conditions.  Principles  only  being 
recognized  as  the  substance  of  the  universe,  the  ethical 
requirements  and  affectional  demands  of  human  nature 
and  all  its  practical  interests  would  have  found  their  no- 
blest basis  in  the  laws  of  essential  being,  not  only  above 
all  caprices  of  will,  but  valid  alike  at  every  height  of  in- 
tellectual abstraction  and  in  every  detail  of  individual  life. 
Such  unity  of  God  and  man  was  impossible  in  ages  when 
the  rights  of  the  intellect  could  find  freedom  only  in  the 
superhuman  sphere,  and  in  that  but  rarely;  while  the  ethi- 
cal and  religious  nature,  on  the  other  hand,  could  find  no 
culture  in  the  study  of  man  and  the  world.  But  this  divine 
synthesis,  before  which  all  past  religions  and  philosophies 
pale,  because  there  is  even  now  a  vision  of  that  complete 
whole  of  which  these  are  fragments,  may  well  be  the  out- 
come of  the  tendencies  we  are  privileged  to  behold.  The 
distinctive  postulate  of  Gnostic,  and  we  may  say  of  all 
ancient  thought,  in  all  religions,  down  to  scientific  times, — 
of  a  creative  Spirit,  unfolding  itself  in  degrees  of  descent; 
of  a  series,  greater  or  less  in  number,  of  personal  emana- 
tions connecting  them  with  the  human  soul;  and  of  a  fall 
of  the  lowest  member  of  the  series,  as  of  a  multitude  of 
souls  through  sin,  into  imprisonment  within  a  hostile  sub- 
stance or  principle,  which  could  not  be  excluded  from 
existence  and  hostility,  and  the  deliverance  of  the  same 
through  the  descent  of  a  supernatural  Power,  —  is  opposed 


GNOSTICISM.  521 

to  the  present  conception  of  the  world  of  mind  and  matter. 
No  such  positive  antagonisms  and  absolutely  dissevered 
elements  as  those  of  good  and  evil,  of  spirit  and  matter, 
of  supernatural  and  natural,  of  God  and  man,  are  now 
assumed  as  real  at  opposite  poles  of  the  universe.  There 
is  no  necessity  for  bridging  an  essential  chasm  between 
Perfect  Light  and  Utter  Darkness.  Absolute  Negation 
is  a  monster,  and  no  reality  in  man  or  Nature.  The  In- 
finite and  the  Finite  are  one  whole,  inseparable,  a  divine 
evolution  of  perfect  law.  For  that  transcendental  energy 
by  which  man  passes  beyond  the  finite  phenomena  of  his 
experience  to  the  unconditional  universalities  of  law,  and 
perceives  the  identity  of  mind  with  whatsoever  it  can  see 
or  know,  has  reached  a  free  self-consciousness  never  pos- 
sible before.  It  commands  the  cosmic  realm  of  science 
and  the  common  aspirations  of  mind  and  soul,  never  more 
to  be  foreclosed. 


ISLAM. 


I. 


MAHOMET. 


•/ 


MAHOMET. 

'T^HE  scientific  study  of  religious  development  reveals  a 
-^  continuous  progress  towards  the  recognition  of  Being 
in  its  wholeness;  in  other  words,  of  the  universe  as  Infinite 
and  as  One.  In  conformity  with  this  natural  process  of 
growth,  the  movement  of  every  race  is  from  polytheistic 
to  monotheistic  belief,  —  never  in  the  reverse  direction. 
Whenever  man  has  become  capable  of  a  self-conscious 
study  of  his  relations  to  life  and  the  world,  he  has  in- 
evitably arrived  at  a  monarchical  form  of  worship.  If 
we  look  closely  at  this  stage  in  the  evolution  of  ideal 
conceptions,  we  shall  find  that  it  consists  in  the  integra- 
tion of  Personality.  Its  representative  has  always  been 
an  omnipotent  conscious  Self,  an  exclusive  Sovereign, 
endowed  with  all  the  ideal  qualities  of  Will.  This  con- 
ception, of  which  the  Semitic  race  has  aft'orded  the  most 
exalted  types,  —  in  Jahveh,  Allah,  and  the  more  spiritual 
and  interior  humanity  of  the  Christian  God,  —  has  hitherto 
guaranteed  to  that  intensely  self-conscious  race  an  undis- 
puted leadership  of  civilization  in  matters  of  religion. 
This  is  the  secret  of  its  threefold  sovereignty  in  the 
West. 

But  the  monarchical  idea  is,  after  all,  but  a  transient 
stage  in  that  great  historic  process  by  which  man  is  seek- 
ing the  significance  of  his  demand  for  unity.  Both  intel- 
lectually and  morally  it  has  proved  unsatisfying.  Its 
phases  have  been  persistently  interrupted,  and  invariably 
succeeded  by  powerful  impulses  of  a  mystical  and  panthe- 
istic, or  of  a  secular  and  scientific,  nature  towards  a  more 


526  ISLAM. 

or  less  impersonal  worship  of  ideas,  principles,  laws,  —  hints 
of  the  monistic  or  cosmic  religion  yet  to  come.  They  are 
to  be  justified,  not  as  finalities,  but  as  the  ideal  expression  of 
man's  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  his  own  personality. 

Thus  Polytheism  embodied  the  spontaneous  life  of  man's 
instincts,  unconscious  and  unstudied.  Dualism  reflected 
the  advent  of  his  moral  self-consciousness,  —  the  sense  of 
a  divided  will.  Monotheism  came  in  with  the  more  phi- 
losophical, or  at  least  more  distinct,  comprehension  of 
individuality,  —  of  the  will  as  central,  supreme  source  of 
thought  and  conduct.  The  demand  for  an  external  and 
universal  form  of  this  sovereignty,  corresponding  to  the 
inward  and  private,  is  the  necessary  parent  of  all  religious 
revelations  through  chosen  messengers  or  organs. 

The  strongest  mark  of  anthropomorphic  limitation  in  all 
forms  of  personal  worship  is  the  identification  of  the  Di- 
vine perfection  with  some  human  representative.  The  old 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  kings  not  only  visibly  represented 
a  host  of  deities,  but  absorbed  every  god  into  their  own 
colossal  divinity.  In  the  same  way  even  those  rehgions 
which  claimed  to  be  revelations  from  an  invisible  and  in- 
scrutable God,  —  whether  the  Persian,  the  Hebrew,  the 
Christian,  or  the  Mahometan,  —  simply  substituted  the 
Prophet,  Messiah,  or  God-man  for  the  older  god-absorbing 
kings.  Whatever  the  moral  and  spiritual  difference,  the 
form  of  the  religious  process  was  the  same :  it  was  iden- 
tification of  an  individual  Master  with  the  absolute  Will. 
Private  inspirations  were  accepted  as  the  omnipotent 
Word. 

If  monarchical  religion  has  proved  unable  to  distinguish 
the  infinite  from  the  finite,  it  has  equally  failed  of  sepa- 
rating the  temporal  from  the  spiritual  sphere  of  authority. 
Its  ideal,  based  on  personal  self-consciousness,  can  become 
thoroughly  consistent  with  its  own  premises  only  by  ac- 
cording to  the  one  absolute  Will,  as  revealed  by  its  Prophet 


MAHOMET.  527 

or  Messiah,  an  undivided  sway  over  every  human  relation. 
His  warrant  from  a  Supreme  Purpose  involves  the  right  to 
legislate  at  once  for  the  inward  and  the  outward  life  of 
man ;  to  be  master  alike  of  reason  and  law ;  to  enforce 
obedience,  as  well  as  to  persuade  and  inspire.  His  posi- 
tive commandments  can  tolerate  no  rival  authority.  There 
is  no  more  question  of  limit  in  the  claims  of  a  man  who 
reveals  God's  will  to  the  nations,  than  in  those  of  a  man 
whose  own  will  rules  the  nations  as  their  God.  Every 
monarchical  religion  has  logically  and  devoutly  resorted 
to  the  sword  of  the  flesh,  and  by  that  means  established 
itself  in  the  world.  In  no  other  way  could  it  fulfil  its  con- 
scious function  of  executing  the  commands  of  a  supreme 
personal  Will. 

The  real  justification  before  the  bar  of  history  for  this 
personal  integration  of  the  religious  ideal  is  its  necessity 
as  a  step  towards  the  integration  of  Being  itself,  as  uni- 
versal Substance  and  immanent  Force.  Hitherto  it  has 
been  the  highest  aspiration  of  the  great  historic  religions 
to  purify  and  elevate  this  basis  on  which  they  stand,  so 
that  it  tends  at  the  present  day  to  become  absorbed  in 
those  larger  conceptions  of  which  it  is  but  the  forerunner. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  so  far  as  such  positive  faiths  have 
succeeded  in  persistently  following  their  principles  to  their 
logical  result,  their  inadequacy  to  meet  man's  growing 
knowledge  of  his  relations  has  become  the  more  palpable. 
Of  this  truth  our  studies  in  the  genesis  of  religions  and 
their  later  fruits  have  afforded  abundant  proofs. 

But  not  the  less  do  we  recognize  the  immense  service 
to  humanity,  whenever  the  natural  movement  of  past  ages 
towards  a  moral  and  spiritual  centre  of  worship  has  been 
lifted  out  of  apparent  disaster  and  even  failure  by  some 
fresh  announcement  of  positive  commands  from  a  supreme 
personal  Will.  In  such  emergencies,  no  other  evidence  has 
been  possible  of  the  unfailing  power  of  human  nature  to 


528  ISLAM. 

hold  its  upward  track.  In  the  chaos  of  warring  nations 
and  contending  creeds,  of  spiritual  distraction  and  moral 
enervation,  the  all-directing  message  has  been  surely  pre- 
paring its  way. 

Thrice  has  the  Semite  performed  this  commanding 
function  of  personating  a  revelation  by  virtue  of  the  inten- 
sity of  his  own  self-conscious  will,  —  in  Judaism,  in  Chris- 
tianity, in  Islam.  In  all  these  the  monarchical  ideal 
demanded  universal  sway,  —  social,  political,  religious.  In 
all  it  was  successful  in  pressing  personal  worship  to  the 
farthest  logical  limits,  and  preparing  the  race  to  demand  a 
larger  liberty  than  itself  could  bestow.  In  Christianity  and 
Islam  its  application  of  force  to  every  sphere  of  human 
experience  was  as  direct  as  supernatural  authority,  armed 
with  corresponding  social  and  political  resources,  could 
secure.  In  Judaism  it  was  more  indirect,  yet  able  to  wield 
in  history  a  moral  absolutism  which  even  these  more 
powerful  successors  could  not  equal.  All  the  three  were 
great  historical  necessities ;  greatest  in  this,  —  that  their 
virtues  and  their  faults  alike  pointed  beyond  themselves, 
to  relations  with  truth  and  duty  more  natural,  immediate, 
and  free. 

We  have  now  reached  the  critical  moment  in  the  history 
of  Iran  when  one  of  these  colossal  waves  of  concentrated 
Will  was  gathered  up  to  engulf  the  religious  and  political 
life  of  the  Eastern  world. 

The  opening  of  the  seventh  century  was  an  epoch  of 
disintegration,  —  national,  social,  and  religious.  Its  phe- 
nomena were  such  as  have  always  involved  a  fresh  form  of 
positive  faith,  to  recall  all  wandering  forces  into  the  inevit- 
able track  of  spiritual  evolution,  towards  the  integration  of 
personal  worship.  Their  whole  significance  centred  in  the 
demand  for  a  more  positive  revelation  than  that  attained 
by  Christianity  itself,  in  the  name  of  the  Unity  of  God. 
The    exhausting  wars   of    Rome    and   Persia    hopelessly 


MAHOMET.  529 

divided  the  civilized  world.  Every  efifort  of  an  autocratic 
Justinian  to  unite  his  Roman  empire  under  the  Christian 
faith  and  law  had  gone  down  in  the  sack  of  cities  and  the 
ashes  of  a  thousand  altar-fires.  The  utter  failure  of  Zoro- 
astrian  Dualism  and  Christian  Trinitarianism  to  coalesce, 
in  an  age  confusedly  stirred  by  the  experience  of  universal 
interests  and  relations,  showed  that  a  deeper  current  than 
either  of  these  beliefs  was  setting  towards  a  more  perfect 
concentration  of  the  religious  ideal.  Never  since  the  first 
days  of  Christianity  had  the  demand  for  assured  trust  in 
one  Supreme  Will  been  so  sharply  goaded  by  irrecon- 
cilable strifes  and  pretensions.  The  endless  battle  of  sects 
about  the  twofold  nature  of  Christ  and  the  inner  logic  of 
tripersonality,  which  no  decree  of  Czesar  or  formula  of  bish- 
ops could  abate;  the  world-wide  crusade  against  the  irre- 
pressible Manichee,  by  both  his  natural  parents,  the  Church 
of  Zoroaster  and  the  Church  of  Christ;  the  prodigious 
fertility  of  Sassanian  Persia  in  sects,  orthodox  and  ration- 
alistic, of  every  shade,  and  alive  with  every  seed  of  that 
mighty  intellectual  ferment  of  the  next  four  centuries, 
which  Iran  was  destined  to  bequeath  to  Islam  in  the  splen- 
did days  of  the  Caliphate;  the  special  strife  of  west-Iranian 
Magism,  fast  anchored  in  its  dualistic  traditions,  with  hereti- 
cal Zendiks  working  out  their  higher  synthesis  of  Zrvan 
in  the  more  spiritual  Iran  of  the  East;  above  all,  that  free 
opening  of  all  intellectual  paths  by  the  great  Nushirvan, 
whose  hospitality,  while  Mahomet  was  yet  in  his  infancy, 
had  flooded  Persia  with  Greek  and  Christian  philosophies 
and  Buddhist  asceticism  and  the  oldest  wisdom  of  the  far 
East,  and  spread  on  all  the  winds  the  subtle  disputes  of 
her  famous  schools  of  Balkh,  Samarkand,  Nishapur,  Merv, 
and  Herat,  astounding  the  simple  Moslem  conqueror,  who 
knew  only  his  sublime  solitary  Allah,  with  her  rival  obser- 
vatories and  libraries,  from  Tartary  to  Babylon,  —  such 
were  some  elements  of  the  situation  before  us.     How  inter- 

34 


530  ISLAM. 

pret  this  unspeakable  uproar  of  tongues  and  swords,  — 
this  wild,  tempestuous  collision  of  beliefs?  What  was  this 
whirl  of  fiery  atoms,  but  a  chaos  awaiting  its  centripetal 
impulse  from  intense  religious  personality;  some  fresh  so- 
lution for  traditional  names  of  duty  in  ages  and  tribes ; 
some  all-commanding  cry  of  AlldJi-il-AlldJi,  —  **  There  is 
no  God  but  God  !     Behold  his  Prophet !  " 

What  made  Islam  was  the  law  that  the  worship  of  per- 
sons shall  press  irresistibly  towards  the  worship  of  One 
Person ;  and  that  revelation  by  a  direct  messenger,  which 
is  the  proper  exponent  of  that  sovereignty,  shall  tend  to 
clothe  itself  with  increasing  definiteness  and  exclusiveness 
of  sway.  It  must  show,  in  proof  of  its  authenticity,  the 
power  to  bring  both  soul  and  body,  every  faculty  and 
function  of  man,  under  its  positive  decrees.  Mahomet 
understood  the  logical  necessities  of  his  position,  when  he 
announced  that  a  completer  legislation  than  that  of  Abra- 
ham, Moses,  or  Christ  had  come  to  reorganize  the  world. 

His  prophetic  cry  and  conquering  sword  were  not  the 
mere  outbreak  of  an  Arab  fanatic,  leading  his  desert 
hordes  to  raid  on  the  civilized  world.  An  instinct  so 
powerful  for  seven  centuries  of  civilization  that  it  had 
deepened  with  every  outward  contradiction  and  defeat, 
had  but  come  at  last  to  speak  with  a  clearness  that  could 
neither  be  ignored  nor  misunderstood.  Even  the  Semite 
had  been  slow  to  reach  the  pure  conception  of  one  Su- 
preme Will.  But  behind  Mahomet's  Allah  lay  the  per- 
sistent hold  of  Judaism  on  the  religious  training  of  ten 
centuries,  the  later  success  of  Christianity  as  its  offspring, 
and  the  primitive  cultus  of  a  Saturnian  Abraham,  or  of 
some  other  great  Father  of  the  Tribes  from  whom  it  was 
itself  born. ^  True,  the  new  Prophet  clearly  saw  that  Juda- 
ism had  degenerated,  till  its  old  revelation  was  buried 
under  perversions  and  disputes.     Christianity  had  further 

*  See  the  interesting  researches  of  Julius  Braun. 


MAHOMET.  531 

depraved  it  by  ascribing  a  Son  to  the  Infinite  Spirit,  and 
by  dividing  His  essence.  "  Forbear,  ye  who  say  Three  in- 
stead of  One  ;  it  shall  be  better  for  you."  But  Christianity 
had  directly  helped  prepare  his  way.  It  had  supplanted 
the  pantheons  of  Greece  and  Rome  with  its  one  incarnate 
God.  Its  imperfect  formulas  of  Divine  Unity,  such  as  they 
were,  had  exercised  a  wide  influence  throughout  Western 
Asia  by  means  of  the  Nestorian  schools  of  S3^ria.  These 
heretics  had  pushed  their  protest  against  the  strictly  or- 
thodox Trinity  with  a  missionary  ardor  worthy  of  men 
who  had  the  ability  to  combine  Greek  philosophy  with 
Christian  faith,  and  to  establish  ^  the  earliest  theological 
institution  in  Christendom.^  They  were  nearer  to  pure 
monotheism  than  the  Church  that  had  cast  them  out  for 
denying  that  God  could  have  a  mother,  as  it  hated  Ma- 
homet for  denying  that  He  could  have  a  Son.  They  must 
have  been  in  many  ways  unconscious  furtherers  of  that 
stronger  religious  monarchism  which  was  to  oversweep  the 
whole  field  of  their  labors.  They  could  not  fail  to  recog- 
nize in  its  summons  the  clear  self-consciousness  of  an  ideal, 
so  long  vainly  sought  by  them  in  their  internecine  war  of 
systems  and  creeds.  More  "  helpers "  were  in  the  air 
than  the  great  Arab  knew,  when  he  numbered  his  faith- 
ful Ansdi'  of  Medina  in  the  day  of  poverty  and  flight. 
In  differing  ways  the  Monophysite  heresy  helped  him 
in  Egypt,  and  the  Arian  in  Spain.  Their  rapid  expan- 
sion indicated  how  strong  an  effort  was  making  to  guard 
the  unity  of  God  from  human  alloy.  The  protest  of  rea- 
son against  a  divided  will  had  been  borne  about  Arabia 
on  the  dromedaries  of  a  native  king."'^  Every  savage 
broil  in  the  robber  councils  of  the  Church,  where  her 
bishops  tore  in  pieces  the  sacred  body  of  her  God,  helped 
the  preacher  of  a  judgment  day  for  these  Typhonic  muti- 

1  At  Nisibis.  -  Gieseler:  Ecclesiastical  History ,\\-  149. 

2  Wright :  Christianity  in  Arabia,  p.  3S.     Assemani  {Biblioili.  Orient.,  iii.)- 


532  .  ISLAM. 

lations.  Widely  separated  and  divergent  tribes,  unable  to 
endure  the  logic  of  orthodoxy,  found  timely  refuge  under 
the  religious  banner  of  Islam,  or  at  least  under  its  military 
guardianship,  from  the  bigotry  of  Byzantium  and  the  eccle- 
siasticism  of  Rome.  For  aside  from  the  one  unqualified 
condition  of  accepting  its  claim  to  political  tribute  from 
all  conquered  tribes,  Islam  promised  pure  liberty  of 
thought.  Arabia  itself  had  long  been  a  place  of  refuge, 
as  the  desert  has  always  been,  for  persecuted  sects.^  The 
fame  of  the  old  tribes  of  Yemen  for  religious  tolerance  was 
great  in  all  lands.  The  intuitive  clearness  of  the  Mussul- 
man idea  of  God  made  its  very  stringency  a  relief  to  an 
age  oppressed  by  even  more  autocratic  governments  and 
creeds.  Its  summons  was  to  the  masses,  even  more  than 
to  scholars  and  theologians ;  for  religious  controversy  was 
then,  as  afterwards  in  the  fifteenth  century  in  modern 
Europe,  the  most  tremendous  of  social  realities.  The 
timeliness  of  its  appeal  was  not  shown  most  powerfully  in 
silencing  the  logomachy  of  Byzantine  churches  and  Persian 
schools,  though  its  blade  cut  the  knots  of  word-mongering 
polemics  at  a  single  blow ;  but,  by  gathering  up  the  bewil- 
dered races  into  one  political  and  social  centre  of  absolute 
religious  law,  it  proved  itself  the  outgrowth  of  invincible 
demands,  —  a  sublime  step  in  the  process  of  the  ages. 
"  Say  to  the  common  folk,^  Will  }'e  surrender  yourselves 
to  God?  " 

With  the  facility  of  social  predestination,  as  well  as  the 
terrible  earnestness  of  fanatical  belief,  Islam  enforced  the 
logical  right  of  positive  revelation  to  sway  every  human 
sphere.  Like  the  old  Babylonian  monarchy,  it  justified 
its  claim  to  represent  a  God  of  personal  Will  by  uniting 
temporal    and    spiritual    relations    under    a    single   uncon- 

1    Cr'xchlon's  Araiia,  p.  160. 

-  Palmer  translates,  "Pagans"  or  "illiterate  people;"  but  the  meaning  is  the  same. — 
Koran,  ili.  ig. 


MAHOMET.  533 

ditional  allegiance  to  His  spoken  decrees.  The  invincible 
laws  of  human  reason,  which  this  ideal  would  supersede, 
had  here,  as  elsewhere,  brought  it  to  the  crucial  test  which 
it  involves, — just  as  Jewish  theocracy  had  pushed  for 
universal  dominion,  and  Christian  evolution  was  steadily 
marching  to  papal  union  of  Church  and  State.  Only  the 
secularism  of  modern  science,  the  ripe  insight  of  modern 
psychology,  can  stay  this  logic  of  personal  revelation  by 
striking  at  the  premise.  But  in  the  age  of  Mahomet  it 
was  the  spontaneous  movement  of  society,  the  inward 
necessity  of  reason  and  faith.  He  could  not  escape  the 
resort  to  prescriptive  legislation  nor  to  the  sword  of  the 
flesh.  Wherever  he  carried  his  theological  dogma  and 
his  religious  faith,  he  must  plant  the  State  which  it  im- 
plied. If  he  had  not  obeyed  the  implication,  he  would 
simply  have  left  the  fulfilment  to  his  successors.  Hence 
the  shallowness  of  the  charge  that  he  became  an  impostor 
when  he  resorted  to  the  sword.  A  highly  spiritual  nature 
might  resist  all  temptation  to  other  than  spiritual  weapons 
to  enforce  the  divine  command ;  but  a  practical  worker 
must  confront  the  rebellious  facts. 

The  social  and  political  status  was  more  than  oppor- 
tunity: it  absolutely  prescribed  his  way.  The  crossed 
swords  of  Rome  and  Persia  were  sinking  from  exhausted 
hands,  when  the  flash  of  his  keen  scimitar  smote  them 
apart.  To  his  Arab  hosts,  as  they  rose  from  the  dust  of 
the  trampled  battle-field  of  nations  to  hurl  both  empires 
under  their  feet,  he  cried,  "  We  have  made  you  a  central 
people,  that  ye  may  bear  witness  to  mankind."  ^  They 
had  already  learned  by  trading  and  predatory  relations 
the  weakness  of  these  unwieldy  giants ;  and  the  contagion 
of  such  colossal  rivalries  stimulated  their  passion  for  uni- 
versal empire.2  This  Arab  raid  was  no  sudden  impulse. 
The  curious  reader  will  find  in  the  vivid  pages  of  Tabari 

■  Koran,  ii.  137.  2  Finlay  :  Greece  under  the  Romans,  p.  444. 


534  ISLAM. 

the  stirring  story  of  border  wars  waged  for  ages  by  these 
indomitable  tribes  against  the  overshadowing  monarchies 
on  either  side,  of  their  continued  part  in  the  vast  mihtary 
expeditions  sweeping  back  and  forth  across  northern 
Arabia,  and  their  alternating  emotions  as  one  or  the  other 
side  proved  victorious  for  the  hour.  They  saw  these 
mercenary  hosts  despoiling  themselves  and  each  other  of 
unity,  discipline,  faith  in  leadership  and  destiny;  dissolv- 
ing under  the  treachery  and  neglect  of  corrupt  courts. 
Their  habits  of  raiding  had  familiarized  them  for  centuries 
with  the  immense  treasures  gathered  by  Aryan  and  Turk  in 
the  great  cities  of  Irak  and  Central  Asia.'  And  when  these 
capitals  were  no  longer  capable  of  defence  against  the 
cupidity  of  the  strongest,  their  desert  hunger  hardly  needed 
the  warrant  of  religious  conmiand  to  become  irresistible. 
When  the  Prophet's  announcement  of  a  common  law  and 
right  broke  down  the  feuds  of  generations,  it  was  not 
strange  that  they  swept  to  the  magnificent  quarry  from 
Bagdad  to  Balkh.  It  was  no  recent  account  that  they  were 
invited  to  settle  with  the  Sassanian  kings.  It  reached 
back  through  the  long  history  of  their  own  ancestral  States 
of  Ghazzan  and  Hira  in  Irak,  of  their  immemorial  pos- 
session of  Damascus  and  Holwan,  and  the  head-waters  of 
the  traditional  Gan-Eden  of  their  race.  From  the  time  of 
the  Seleucidae  they  had  raided  in  northern  Persia;  and 
their  expulsion  by  Ardeshir  and  then  by  Shapur,  when  he 
ravaged  Arabia  to  the  gates  of  Medina,  and  subjected  it 
down  to  the  shores  of  Yemen  on  the  Southern  Sea,  was 
rankling  in  the  poetic  traditions  of  every  tribe.^ 

Under  such  stimulation  a  whirl  of  discordant  clans 
sprang  at  the  call  of  revelation  into  instant  nationality ; 
an   individualism  unmatched   in   history  was  exalted   into 

1  Wright:  Christianity  in  Arabia,  jip.  21,  25.  For  account  of  early  Turkish  conquests 
in  Iran,  see  Vambery,  History  of  Bokhara. 

*  Wright :  Christianity  ift  A  rabia,  pp.  63,  69. 


MAHOMET.  535 

typical  universality,  in  the  world-mastering  individuality 
of  its  God.  In  Allah  was  manifest  to  them  the  secret 
bond  of  their  common  past,  —  the  identity  of  all  Semitic 
revelations  by  Abraham,  Moses,  Jesus,  —  but  in  its  last  and 
highest  form.  It  is  true  that  this  inspiration  of  nationality 
was  initiatory  only.  Islam,  like  every  other  great  religion, 
has  used  its  birthplace  only  as  the  leverage  of  a  moment; 
and  the  loyalty  of  the  tribes  to  a  common  master  was  a 
transient,  almost  a  vanishing,  element  in  its  magnificent 
success.  The  achievement  of  Mahomet  was  neither  by 
local  nor  physical  forces.  Arabia  was  fit  only  to  give  birth 
to  the  faith,  to  nurse  the  Prophet;  not  to  establish,  nor  even 
to  observe,  his  law.^  On  the  death  of  Mahomet  it  rose  in 
general  revolt,  and  Abu  Bekr,  through  Omar,  had  to  wage 
an  exterminating  war  to  protect  the  faith.  Probably  no 
Mussulman  country  has  been  so  little  influenced  by  his 
prescriptions.  It  was  wholly  unsuited  to  the  Koranic  legis- 
lation, both  by  physical  conditions  and  traditional  habits 
of  life.  It  adhered  to  its  older  Sabean  superstitions,  to 
its  intense  individualism,  to  its  jealousy  of  human  control. 
In  fact,  the  very  exodus  to  world-conquest  was  almost  as 
much  an  expulsion  of  Islam  from  its  native  soil  as  it  was 
a  product  of  that  soil,  and  singularly  lacked  every  sign  of 
patriotic  emotion.  But  no  sooner  did  its  trumpet  sound 
the  blast  of  Allah's  judgment  on  the  gods  of  the  nations, 
than  every  political  element  was  found  to  be  awaiting  it, 
and  turned  to  the  Prophet's  grasp.  The  great  empires 
were  distracted  by  barbarian  invasions  from  without,  and 
by  inward  dissensions  so  hopeless  that  even  heretical  sects 
could  only  tear  each  other  like  hungry  wolves.^  In  Spain, 
ecclesiastical  and  civil  strife  invited  the  Saracen  from  Af- 
rica, and  gave  Tarik  a  Gothic  kingdom  in  five  days  of  war. 
Buddhism  had  no  capacity  to  found  a  State ;  but  it  had 
taught  the  rude  Mongols  and  Turks  of  Central  Asia  a  cer- 

i  Buscli.  Ur-wc/t,  \.\.  8S,  89.  2  Gibbon,  xlvi.  xlvii.  (Milman). 


536  ISLAM. 

tain  universality  of  faith  and  aim;  and  they  hastened  to 
supply  its  defects  of  constructive  resources  by  the  new 
religion  of  absolute  monarchy  and  unlimited  conquest.  It 
was  a  swift  and  easy  evolution  from  a  Shaman  Genghis  to 
a  Moslem  Tamerlane. 

Such  being  the  historical  necessities,  it  is  not  strange 
that  a  single  generation  did  not  pass,  before  the  creed  of 
the  camel-driver  of  Mecca  had  mastered  the  thrones  of  the 
East;  or  that  a  single  century  bore  it  in  triumph  from  the 
borders  of  China  to  the  coast  of  Spain.  The  rapid  growth 
of  Christianity  is  still  widely  believed  to  be  the  evidence  of 
its  supernatural  origin ;  and  Gibbon's  splendid  demonstra- 
tion of  the  adequacy  of  natural  conditions,  and  not  very 
ideal  ones,  to  explain  that  process,  was  sufficient  in  its  own 
substance,  apart  from  its  irritating  indirectness  of  tone,  to 
earn  for  the  great  scholar  the  name  of  infidel.  But  by 
the  old  logic,  so  completely  refuted  then  and  since,  the 
far  superior  rate  of  Mahometan  conquest  would  prove 
Mahomet's  claim  to  miraculous  aid  more  valid  than  that 
of  Christ.  In  fact,  both  movements  illustrate  the  same 
law  of  continuity  in  historic  cause  and  effect.  Only  in  the 
later  religion  the  argument  against  substituting  a  supposed 
need  of  Divine  interference  for  this  continuous  force  of 
development  becomes  still  more  forcible. 

We  cannot  fail  to  be  reminded  that  tbe  work  of  what 
supernaturalism  contemns  as  "unaided  human  reason"  is 
infinitely  more  marvellous  than  any  effects  which  ignorance 
and  fear  have  ascribed  to  miraculous  power.  Not  the  least 
of  its  achievements  is  the  refutation  of  all  claims  to  origi- 
nal revelation ;  the  revealer  himself  being  proved  by  its 
historical  investigations  to  have  contributed  but  an  atom 
to  the  great  reconstruction  which  his  name  represents,  in 
comparison  with  the  vast  contemporaneous  forces,  spiritual 
and  physical,  centring  in  him.  His  contribution,  equally 
dependent  on   these  conditions  with   all  the  other   phe- 


MAHOMET.  537 

nomena  of  the  movement,  consists  mainly  in  the  attach- 
ment oi  it  to  a  personal  claim,  an  imaginary  oiificial  func- 
tion, a  temporary  centrality,  which  is  but  a  higher  crest 
on  the  ever-changing  oceanic  wave.  Herein  is  no  dero- 
gation to  his  moral  or  spiritual  greatness,  which  has  its 
power  over  the  course  of  history ;  but  limits  are  set,  and 
the  law  of  its  production  is  the  same  as  that  of  every  other 
spiritual  force,  inseparable  from  the  whole  human  process, 

—  just  as  the  noblest  tree  is  not  the  creation  of  a  deific 
stroke,  but  the  product  of  a  mere  seed,  and  a  slow  integra- 
tion of  every  elemental  force  through  cosmic  law.  And 
if  he  is  surely  merged  at  last,  to  impartial  vision,  in  the 
great  human  demands  and  currents  which  produced  his 
faith,  is  it  not  the  height  of  illusion  to  merge  the  faith 
itself  and  its  whole  historic  destiny  in  him? 

No  personal  biography,  and  no  study  of  the  supposed 
beginnings  of  any  positive  religion,  can  ever  fix  the  genesis 
of  a  moral  principle  or  spiritual  ideal.  As  well  believe 
that  God  kneaded  an  Adam  out  of  dust  on  some  given 
morning,  as  that  Moses,  or  Buddha,  or  Jesus,  or  Mahomet, 
brought  a  new  revelation  of  truth  or  duty  directly  from 
His  hand.  No  speech,  nor  writing,  nor  wonderful  work, 
can  teach  men  anything  that  was  not  already  seeking 
expression  in  their  minds  and  consciences,  and  shaping 
itself  from  their  own  resources  into  the  very  word  they 
deem  God's  message,  —  the  very  Life  that  wins  their  love 
and  awe.  Mahomet's  expectation  to  make  the  world  the 
kingdom  of  his  God,  the  promise  and  the  pov.'er  of  his  in- 
spiration to  plant  it  above  all  the  fallen  thrones  of  the  earth, 
were  aided  and  in  no  slight  degree  created  by  the  push  of 
the  living  humanity  to  which  he  appealed.  This  was  the 
secret  of  his  victory,  the  legitimate  and  inevitable  next  step, 

—  a  piece  of  nature  and  necessity.  When  the  world  scorns 
and  crucifies  a  prophet's  message,  he  sees  the  deeper  soul 
within  the  world,  that  confesses  the  truth  and  contradicts 


538  ISLAM, 

the  crime.  The  facts  may  refute  him ;  but  the  deeper 
fact  is  the  instinct  of  his  genius  that  cannot  be  deceived. 
The  age  that  bore  him  bids  him  be  of  cheer :  It  is  for  me 
you  are  made;  you  are  my  purpose;  you  only  are  indis- 
pensable to  me.  More  explicable  to  the  thoughtful  student 
than  to  himself  is  the  conqueror's  mood.  When  the  actual 
voice  of  his  time  is  gathered  up  for  him,  naturally  enough, 
into  the  command  of  an  omnipotent  Will,  could  there  be 
room  for  any  issue  but  intensest  conviction  and  its  con- 
quest of  the  world?  To  the  depression  of  the  conquered 
Jew,  the  Roman  world  offered  no  gleam  of  religious  light, 
no  refuge  but  an  ideal  kingdom  of  God.  Hence  the  quiet- 
ism of  Jesus,  looking  to  the  destruction  of  existing  things 
and  a  new  creation  beyond.  But  to  the  desert-exaltations 
of  the  free  Arab,  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  rent  and  falling 
asunder,  were  themselves  seed-ground  waiting  for  the  new 
creation  at  his  hand.  Hence  the  plunge  of  his  soul  into 
instant  civil  and  political  construction,  with  such  weapons, 
such  policies,  such  prescriptive  autocracy  as  it  involved. 

These  general  facts  and  principles  may  serve  to  intro- 
duce our  study  of  that  extraordinary  personage  with  whose 
name  and  religion  the  history  of  Iran  has  been  identified 
for. the  last  thousand  years. 

Mahomet's  system  and  summons  contained  nothing 
essentially  original,  or  even  unfamiliar  to  his  countrymen. 
His  very  idea  of  a  prophet — as  not  merely  a  messenger 
from  God,  but  as  intrusted  with  His  written  message  — 
was  simply  a  traditional  belief  of  the  whole  Semitic  race. 
It  is  true  that  his  names  for  function  and  for  book  were 
probably  imported  by  him  out  of  Hebrew  into  Arabic ;  ^ 
and  it  was  the  common  opinion  of  the  tribes  in  his  time 
that  no  great  prophet  had  ever  been  born  upon  their  soil.^ 
Yet  that  Arabia  was  soon  to  have  her  turn,  was  a  current 
expectation  among  her  numerous  reformers  and  seekers 

1  Kremer:  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam,  p.  225.  '  ilasudi,  chap.  vi. 


MAHOMET.  539 

for  new  light.  In  that  generation  there  were  many  eyes 
open  to  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  masters,  and  to  the 
rehgious  needs  of  their  own  land.^  The  vague  sense  of 
sohtary  omnipotent  Will  haunted  that  desert  atmosphere. 
In  Mahomet  it  did  but  grow  to  a  palpable  distinctness,  an 
instant  intimacy  and  command. 

The  iinity  of  God  was  a  golden  ore  embedded  in  Arabian 
memory  and  faith.  Mahomet  learned  to  track  it  through 
manifold  ancestral  veins ;  and  it  seemed  that  wherever  he 
struck  the  soil,  its  fires  of  judgment  and  mercy  sprang 
forth  to  tell  their  tale.  Long  before  his  day  the  pilgrims 
to  Mecca  were  wont  to  pray  to  Allah,  in  every  real  emer- 
gency, as  the  one  all-sufficient  help.^  There  was  a  high- 
est sheikh  among  troops  of  lower  gods.^  Of  these  there 
were  at  least  three  hundred  and  sixty  whose  images  stood 
around  the  Kaaba, —  of  all  shapes,  animal,  vegetable,  min- 
eral ;  and  many  more  within  it,  —  among  them  Abraham, 
Jesus,  and  even  Mary  his  mother.^  Of  an  impassive  and 
sceptical  temper  in  matters  of  worship,  the  Arabs  had  evi- 
dently reached  a  broad  indifference  to  special  names  and 
forms.  Yet  Mahomet  rightly  assumed  that  these  were 
secondary  in  the  popular  conscience,  as  well  as  in  the 
belief  of  the  Koreish  tribe,  the  temple  guardians ;  and 
so  held  these  men  guilty  in  not  immediately  casting  them 
down  before  the  new  call  to  spiritual  worship.  What  other 
gospel  did  he  offer  them  than  that  which  Adam,  Noah, 
Abraham,  Moses,  Jesus,  as  well  as  their  own  prophets  of 
warning,  had  received  from  the  Eternal?  We  have  no 
sure  means  of  testing  the  truth  of  the  traditions  from 
which  Mahomet  derived  his  largely  legendary  stories  of 
the  sins  and  penalties  of  early  Arab  tribes.  We  have  no 
accounts  of  Arabia,  deserving  any  credit,  earlier  than  four 


1  Ibn-Khalilun.     Caussin  de  Perceval:  Essai  sur  V Hist,  des  Arabes,  i.  :^22. 

*  Deutsch  :  Islam,  p.  3J.  ^  Sprenger  :  Das  Leben  d.  Alohammad,  i.  15. 

*  Caussin,  i.  17s,  198. 


540  ISLAM. 

or  five  centuries  before  Christ,  and  then  only  for  the 
Himyaritic  kings  of  the  South ;  while  the  Koreish,  Ma- 
homet's own  tribe,  appears  distinctly  only  just  before  the 
Christian  era.  But  from  the  oldest  times  known,  worship- 
pers of  a  Supreme  God  had  mingled  on  the  soil ;  tribes 
had  been  forcibly  converted  to  Judaism ;  the  Talmud 
itself  was  to  no  small  extent  Arabian  in  its  associations 
and  contents.^  It  has  been  lately  maintained  by  archae- 
ologists that  the  ancient  worship  of  Saturn  was  first  trans- 
formed on  this  soil  into  that  of  Abraham,  and  so  became 
the  root  of  Hebrew  monotheism.^  This  theory  is  at  least 
quite  as  probable  as  that  of  a  recent  historian,  who,  on  the 
strength  of  Bible  genealogies,  traces  all  monotheistic  ten- 
dencies in  the  Arabs  to  a  primitive  revelation  by  Abraham, 
of  which  we  have  no  account  outside  of  the  Bible,  and  no 
hint  save  in  a  few  Koranic  legends.^  Better  foundation 
may  exist  for  the  story  of  the  introduction  of  idolatry  into 
Yemen  in  the  third  century,  and  of  its  expulsion  soon 
afterwards  by  Jewish  influence.  The  dethronement  of  a 
king  of  that  country  by  Rome  and  Abyssinia  for  his  per- 
secution of  Christianity,  in  the  sixth  century,  is  a  matter  of 
history.^  All  these  facts  indicate  little  for  a  purely  mono- 
theistic religion.  The  Semitism  of  Arabia  probably  fol- 
lowed a  course  of  development  similar  to  that  of  the 
Hebrews,  never  reaching  the  pure  idea  of  Divine  Unity 
till  its  latest  phases.  These,  however,  had  certainly  ap- 
peared before  the  birth  of  Mahomet,  in  a  class  of  reform- 
ers of  whom  I  shall  speak  in  a  moment. 

It  is  certain  that  Mosaism  and  Christianity  were  familiar 

to  the  Arabs  through  their  unhealthy  offshoots  throughout 

whole  districts  of  the  peninsula,  and  through  ancient  settle- 

\   ments,  the  caravan  trade  with  Syria,  and  the  incessant  mi- 

1  Deutsch  :  Islam,  p.  34.  -  Braun  :   Gemdlde  der  Molianait.  Welt. 

'  Muir :  Introduction  to  Life  0/ Mahomet,  cxvi.  cxxvii. 

*  Caussin  de  Perceval,  i.  90-94.     Abiilfeda,  p.  137.     Tabari:  History  of  Sassanianisjn 
(Noldeke),  p.  i/S-xSs-     Muir:   Introduction  to  Life  qf  Mahomet,  chap.  iii. 


MAHOMET.  541 

gration  of  tribes.  They  were  even  in  possession  of  courts 
and  States.  There  was  a  Christian  bishopric  in  Himyar 
in  the  age  of  Constantius ;  ^  and  whole  tribes  were  prob- 
ably of  Jewish  origin.  North  and  south  of  the  keen 
traders'  path  across  the  desert,  in  Syria  and  in  Egypt, 
Monophysite,  Nestorian,  and  orthodox  were  waging  their 
internecine  wars  about  the  unity  of  God  and  of  Christ. 
Even  where  the  two  older  forms  of  monotheism  had  made 
little  impression,  the  local  and  tribal  gods  were  losing 
their  hold.  Sharastani,  in  his  "  Book  of  Religious  Sects," 
clearly  describes  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  tribes. 
Some  denied  a  creator  and  a  resurrection,  and  taught 
that  everything  was  born  and  died  by  Nature's  force ; 
others  recognized  a  Creator,  but  denied  resurrection; 
others  worshipped  idols.  Some  inclined  to  Judaism,  some 
to  Christianity,  some  to  Sabeanism,  directing  their  affairs 
by  planetary  influences.  Some  honored  angels,  some  de- 
mons.^ Mahomet's  first  sympathetic  relations  were  with 
Jewish  and  Christian  believers,  among  whom  he  naturally 
found  readiest  refuge  and  encouragement.^  But  this  was 
of  short  duration.  He  owed  more,  in  the  sequel,  to  the 
prevailing  decay  of  faith  in  the  old  polytheism,  and  to 
the  semi-rationalistic  expectations  of  a  higher  positive 
motive  and  a  more  consistent  law.  He  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  derived  his  inspiration  from  the  Bible,  how- 
ever much  his  style  may  resemble  now  Jeremiah's  and  now 
that  of  Jesus.  It  has  the  authoritative,  yet  sympathetic 
and  yearning  tone  of  Semitic  prophecy  everywhere.  His 
knowledge  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  was  apparently 
at  second  or  third  hand,  and  worked  over  in  the  heats  of 
his  own  intense  conflict.  The  little  volume  of  Sir  W.  Muir, 
entitled  "  Islam,"  in  which  he  attempts  to  prove  an  intimate 


1  Asseman  (Biblioth.  Orient.,  iii.)-     Wright's  Arabia,  p.  35. 

2  Abulfeda  :  History  of  Ante-Islaviism  (Lat.  Fleischer),  bk.  vi.  p.  iSi. 

*  Sura  vi.  85.     Sprenger :  Das  Leben  d.  Mohammad,  ii.  153-180  (from  Ibn   Ishak). 


542  ISLAM. 

acquaintance  with  these  older  Scriptures  by  Koranic  refer- 
ences and  quotations,  is  a  very  curious  specimen  of  special 
pleading,  and  amounts  to  nothing  more  than  this,  —  that 
Mahomet  constantly  charged  his  countrymen  with  the 
knowledge  of  earlier  revelations  in  writings,  which  had 
testified  of  him  to  the  Jew  and  the  Christian,  and  which 
had  been  twisted  from  their  meaning,  and  had  lost  their 
saving  power.  But  with  all  his  acquaintance  with  the  gen- 
eral outline  of  the  Pentateuch,  there  is  only  one  passage  in 
the  Koran  that  agrees  verbatim  with  one  in  the  old  Bible. 
It  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  he  ever  saw  a  copy  of 
either  Testament.^  Charges  of  perversion,  made  against 
him,  are  of  the  vaguest  kind,  and  mere  denunciations  of  the 
crime  in  general  terms.  The  only  definite  instance^  of  it 
sufficiently  proves  his  ignorance  ;  and  his  allusions  to  divine 
judgments  on  disobedient  tribes  in  old  time  show  his  habit 
of  freely  filling  up  the  pages  of  his  unknown  Scriptures 
with  national  traditions  or  tales  derived  from  other  sources, 
—  Talmudic,  or  Jewish  Christian,  —  with  no  other  warrant 
than  their  fitness  to  serve  his  inspired  purpose.^ 

The  supreme  necessity  of  man's  obedience  to  the  provi- 
dential Will  made  the  whole  world  its  parable.  So  the 
"  illiterate  "  Prophet  flamed  with  exhaustless  type  and 
symbol  out  of  a  past  of  which  his  knowledge  seems  in- 
comprehensible. To  one  who  held  the  secret  key,  that 
"  God  only  knows  the  numbers  and  the  times,"  there  could 

^  See  especially  Sura  vii.  xii.  xx.  1 14-120;  xxi.  105  ;  liii.  39. 

-  In  Sura  Ixv.  6,  where,  in  allusion  to  the  promise  of  a  Paraclete  in  John,  xvi.  7,  he  mis- 
takes the  word,  wTongly  spelt,  for  the  corresponding  word  in  Arabic  {Ahmed),  and  insists  on 
its  having  been  so  written  in  the  original  text,  as  a  prophetic  reference  to  himself.  See  Rod- 
weirs  Koran. 

^  Witness  especially  the  stories  of  Moses's  journey  with  a  mysterious  angel,  whose  mission 
is  to  rebuke  his  impatience  by  apparent  crimes,  shown  afterwards  to  be  Providential  blessings 
(xviii.,  compare  Parnell's  Hermit) ;  of  Abraham  rebuking  his  father  for  idolatry  (xix.  45)  ;  of 
the  warning  given  to  Adam  against  Iblis,  and  of  God's  relenting  towards  him  after  his  fall,  so 
taking  off  the  primal  curse  (xx.  1 17-120)  ;  of  Samariy,  who  tempted  the  Israelites  to  wor- 
ship a  calf  (xx.  90).  We  may  add  the  beautiful  tale  of  Abraham's  conversion  from  idolatry 
of  the  elements  (vi.  74-79),  and  that  of  Mary's  deliverance  of  her  child  under  a  palm  of  the 
desert  (xix.). 


MAHOMET.  543 

be  no  difference  of  legends  sacred  and  profane.  His  Scrip- 
tures welcomed  the  secular  myths  of  the  Seven  Sleepers, 
the  Queen  of  Sheba,  the  search  of  Dhul'karnain  for  the 
fountain  of  life  in  mythic  darkness,  and  the  building  of  the 
wall  against  Gog  and  Magog. 

We  cannot  suppose  an  acquaintance  with  the  Christian 
books  in  one  who  makes  the  Gospel  promise  rewards  to 
those  who  fight  and  slay  in  its  defence,  and  who  mistakes 
Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus  for  Miriam  the  "  sister  of 
Aaron."  ^  No  Arabic  version  of  the  Bible  existed  in  his 
time,  and  he  could  read  no  other  language  than  his  own. 
What  he  may  have  heard  from  his  Jewish  companions  at 
Medina  concerning  the  Hebrew  writings,  especially  as  he 
quotes  sentences  from  great  Rabbins  v/ho  had  visited  the 
schools  of  their  countrymen  in  Arabia,  it  is  not  now  pos- 
sible to  say .2 

Of  his  supposed  teachers,  the  monk  Sergius  and  the 
semi-Christian  Jew  Waraka,  to  the  former  of  whom  Dean 
Stanley  ascribes  his  knowledge  of  Christian  truth,  we  may 
be  said  on  the  whole  to  know  nothing.^  It  would  be  as 
well  for  Christianity  not  to  make  it  responsible  for  the  apoc- 
ryphal stories  related  of  Jesus  in  the  Koran.^  Mahomet's 
continuity  was  not  so  much  with  Christianity  as  with  post- 
Christian  Judaism.  "  When  the  Talmud  was  completed," 
says  the  best  Jewish  authority  on  the  subject,  "  the  Koran 
was  begun.  Post  hoc,  propter  hoc.  .  .  .  The  Hebrew,  the 
Greek,  the  Aramaic  phases  of  monotheism,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, the  New  Testament,  the  Targum  and  the  Talmud, 
were   each   in   their   sphere  fulfilling  their  behests.     The 

1  Siira  xix.  2g. 

2  Deutsch  :  Islam,  p.  35.  Sprenger  thinks  a  very  limited  literature,  in  part  apocryphal, 
in  the  Arabic  language,  but  in  Hebrew  letters,  existed  in  Arabia  before  Mahomet.  His 
proofs  of  this  opinion  are  very  slight.  But  he  shows  that  it  was  after  the  exile  to  Medina  and 
his  connection  with  the  Jews  at  that  city,  that  the  prophet's  revelations  have  most  to  say  of 
the  Bible  story.  —  Sprenger :  Das  Lehen  d.  Moh.  ii.  285. 

^  Stanley  :  History  of  the  Eastern  Church,  p.  366. 
*  See  Sprenger :  Das  Leben  d.  Mohammad,  i.  124. 


544  ISLAM. 

times  were  ripe  for  the  Arabic  phase."  ^  Sprenger's  con- 
jectures—  that  the  connecting  point  between  Jewish  and 
Arab  monotheism  is  to  be  found  in  Essenic  and  Nazarean 
settlements  scattered  over  the  northern  or  Nabathcan  des- 
erts, that  the  old  Arabian  sage  and  poet  Lokman  was  no 
other  than  the  Jewish  sectary  Elxai,  and  that  Islam  itself 
sprang  from  certain  free-thinking  Essenes  who  had  lost 
the  knowledge  of  the  Bible  —  have  little  special  proof  to 
recommend  them. 

But  Mahomet  was  preceded  by  a  line  of  native  poets 
who  more  or  less  forcibly  proclaimed  Allah  as  above  all 
gods ;  by  voices  in  the  wilderness  announcing  the  ap- 
proach of  a  fresh  revelation  of  his  will ;  and  by  a  class 
of  strict  Unitarians,  who  hovered  between  Judaism,  Chris- 
tianity, and  a  sceptical  rationalism  very  natural  to  the 
Arab  mind.  These  Hanifs  (or  "  converted  ")  were  Ma- 
homet's forerunners,  his  teachers,  his  intimates,  some  of 
them  his  rivals,  even  his  foes.-  This  name,  as  signifying 
one  who  had  lost  the  true  faith  and  fallen  to  heathen- 
ism, was  applied  to  them  by  the  Jews,  who  did  not  like 
being  held  responsible  for  their  free-thinking,  and  dreaded 
their  criticism  on  themselves.  The  Hanifs  claimed  to  re- 
vive the  old  creed  of  Abraham,  and  called  themselves 
Sabeans.3  Perhaps  the  fine  legend  of  Abraham's  conver- 
sion from  star  and  sun  worship,  mentioned  above,  told  in 
the  sixth  Sura,  was  derived  from  them.  More  than  one 
of  them  had  shaken  off  the  dust  of  the  Kaaba,  and  sought 
the  primitive  law  of  Abraham  and  its  less  idolatrous 
shrines.*  There  are  records  of  Mahomet's  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  twelve  of  them  before  his  assumption  of 
the  prophetic  call.^  Islam  is  generous  in  its  recognition 
of  his   indebtedness  to  other  men.      It  has  remembered 


1  Deutsch:  Islam,  p.  lo.     Sprenger :  Das  Lebeti  d.  Mohammad,  i.  35,  43,  93. 

*  Palmer's  translation.  ^  Deutsch :  Islam,  p.  38. 

*  Sprenger,  i.  no,  118.  ^  Rodwell's  Koran,  Preface,  xvi. 


MAHOMET.  545 

a  cry  of  Zeyd  to  the  All-merciful  for  forgiveness,  as  one 
who  had  been  beguiled  by  idol-worship,  and  having  found 
it  was  but  a  spectre  of  the  night,  rejoiced  to  see  clearly 
and  to  feel  his  withered  boughs  revive.  He  had  even 
summoned  the  Koreish  to  accept  Islam  before  the  Prophet 
himself  had  spoken.^  He  had  anticipated  the  Koran  in 
denouncing  the  sacrificial  feasts  of  the  temple  and  the 
savage  rite  of  burying  children  alive;  had  drawn  out  the 
victims  with  his  own  hands  and  restored  them  to  their 
parents.^  He  was  not  satisfied  with  Judaism  or  with 
Christianity.  Omeyyah  even  claimed  to  be  the  coming 
deliverer,  and  at  first  refused  to  recognize  the  master. 
These  were  men  after  Mahomet's  own  heart,  and  he  be- 
gins by  making  himself  one  of  them.  He  is  ready  to 
believe  of  two,  at  least,  that  they  are  destined  to  create 
churches  of  their  own  in  heaven.  To  the  whole  line  of 
old  believers,  of  whom  they  were  the  representatives  in 
his  day,  he  accords  the  name  of  Moslem.^  He  puts  him- 
self on  their  ground  of  radical  free-thought,  saying  that 
"  Abraham  was  neither  Jew  nor  Christian,  but  a  pure 
Hanif,  who  did  not  add  gods  to  God."  ^  The  chronicles 
indeed  claim  for  him  a  long  and  noble  spiritual  descent. 
El  Masudi'^  has  a  full  chapter  (much  of  it  legendary,  doubt- 
less) on  the  confessors  of  the  true  God  between  Christ  and 
Mahomet,  martyrs  and  saints  and  heroes.  He  tells  of 
Khaled,  who  smote  the  altars  of  fire-worship,  and  whose 
daughter,  hearing  Mahomet  preach  that  "  the  Eternal  only 
is  God;"  said,  "  Those  are  my  father's  own  words ;  "  of 
Asad,  Abu  Karib,  who  believed  in  the  prophet  seven  cen- 
turies before  his  coming;  of  Koss,  on  whom  Mahomet 
prayed  for  the  blessing  of  God's  bounty;  of  Omeyyah, 
whose  strange  power  compelled  the  Koreish  themselves 

^  Sprenger,  i.  42. 

*  Sprenger,  i.  no,  it6.     Deutsch,  p.  39.     Braun,  p.  13. 

'  Sprenger,  i.  71.  *  Sura  iii.  60. 

6  Meadows  0/  Gold,  chap.  vi. 

35 


546  ISLAM. 

to  put  the  words,  "  In  the  name  of  God,"  at  the  beginning 
of  all  their  writings. 

The  ancient  "  Rolls "  to  which  Mahomet  often  refers 
were  probably  the  so-called  "Rolls  of  Moses,"  claimed  to 
be  in  possession  of  the  Hanifs,  and  to  have  been  given  to 
primeval  prophets,  to  the  number  of  a  hundred  Suras,  in 
letters  of  crimson  like  sunbeams,  on  green  tablets,  as  the 
later  Moslems  affirm.  It  has  been  strongly  doubted  whether 
they  were  much  earlier  than  his  own  time.^  They  are 
quoted  in  the  five  verses  of  his  eighty-seventh  Sura,  and 
perhaps  referred  to  in  the  pure  monotheism  of  the  fifty- 
third.^  Here  he  may  have  found  those  stories  of  old- 
time  tribes  destroyed  for  their  sins,  which  may  have  been 
founded  on  early  wars  and  migrations,  but  arc  explicable 
enough  among  the  desert  ruins  of  the  old  cities  of  Had- 
ramaut.  Although  Mahomet  afterwards  rejected  these 
Hanifite  "  Rolls,"  as  he  did  the  Jews  and  Christians  of  his 
day,  he  must  have  drawn  on  some  such  records  for  much 
of  his  material  in  enforcing  the  universality  of  Allah's 
dealing  with  men. 

In  this  time  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  current  forms  of 
faith,  it  was  natural  that  the  sceptical  Arab  mind  should 
have  little  respect  for  the  multiplied  images  of  the  Kaaba, 
which  had  too  evidently  become  merely  profitable  in- 
vestments for  families  who  had  long  been  their  official 
curators.  Doubtless  still  retaining  certain  social  uses  for 
the  town-people,  these  dead  stones  could  have  little  mean- 
ing for  the  free  Bedouins,  the  independent  tribes,  the 
poetic,  passionate  individualists  of  the  desert,  except  so 
far  as  they  still  recalled  the  primitive  fetichism  of  litholatry, 
of  which  the  legend  of  Jacob's  pillow  was  a  theistic  out- 
growth. They  could  surely  better  appreciate  the  Prophet's 
taunts  than  the  perquisites  of  the  Koreish  officials. 

Of  the  reaction  now  described,  Mahomet's  intense  mono- 

*  Sprenger,  i.  57.  ''■  Rodwell,  p.  27. 


MAHOMET,  547 

theism  was  a  natural  product.  He  dwells  especially  on 
the  wrangling  of  religious  sects,  each  utterly  forgetful  of 
the  one  God  above  them  all.  What  a  spectacle  were  the 
hates  of  Jew  and  Christian,  the  savage  wars  of  Nestorian 
and  Monophysite  ! 

"  To  Jesus  and  other  apostles  we  gave  manifest  signs  ;  and  if  God 
had  pleased,  their  followers  would  not  have  fallen  into  these  disputes. 
But  God  doeth  what  He  will !  "  ^  "  Mankind  was  but  one  people,  and 
God  sent  them  prophets  of  warning  and  glad  tidings,  and  the  Book  of 
Truth  to  settle  all  disputes.  Yet  none  disputed  Hke  those  to  whom 
the  Book  had  been  sent ;  for  they  were  filled  with  jealousy  of  each 
other."  -  "  O  people  of  the  Book,  why  wrangle  about  Abraham  ? 
Why  contend  about  that  whereof  ye  know  nothing  ?  "  ^ 

His  reproaches  show  that  he  sought  only  to  recall  his 
people  to  the  service  of  One  whom  they  already  knew. 
He  pretended  to  no  message  from  an  unheard-of  Power 
or  Name,  but  chose  the  highest  god  of  the  existing  faith, 
specially  associated  with  those  benevolent  uses  to  which  a 
portion  of  the  religious  offerings  were  devoted,*  —  the  god 
whose  name  was  kindred  with  the  old  Semitic  El,  who  was 
more  widely  recognized  than  any  other  tribal  god,  and 
probably  the  only  one  of  whom  no  image  had  ever  been 
made.  At  the  opening  of  every  Sura  of  the  Koran  stands 
the  same  invocation  :  "  In  the  name  of  Allah,  the  Merciful, 
the  Just." 

Nor  were  the  doctrines  with  which  this  name  was  now 
invested  originated  by  Mahomet.  His  eschatology  was 
Talmudic  and  Parsi ;  his  angelology,  the  legacy  of  the 
desert.  His  Satan  was  Christian,  the  natural  foil  to  an 
equally  intense  personification  of  good.  His  Jesus,  though 
tinged  with  the  Gnostic  and  Docetic  conceptions  which 
had  come  to  be  very  widely  mingled  with  Christian  doc- 
trine, was,  after  all,  just  a  messenger  of  God  after  the  old 

1  Sura  ii.  254-  -  Sura  ii.  209.  ^  Sura  iii.  59. 

*  Palmer's  translation  of  Introduction,  p.  xii.    Koran,  Sura  vi.  137. 


548  ISLAM. 

Semitic  pattern,  made  like  other  men,  —  for  "■  it  beseemeth 
not  God  to  beget  a  Son."  ^  His  system  of  prayers,  alms, 
fasts,  pilgrimages,  was  borrowed  from  existing  customs; 
the  strange  barbaric  rites  and  forms  go  back  to  old  Sabean 
planetary  worship ;  the  three  daily  devotions  and' turning 
to  Jerusalem  were  Christian.^  Abulfeda  enumerates  all  of 
them  as  practised  among  the  Arabs  traditionally,  and  as 
sanctioned  by  the  prophet.^  But  Allah  must  give  new  in- 
terpretation to  the  whole.  "  Eat,"  said  he,  "  of  what  has 
been  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Name."  *  So  the  early  Chris- 
tians avoided  meat  that  had  been  offered  to  idols.  It  was 
in  what  entered  into  the  mouth  that  the  Semite  had  always 
found  his  broadest  symbol  of  defilement  or  of  purity.  Ma- 
homet kept  to  these  old  instincts  of  his  race.  He  refused 
afterwards  to  make  a  Kebla  of  a  Jewish  city ;  but  he  sub- 
stituted Mecca,  a  nearer  and  more  familiar  shrine. 

His  morality,  the  constant  fuel  of  his  fiery  zeal,  was  that 
of  all  good  men  in  his  day.  He  ascribed  it  wholly  to  the 
older  prophets,  and  enforced  it  in  their  name.  "  Verily 
Abraham  and  Jacob  and  the  tribes  have  passed  away; 
they  have  the  reward  of  their  deeds ;  of  these  you  shall 
not  be  questioned,  only  of  your  own."  ^  "  Every  soul 
shall  bear  the  good  and  the  evil  for  which  it  has  labored ; 
and  God  will  burden  none  beyond  its  power."  ^  Yet  the 
deeds  required  are  the  same. 

"  Worship  God  alone  ;  be  kind  to  kindred  and  servants,  orphans 
and  the  poor  ;  speak  righteously  to  men,  pray,  and  pay  alms."  "  Grum- 
ble not  at  your  parents  ;  with  humility  and  tenderness  say,  O  Lord,  be 
merciful  to  them,  even  as  they  brought  me  up  when  I  was  helpless." 
"  Abandon  the  old  barbarities,  blood-vengeance  and  child-murder,  and 
be  united  as  one  flesh  ;  "  yet,  "  let  punishment  for  bloodshed  be  eye  for 
eye."  "  Do  thy  alms  openly  or  in  secret ;  for  both  are  well."  "  Give  of 
that  which  hath  been  given  you,  before  the  day  cometh  when  there  shall 

'  Sura  xix.  36. 

2  Sura  ii.  192-1,16.  Caussin  de  Perceval  :  Essai  sur  VHist.  des  Arabes,  i.  113,  19S,  203, 
269.     Sprenger,  i.  78. 

*  Abulfeda,  p.  iSi.  *  Sura  vi.  iiS.  ^  Sura  ii.  135.  ^  gura  ii.  286. 


MAHOMET.  549 

be  no  trafficking,  nor  friendship,  nor  intercession."  "  Wouldst  thou 
be  taught  the  steep  (path)  ?  It  is  to  ransom  the  captive,  to  feed  the 
hungry,  the  kindred,  the  orphan,  and  him  whose  mouth  is  in  the  dust. 
Be  of  those  who  enjoin  steadfastness  and  compassion  on  others." 
"  Woe  to  them  that  make  show  of  piety,  and  refuse  help  to  the  needy." 
"  Make  not  your  ahns  void  by  reproaches  or  injury."  "  Forgiveness 
and  kind  speech  are  better  than  favors  with  annoyance."  "Aban- 
don usury."  "  He  who  spendeth  his  substance  to  be  seen  of  men,  is 
like  a  rock  with  thin  soil  over  it,  whereon  the  rain  falletli  and  leaveth 
it  hard.  But  they  who  expend  their  substance  to  please  God  and 
establish  their  souls,  are  like  a  garden  on  a  hill,  on  which  the  rain 
falleth  and  it  yieldeth  its  fruits  twofold ;  and  even  if  the  rain  doth  not 
fall,  yet  is  there  a  dew." 

"  Stand  fast  to  justice,  bearing  witness  before  God,  — whether  it  be 
against  yourselves,  or  your  parents,  or  kindred,  whether  the  party  be 
rich  or  poor.  God  is  nearer  than  either.  Therefore  follow  not  passion, 
lest  you  swerve  from  truth."  "  Covet  not  another's  gifts  from  God." 
"  There  is  no  piety  in  turning  the  face  east  or  west,  but  in  believing 
in  God  only  and  doing  good."  "  Make  the  best  of  all  things  ;  enjoin 
justice  and  avoid  the  foolish  ;  and  if  Satan  stir  thee  to  evil,  take  refuge 
in  God." 

"  The  birth  of  a  daughter  brings  dark  shadows  on  a  man's  face." 
"But  to  slay  your  children,  even  for  fear  of  want,  is  a  great  wicked- 
ness. For  them  and  you  we  will  provide."  "  God  hath  given  you 
wives  that  ye  may  put  love  and  tenderness  between  you."  "  Divorce 
is  allowed  twice ;  on  conditions,  a  third  time  and  no  more  ;  but  let 
wives  be  kept  honorably,  or  put  away  with  kindness."  [The  Koranic 
laws  concerning  treatment  of  women  in  divorce  are  of  better  humanity 
and  regard  for  justice  than  those  of  any  other  Scriptures.]  "  Rever- 
ence the  wombs  that  bare  you."  "  Adultery  is  foul."  "  Let  the  be- 
liever restrain  his  e3'es  from  lust  ;  let  women  make  no  display  of 
ornaments,  save  to  their  own  kindred." 

"  Know  ye  that  this  world's  life  is  a  cheat ;  the  inultiplying  of  riches 
and  children  is  like  the  plants  that  spring  up  after  rain,  rejoicing  the 
husbandman,  then  turn  yellow  and  wither  away.  In  the  next  life  is 
severe  chastisement,  or  else  pardon  from  God  and  His  peace  "  ^ 

These  sentences  are  introduced  in  detail  to  show  how 
entirely  the  moral  ideal  of  the  new  gospel  was  set  in  the 

I  Sura  ii.  77  ;  xvii.  24,  25  ;  ii.  173,  255, 275  ;  xc.  12  ;  cvii.  4-6;  ii.  265-67,  279  ;  iv.  133,134; 
ii.  173  ;  vii.  19S,  199;  xvi.  60;  xvii.  33  ;  xxx.  20;  ii.  229-231  ;  Ixv.  ;  xvii.  34;  xxiv.  31  ;  Ivii. 
tg,  20. 


550  ISLAM. 

common-sense  of  duty  and  the  familiar  instincts  of  love. 
In  the  general  tone,  they  might  have  been  the  warnings  of 
Isaiah  or  Joel,  or  the  tender  appeals  of  Jesus.  The  mes- 
sage of  the  prophet  to  practical  conduct  is  the  same  in  all 
times  when  prophets  are  possible.  There  is  a  difference 
in  the  extent  to  which  legislation  is  mingled  w'ith  the  pro- 
phetic function,  naturally  to  the  detriment  of  the  ideal 
freedom  and  breadth  of  the  latter;  yet  sometimes,  as  in 
Mahomet's  case,  it  serves  to  prove  a  practical  energy  and 
helpfulness  in  meeting  the  stern  practical  limits  to  its  social 
working,  which  "  inspiration"  is  wont  to  ignore.  Mahomet 
did  not  at  first  incline  to  this  administrative  function,  and  it 
was  only  developed  by  the  necessities  of  those  with  whom 
he  had  to  deal.  His  special  dealings  with  rites  and  cus- 
toms were  always  ameliorative,  yet  in  ways  of  which  the 
past  afforded  him  at  least  the  suggestion.  Those  relating 
to  women  sprang  naturally  out  of  many  elements  of  equal- 
ity and  chivalrous  respect  for  her  sex,  as  to  the  choice  of  a 
husband,  and  the  estimate  of  chastity,  in  old  Arabian  life.^ 
Thus  polygamy  was  regulated  and  limited  in  the  Koran, 
though  it  could  not  be  abolished ;  and  slavery  was  fast 
bound  to  every  kindly  instinct  evolved  by  the  patriarchal 
household,  though  it  must  still  stand  in  Islam  and  else- 
where for  a  thousand  years. 

The  darker  features  of  these  ethics,  their  retaliatory  and 
penal  precepts,  w^ere  also  out  of  the  past.  Mahomet  in- 
vented none  of  them.  They  were  the  necessities  of  obe- 
dience to  a  supreme  personal  Will  in  the  theological  ideal, 
or  of  emergencies  which  made  war  in  its  behalf  a  matter 
not  of  self-defence  only,  but  of  familiar  duty  and  desire. 
His  ethical  sanctions  are  similar  to  those  of  other  Semitic 
teachers,  —  appealing,  though  not  exclusively,  to  the  fear 
of  direct  judgment  by  Almighty  Will,  or  to  the  hope  of 
definite  rewards ;  and  to  the  imagination  plunged,  as  with 

*  Hellwald:  Culturgesch.  pp.  471,  472. 


MAHOMET.  -         551 

the  Hebrew,  in  a  sea  of  physical  symbolism,  where  every 
actual  and  familiar  fact  finds  an  ideal  significance,  but 
directed  mainly  to  that  invisible  future  existence  for  which 
the  Hebrew  had  little  sense.  This  imagery  of  actual  life, 
though  necessarily  sensuous,  is  not  sensual,  but  controlled, 
and  even  transfigured,  by  moral  and  spiritual  purpose. 
It  is  a  gross  error,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  to  charge  Ma- 
homet's success  to  the  use  of  sensual  appeals.  The  ha- 
rems of  Paradise  know  "  no  vain  discourse,  no  charge  of  sin, 
but  only  the  cry,  '  Peace,  Peace ;  '  beauty  that  shrinks  from 
tempting,  and  wine  that  hurts  not  the  sense ;  "  ^  while  the 
poisonous  fruits  and  boiling  drinks  of  hell  are  the  bitterness 
of  remembered  sin.  All  this  ethical  meaning  of  reward 
and  penalty  is  rooted  only  in  sovereign  decrees,  —  "a  grasp 
of  the  Lord's  hand  "  to  guide  or  to  mislead.  The  very 
difference  between  right  and  wrong,  not  less  than  the  con- 
sequences of  conduct,  is  an  immediate  product  of  His  will. 
"  The  blessed  shall  abide  in  heaven  forever,  with  whatever 
imperishable  boon  He  may  please  to  add ;  and  the  wicked 
shall  abide  in  their  place  also  while  heaven  and  earth  last, 
unless  He  shall  otJiei'wise  will;  for  verily  He  doeth  as  He 
doth  choose."  2  So  absolute  is  this  worship  of  the  personal 
Will,  that  in  spite  of  moral  predestination  an  unbeliever  is 
held  as  the  chief  of  sinners, — as  one  who  must  have  vol- 
untarily rejected  the  truth.  It  is  true  that,  like  Dante  and 
Swedenborg,  he  hesitated  at  no  serviceable  outward  image 
of  invisible  realities,  and  relentlessly  piled  their  terrors 
upon  h's  foes.  His  argument  for  immortality  rests  on  the 
same  Semitic  premise,  —  because  God  wills  it.  He  can 
raise  man  to  a  "  new  creation "  after  death,  —  the  old 
a  fortiori  proof  of  Paul  and  early  Christianity.  "  Cannot 
He  who  first  created  you  restore  you  even  from  bones 
and  rubbish?"     Of  whatever   importance  it  might  be  to 

^  Sura  Ivi.  19,  24,  25. 

'  Sura  Ixix.  26-34  ;  Ivi.  40-50;  xxxvi.  65  ;  vi.  130  ;  xi.  log,  no. 


552  ISLAM. 

prove  a  future  life  in  order  to  enforce  the  incessant  prom- 
ises and  warnings  of  his  message,  no  evidence  seems  to 
have  been  thought  necessary  beyond  such  appeals  to  an 
arbitrary  Omnipotence,  and  here  and  there  an  image  from 
natural  analogy,  —  the  spring,  the  reviving  desert,  the 
morning  after  the  night.  There  is  no  resort  to  the  intui- 
tions and  yearnings  of  the  soul,  to  its  sense  of  unfinished 
work  and  unused  powers.  The  sum  of  all  is,  that  God's 
power  to  do  what  He  wills  involves  His  doing  what  we 
desire  and  threatening  what  we  fear.  And  the  same  pre- 
mise has  had  the  same  effect  in  closing  up  the  argument 
for  immortality  wherever  it  has  formed  the  basis  of  reli- 
gious belief  There  was  no  need  for  Mahomet  to  present 
any  other;  it  was  not  in  his  Semitic  nature, nor  in  his  Arab 
environment,  that  any  other  should  even  be  suggested. 
Yet  the  preference  of  the  eternal  to  the  transient  is,  after 
all,  here,  as  in  all  ethics  and  religion,  the  primal  motive 
to  which  the  preacher  appeals  with  power ;  and  the  expe- 
riences of  the  desert  needed  no  argument  to  justify  that 
appeal. 

Most  significant  in  these  ethical  relations  of  Mahomet 
to  his  times  and  their  demands  is  the  democratic  tone  of 
his  message.  Could  the  voice  of  the  religious  idea  in 
its  most  awful  simplicity,  concentrating  the  confused  frag- 
ments of  personal  worship,  the  broken  lights  of  mono- 
theistic tendency  in  that  world  of  wrangling  creeds  and 
oppressive  institutions,  into  the  commanding  exclusive- 
ness,  the  supreme  self-assertion,  of  Semitic  deity,  lord  of 
life  and  death,  sword  at  once  of  spirit  and  of  flesh,  do 
less  than  bring  all  heads  to  a  level,  all  privilege  to  the 
dust?  "  No  religion,"  it  has  been  well  said,  "  is  so  com- 
pletely the  vox  popidi  as  Islam."  ^  Away  with  every 
priest  or  sovereign  who  shall  dare  to  make  an  idolater  of 
the  simplest  soul,  or  stand  between  him  and  that  jealous 

1  Sprenger,  iii.  177. 


MAHOMET.  553 

Will  which  could  suffer  no  rival,  and  knew  no  distinction 
in  its  dealings  with  men.  Khosru  Parviz,  the  Sassanian 
monarch,  had  tried  in  vain  to  put  down  his  nobles  by  hft- 
ing  up  the  poor.  But  here  was  One  before  whom  king 
and  noble  alike  were  vanity,  throned  in  the  conscience  of 
the  least  of  their  subjects,  and  taking  up  with  unheard-of 
inquisition  the  cause  of  the  helpless  and  oppressed.  It 
seemed  that  in  the  tongue  and  sword  of  this  Prophet 

"God  said,  I  am  tired  of  kings, 
I  suffer  them  no  more  ; 
Up  to  my  ear  the  morning  brings 
The  outrage  of  the  poor." 

It  abolished  privilege  of  sex  in  matters  of  religious  func- 
tion. It  set  aside  primogeniture.  It  denounced  usury, 
and  promised  double  return  to  the  giver  to  the  poor  and 
the  wayfarer,  in  the  love  of  God.^  It  forbade  claims  to 
absolute  ownership  of  man.  It  levelled  the  warring  creeds 
and  systems  of  Biblical  authority  in  the  name  of  One  who 
had  taught  mankind  the  use  of  the  pen  itself,  —  the  pen, 
greatest  of  levellers,  giver  of  Bibles  to  men.  By  the  pen 
Mahomet  swears ;  by  the  pen  records  every  man's  doings ; 
by  the  pen  reveals  their  destiny  at  the  last  day.  This  dem- 
ocratic thunder  could  not  have  rolled  from  east  to  west 
and  west  to  east  over  the  world,  as  it  did  for  a  hundred 
years,  had  not  the  atmosphere  been  charged,  and  waiting, 
in  all  the  nations.  We  have  seen  how  it  had  been  developed 
in  reactions  from  Sassanian  disintegration,  in  the  Manichaean 
heresy,  in  Christian  antipathies,  and  under  the  pressure  of 
Roman  tyranny  and  Byzantine  corruption ;  while  words 
which  had  long  been  sacred  were  shorn  of  their  traditional 
authority  and  meaning.  In  Arabia  we  shall  see  the  same 
impulse  in  a  more  directly  productive  form. 

Most  decisive   in  the  point  of  view  before  us  was  the 
relation  of  Islam  to  the  anthropomorphic   conception  of 

1  Sura  XXX.  37,  38. 


554  ISLAM. 

deity  then  in  possession  of  the  world.  In  Christianity, 
its  logic  had  worked  steadily  downward ;  adding  in  the 
Trinity  many  new  human  relations,  —  personal,  numerical, 
relative,  —  and  tending  to  the  dissolution  of  Divine  Abso- 
luteness in  a  humanly  organized  ecclesiastical  institution. 
In  Islam,  anthropomorphic  logic  rose  to  its  supreme  ideal 
truth  in  the  total  self-adequacy  of  personal  Will,  firmly 
fixed  as  pure  individuality,  not  to  be  violated  by  finite  divi- 
sion or  human  representation.  No  person  or  church  could 
possibly  be  in  His  express  image;  and  even  the  prophet 
who  bore  His  message  could  never  be  other  than  a  mere 
man.  Mahomet  made  no  pretence  of  representing  any 
but  simple  human  nature.^  It  is  evident  that  anthropo- 
morphism, pushed  to  this  conception  of  a  pure  self- 
identity  of  the  will,  has  reached  its  extreme  limit,  and 
involves  by  way  of  compensation  and  reaction  its  corre- 
lated idea  and  its  opposite  pole,  —  the  pure  dependence 
of  man  on  his  own  natural  faculties  for  the  pursuit  and 
reception  of  truth.  What  did  the  withdrawal  of  the  super- 
human into  roiiotcst  individuality  have  for  the  human  but 
a  like  self-sufficiency  in  its  own  impassable  limits?  Some 
reliance  there  must  be  ;  if  not  on  God,  —  an  arbitrary,  inac- 
cessible Will,  —  then  on  what  else  but  the  keener  effort  of  the 
human  faculties  to  reach  certainty  of  themselves?  In  this 
way  I  should  explain  at  once  the  rapid  tendency  to  specu- 
lation and  scepticism  in  Mahometan  history,  and,  in  spite 
of  the  fatalism  which  attended  this  religion,  the  energy  of 
its  hold  on  the  democratic  tendencies  of  the  age.  For  this 
appeal  to  universal  humanity  excluded  all  special  rela- 
tions with  deity  beyond  a  transient  inspiration  akin  to 
genius.  All  semi-deities  in  human  shape,  for  centuries 
multiplying  their  names  and  claims ;  all  double  or  triple 
manifestations  of  godhead  ;  all  organically  inspired  classes, 
—  were  but  delusions  of  idolatry,  without  a  shadow  of  right 

1  Sura  xviii.  no. 


MAHOMET.  555 

to  hoard  or  to  distribute  the  truth  of  God.  He,  and  He 
only,  speaks  to  all,  to  prophet  and  slave  alike ;  nor  is  one, 
more  than  another,  lifted  above  his  human  defects  and 
needs  by  any  divine  message  he  is  chosen  to  convey. 
This  at  least  was  the  theory  of  Islam  in  its  beginning;  and 
the  age  so  understood  it,  and  hailed  the  new  call  to  free- 
dom. To  the  Jew,  Mahomet  allowed  his  theocratic  idea, 
but  purged  away  its  nationalism,  its  priestly  traditions  and 
perversions.  He  left  the  Christian  his  God  and  Christ, 
but  smote  off  the  three  heads  of  his  Trinity,  and  reduced 
the  Only  Begotten  to  a  member  of  the  line  of  prophets. 

"  Verily  Jesus  is  as  Adam  in  the  sight  of  God.  He  created  him 
of  the  dust,  and  said  '  Be,'  and  he  was."  "  Forbear  to  say  Three; 
it  will  be  better  for  you.  Believe  in  God  and  His  apostles."  "  He  is 
all  in  heaven  and  earth,  and  He  is  a  sufficient  helper."  "  He  doth 
not  command  you  to  take  the  angels  or  the  prophets  as  your  masters. 
It  beseemeth  not  a  man  and  a  prophet  that  he  should  say  to  his  fol- 
lowers, '  Be  ye  worshippers  of  me.'  "  "  God  will  not  forgive  the  join- 
ing of  other  gods  to  Him.  Yet  they  call  upon  goddesses,  they  invoke 
a  rebel  Satan."  i 

The  democratic  motive  thus  spontaneously  emerging 
from  the  completest  form  of  religious  monarchism  reveals 
the  irony  of  self-destruction  that  awaits  such  belief;  but 
the  vast  gulf  which  monarchism,  and  especially  that  of 
Islam,  opened  between  man  and  his  ideal,  cheated  the 
promised  liberty  of  the  human  faculties  at  once  of  its  re- 
sources and  its  fulfilment.  These  were  to  come,  not  in  the 
worship  of  an  absolutely  separate  Will,  but  in  the  cosmic 
science  which  should  bring  man  and  the  universe  into  an 
inseparable  whole. 

Nevertheless,  the  emancipating  force  of  Moslem  reli- 
gious ethics  was  mighty  in  its  day,  and  it  will  be  seen,  in 
our  study  of  the  succeeding  centuries,  to  have  wrought 
momentous  results.     Its  relations  to  monarchical  theology 

*  Sura  iii,  53  ;  iv.  169 ;  v.  76 ;  ix.  31  ;  iii.  73,  74 ;  iv.  116,  117. 


5S6  ISLAM. 

are  noted  here  to  show  how  deeply  Mahomet's  teaching 
was  rooted  in  traditional  beliefs. 

But  this  indebtedness  to  the  past  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  the  current  charge  of  borrowing  largely  from 
the  faiths  he  spurned.  With  the  exception  of  two  or  three 
Biblical  expressions  and  parables  which  seem  to  be  as 
natural  to  the  Semitic  Arab  as  to  the  Semitic  Hebrew, 
hardly  a  trace  of  Christian  phraseology  is  to  be  found  in 
the  Koran ;  ^  even  the  battle  of  the  sects,  raging  in  Arabia 
as  well  as  elsewhere,  contributes  nothing  to  Mahomet's  vo- 
cabulary. The  bulk  of  his  ideas,  as  we  have  seen,  were 
inherited  from  many  preceding  faiths  which  had  mingled 
in  Arabian  civilization ;  but  they  were  not  consciously 
borrowed,  nor  constructed  into  a  second-hand  system. 
Jew  and  Christian  were  to  his  sight  perverters  of  a  revela- 
tion older  than  that  of  either  Testament,  which  had  come 
in  its  perfection  only  to  himself;  and  though  he  freely 
quotes  both  Moses  and  Jesus,  it  is  never  from  their  words 
as  the  sources  of  his  own  inspiration.^  Of  specific  Chris- 
tian doctrines,  —  depravity,  atonement,  and  redemption, — 
or  the  great  miracles  of  Christ,  there  is  no  recognition  in 
the  Koran.  Even  its  predestination,  scarcely  differing  from 
the  Christian,  is  equally  near  to  the  Hebrew,  and  follows 
inevitably  from  his  own  religious  conception  of  absolute 
Will.     That  bare  unmodified  reality  was  no  basis  for  syste- 

'  Sura  ii   266-268  ;    xciii.  6-g. 

2  Thus  like  Jesus  he  divides  men  at  the  last  judgment  to  right  and  left,  and  ascribes  to 
God  alone  the  knowledge  when  that  day  shall  come,  and  mourns  over  the  many  cities  God 
has  borne  with  and  cliastised  (Sura  Ivi.  8,  9 ;  xli.  47 ;  xxii.  46).  In  the  early  part  of  his 
preaching  only  he  uses  the  t\\]e,  Ar  Ra/i»ian,  —  the  Merciful,  — in  speaking  of  God  (Sura 
XXV.  60-64),  Sprenger  strangely  conjectures  that  he  must  have  derived  it  from  Christianity, 
and  even  that  it  means  the  Holy  Spirit  (ii.  igS,  234).  But  it  is  used  by  him  in  the  same 
breath  with  the  rejection  of  Christian  dogmas,  and  has  commonly  the  force  only  of  an  adjective. 
It  is  possible  that  he  dropped  it  in  the  fear  that  it  might  be  taken  as  the  name  of  another  god 
than  Allah  ;  but  that  he  should  have  meant  it  for  the  "  Holy  Spirit,"  the  third  person  of  the 
hated  Trinity,  is  inconceivable.  Sprenger,  who  is  extremely  inclined  to  trace  his  ideas  of 
Islam  to  Christianity,  has  conceived  a  heretical  Christian  sect  called  Rahmmiists,  who  taught 
Mahomet  his  early  ascetic  habits  (ii.  202,  210).  The  term  "  Holy  Spirit  "  is  commonly  used 
by  the  Koran  to  designate  Gabriel,  as  the  messenger  of  God  to  his  prophet.  Sura  xvi.  104  ; 
iL  81,  254  ;  xvii.  87. 


MAHOMET.  557 

matic  doctrine;  all-sufficient  is  its  instant  inspiration,  wiping 
out  all  schemes  and  plans  wrought  by  the  reasoning  of 
those  whose  right  was  only  to  obey,  —  a  reaction  from  ages 
of  creed-making  and  of  fighting  for  the  authority  of  terms, 
to  pure  feeling,  to  self-surrender,  to  the  instincts  of  love 
and  fear,  —  the  passion  of  resistless  purpose  and  faith. 

Let  us,  in  fine,  concentrate  into  a  few  of  the  Koranic 
sentences  this  grand  central  idea  of  Islam,  the  final  result 
of  a  long  evolution  of  the  worship  of  personal  Will  through 
Assyrian,  Median,  Persian,  Hebrew,  and  Christian  forms, 
till  it  reached  its  culmination,  to  burst  like  a  century-plant 
into  flower,  as  if  in  a  night,  upon  the  world :  — 

"God!  there  is  no  God  but  He!  The  Living,  the  Eternal.  No 
slumber  seizeth  Him.  Whatsoever  is  in  heaven  or  in  earth  is  His. 
Who  can  intercede  with  Him  but  by  His  own  permission  ?  He  knows 
what  has  been  before,  and  what  shall  be  after  them  ;  yet  nought  of  His 
knowledge  shall  they  grasp,  but  what  He  willeth.  His  throne  reach- 
eth  over  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the  upholding  of  them  both 
burdeneth  Him  not."  ''  He  throweth  the  veil  of  night  over  the  day, 
pursuing  it  quickly.  He  created  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  subjected 
to  laws  by  His  behest.  Is  not  all  creation  and  all  empire  His  ? 
Blessed  be  the  Lord  of  the  worlds  !  "  "  Say,  He  alone  is  God  :  God, 
the  Eternal.  He  begetteth  not,  and  He  is  not  begotten;  there  is  none 
like  unto  Him."  ^  "  Praise  to  Him,  the  compassionate,  the  merciful, 
king  on  the  day  of  reckoning.  Thee  only  do  we  worship,  and  to  Thee 
do  we  cry  for  help.  Guide  us  on  the  straight  path,  —  the  path  of  those 
to  whom  Thou  art  gracious,  with  whom  Thou  art  not  angry ;  such 
as  go  not  astray."  ^  "  He  is  the  indulgent,  the  loving."  "  Against 
the  evil  in  His  creation  I  betake  me  to  the  Lord  of  the  daybreak." 
"  Thou  needest  not  raise  thy  voice  ;  for  He  knoweth  the  secret  whis- 
per, and  what  is  yet  more  hidden."  ^  "  No  leaf  falleth  but  He  knoweth 
it;  nor  is  there  a  grain  in  the  darkness  under  the  earth,  nor  a  thing 
green  or  sere,  but  it  is  recorded  by  itself.  He  taketh  your  souls  in  the 
night,  and  knoweth  what  the  work  of  your  day  deserveth ;  then  He 
awaketh  you,  that  the  set  life-term  maybe  fulfilled;  then  unto  Him 

*  Siira  ii.  256;  vii.  52;  cxii. 

2  Sura  i.  i-ii.  This  Sura  is  called  the  "Mother  of  the  Book,"  the  "All-sufficing."  — 
Rodwell's  Translation,  note. 

^  Sura,  Ixxxv.  14;  cxiii.  i ;  xx.  7. 


558  ISLAM. 

shall  ye  return,  and  then  shall  He  declare  unto  you  what  you  have 
wrought."  "  What  He  wills.  He  doeth."  "  Whom  He  will  He  mis- 
leadeth,  and  whom  He  will  He  guideth.  Spend  not  thy  soul  in  sighs 
for  the  evil-minded  [unbelievers]  ;  God  knoweth  their  doings."  "  Every 
man's  fate  have  we  hung  about  his  neck,  and  on  the  last  day  shall  be 
laid  before  him  a  wide-opened  book."  "By  a  soul,  and  Him  who 
balanced  it,  breathing  into  each  its  own  piety  and  its  own  sin,  blessed 
now  is  he  who  hath  kept  it  pure,  and  undone  is  he  who  hath  corrupted 
it."  1  "  There  is  no  defect  in  His  creation  ;  repeat  thy  gaze,  canst  thou 
detect  a  flaw?"  "  There  is  no  change  in  His  dealing  from  of  old." 
"  Praise  Him  at  evening  and  in  the  morning,  at  twilight  and  when  ye 
rest  at  noon."  "  He  quickeneth  the  earth  when  it  is  dead ;  so  too 
shall  you  be  brought  to  life."  "  As  the  heavens  and  the  earth  stand 
firm  at  His  bidding  ;  so  hereafter,  when  at  once  He  shall  summon  you 
from  the  earth,  forth  shall  ye  come."  "  Set  then  thy  face,  a  true  con- 
vert to  the  Faith  which  God  hath  made,  and  for  which  He  hath  made 
man."  '^ 

"  When  the  sun  shall  be  folded  up,  and  the  stars  shall  fall,  and 
when  the  mountains  shall  be  moved ;  when  the  she  camels  shall  be 
left,  and  the  wild  beasts  shall  be  gathered  together;  when  the  seas 
shall  boil  and  souls  be  paired  with  their  bodies  ;  when  the  female 
child  that  was  buried  alive  shall  be  asked  for  what  crime  she  was  put 
to  death  ;  when  the  leaves  of  the  Book  shall  be  unrolled,  and  the 
heavens  be  stripped  away,  and  the  fire  of  hell  blaze  forth,  and  Para- 
dise draw  nigh,  —  then  shall  every  soul  know  what  it  liath  done." 
"  Who  shall  teach  thee  what  the  day  of  decision  is  ? "  "  What  knowl- 
edge hast  thou  [Mahomet]  of  the  hour  .''  Only  God  knoweth  its  period. 
It  is  for  thee  only  to  warn  those  who  fear  it."  "  What  shall  teach 
thee  the  inevitable  ?  Thamiid  and  Ad  treated  the  day  of  terrors  as  a 
lie.     They  were  destroyed  with  thunderbolts  and  roaring  blasts."  ^ 

Yet  in  this  terrible  Will  there  is  the  same  tender  care 
and  pity  that  go  with  it  in  the  Hebrew  and  Christian 
God.  It  says  to  Mahomet,  who  for  forty  years  had  fol- 
lowed the  faith  of  his  fathers,  and  in  his  youth  had  been 
left  alone :  — 

'•  By  the  noonday  brightness,  and  by  the  night  when  it  darkeneth, 
the  Lord  hath  not  forsaken  thee,  nor  hath  He  been  displeased.     Surely 

1  Sura  vi.  59,  60  ;  xlii.  48  ;  xxxv.  9  ;  xvii.  14;  xci.  7-10. 

2  Sura  Ixvii.  4;  xlviii.  23;   xxx.  16,  17,  24,  29. 

3  Sura  Ixxxi.  1-15 ;  Ixxvii.  14 ;  Ixxix.  44,  45  ;  Ixix.  1-6. 


MAHOMET.  559 

the  future  shall  be  better  for  thee  than  the  past ;  and  in  the  end  He 
shall  be  bounteous  to  tliee,  and  thou  shalt  be  satisfied.  Did  He  not 
find  thee  an  orplian  and  give  thee  a  home  ;  erring,  and  guided  thee  ; 
needy,  and  enriched  thee  ?  As  to  the  orphan,  then,  wrong  him  not ; 
and  chide  not  away  him  that  asketh  of  thee,  and  tell  abroad  the  favors 
of  thy  God."  "Did  ye  think  we  had  made  you  for  sport,  and  that 
ye  should  not  be  brought  back  again  to  us  ?  "  "  O  our  God,  punish 
us  not,  if  we  forget  and  fall  into  sin  ;  blot  out  our  sins  and  forgive 
us."  "Have  mercy,  for  of  the  merciful  Thou  art  the  best."  "The 
heavy  laden  shall  not  bear  another's  load.  We  never  punished  till  we 
had  sent  an  apostle."  "  This  clear  Book,  behold  on  a  blessed  night 
have  we  sent  it  down  for  warning  to  mankind."  "  Not  to  sadden 
thee  have  we  sent  it  to  thee."  ^ 

The  most  striking  fact  concerning  this  climax  of  re- 
ligious monarchism  is  the  pure  absence  of  all  scientific 
evidence,  all  rational  appeal,  which  it  necessitated  in  its 
Prophet.  The  organ  of  an  autocratic  Will,  which  set  aside 
all  human  conditions  and  interpretations  by  its  very  sim- 
plicity and  finality,  he  could  but  assume  its  own  bound- 
less self-assurance,  and  allow  the  hearer  no  suspense  of 
judgment,  no  choice  of  belief.  Or,  rather,  he  supposes 
that  in  every  sane  and  honest  mind  all  hesitation  as  to  its 
primary  right  to  instant  obedience,  and  all  doubt  of  the 
ethical  laws  to  which  it  recalls  mankind,  have  already  set- 
tled into  a  frame  of  simple  expectation,  a  waiting  for  the 
revelation  it  is  about  to  repeat.  The  hearer  knows  that 
he  ought  to  accept  it,  since  it  contains  nothing  new  in 
principle,  and  that  he  deserves  eternal  punishment  if  he 
dares  to  reject  it.  The  Christian  had  the  same  opinion  of 
such  as  "  blasphemed  against  the  Holy  Spirit."  The  fact 
of  the  Divine  origin  of  the  revelation  is  assumed  as  indu- 
bitable, and  so  the  denial  of  its  truth  could  only  mean  the 
rejection  of  God's  will  as  such,  for  which  Christianity  knew 
no  forgiveness ;  and  Islam  invented  the  taunts  of  hell  out 
of  a  consciousness  of  having  doubted  God.^     Such  is  the 

1  Suraxciii.  i-ii;  xxiii.  iig;  xl!v.  i  ;  xx.  i. 

*  Sura,  lii.  14,  15  ;  Iv.  40-44.     Matthew,  xii.  31,  32. 


56o  ISLAM. 

logical  issue  of  the  worship  of  pure  Will,  I  admit  that 
Mahomet  often  refers  to  the  character  of  his  book  in  evi- 
dence that  it  could  have  only  God  for  its  author,  —  a  point 
open,  we  might  have  supposed,  to  discussion.  But  this 
naive  admiration  of  the  evidential  force  of  his  own  pro- 
duction was  itself  an  appeal  to  the  previous  moral  experi- 
ence of  his  hearers.  It  was,  no  doubt,  well  founded  in  the 
best  ideal  thought  and  faith  of  his  day.  So  sure  was  he 
of  the  force  of  mere  statement,  that  he  believed  it  justified 
his  refusal  to  appeal  to  miracles,  necessary  as  these  had 
been  in  previous  apostles  to  enforce  the  belief  of  untutored 
mcn.i  His  Allah  was  too  well  known  to  his  Arabs, —  even 
to  that  fine  literary  instinct  which  he  knew  to  have  a  de- 
cisive voice  in  all  their  judgments,  —  to  require  arguments 
of  so  little  comparative  worth  that  they  had  even  failed  to 
convince  the  ignorance  of  past  generations.  It  is,  after  all, 
to  be  considered  that  the  substance  of  his  message,  an- 
nounced on  the  ultimate  authority  of  God's  will,  was  really 
ultimate  in  human  experience  itself,  —  the  inevitable  law 
of  retribution;  the  claim  of  justice,  of  right,  of  humanity; 
the  unity  and  integrity  of  the  moral  universe ;  and  these 
remain  endowed  with  the  same  positive  authority  in  ages 
that  are  learning  to  recognize  their  independence  of  a  pre- 
determining Will.  It  is  the  true  mark  of  the  prophet,  that 
Mahomet  not  only  insists  unswervingly  on  these  as  the 
essence  of  his  message,  but  perpetually  prefers  to  recog- 
nize the  familiar  phenomena  of  Nature  and  the  duties  of 
life  as  signs  of  the  Divine  presence,  rather  than  resort  to 
the  miraculous  for  that  purpose.^ 

The  natural  relations  of  Mahomet's  vast  conception  of 
the  personality  of  God  with  the  atmosphere  of  his  age  is 
the  only  explanation  of  that  amazing  soberness  and  self- 
command    with   which   he   entertained    his    all-absorbing 

1  Sura  xxvi.  Ixi.  6  ;  v.  no. 

*  Pee  especially  the  chapter  on  Divine  Signs,  entitled  "  The  Greeks."     Sura  xxx. 


MAHOMET.  561 

visions.  However  terrible  the  shock  to  his  reason  at  the 
first,  tlie  very  utterance  of  his  message,  and  the  social 
effects  produced  by  it,  seem  to  have  soon  made  the  Suras 
easy  of  reception  by  his  human  weakness,  ready  to  be 
patiently  interwoven  with  the  suggestions  of  his  own  mind. 
Nothing  can  be  imagined  more  widely  different  from  the 
results  evolved  from  his  ideal  in  later  epochs.  There  is  no 
mysticism  or  speculation  in  him :  a  strange  ancestor  for 
Sufism  and  pantheism  on  the  one  hand,  for  Aristotelian 
science  on  the  other !  No  respect  for  mere  letters  or  fine 
arts :  a  strange  parent  of  Cordova  and  Bagdad,  and  the 
renaissance  of  scholarship  in  the  Middle  Ages  !  No  toler- 
ance of  poetic  culture :  what  a  forerunner  of  more  poetry 
perhaps  than  all  other  races,  besides  the  Semitic,  have 
produced  !  No  appeal  to  the  supernatural  in  himself;  yet 
ere  long  the  centre  for  a  legendary  lore  as  extravagant  as 
that  which  has  invested  the  person  of  Buddha.  But  in 
one  respect  this  vast  unmodified  abstraction,  which  seemed 
to  crush  all  human  energies,  struck  forth  instant  flashes 
worthy  of  all  its  future  powers ;  it  made  its  Prophet  an 
omnipotent  leader  of  men,  and  stirred  his  followers  to 
conquer  the  world.  Such  the  significance  of  ideal  unity 
in  the  days  of  its  monarchic  phase. 

But  the  main  sources  of  Mahomet's  inspiration,  the  most 
direct  and  suggestive,  remain  for  our  study.  So  impor- 
tant a  factor  in  the  origin  of  those  religions  which  have 
dictated  the  faith  of  civilization  for  fifteen  centuries,  de- 
serves attention  in  some  detail.  Whether  Arabia  received 
him  with  understanding,  or  consigned  the  development  of 
his  faith  to  Syria  and  Persia,  is  not  now  the  question.  It 
could  not  have  been  accidental  that  the  one  supreme  force 
of  the  epoch  issued  from  the  solitudes  of  that  vast  penin- 
sula round  which  the  tides  of  empire  rose  and  fell.  Every 
exclusive  prophetic  claim  in  the  name  of  a  sovereign  Will 
has  been  a  cry  from  the  desert.     The  symbolic  meaning 

36 


$62  ISLAM. 

given  to  Arabia  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  Christian  apostle 
to  commune  with  a  Power  above  flesh  and  blood,  in  Ma- 
homet became  more  than  a  symbol.  Arabia  was  itself  the 
man  of  the  hour,  the  Prophet  of  Islam  its  concentrated 
word.  To  the  child  of  her  exalted  traditions,  driven  by 
secret  compulsion  out  into  the  lonely  places  of  the  starry 
night,  his  mouth  in  the  dust,  the  desert  spoke  without 
reserve :  — 

"  O  thou,  wrapped  in  thy  mantle,  arise  and  warn  !  Magnify  thy 
God!  purify  thy  raiment!  flee  the  abominable  thing!  Stand  up  all 
night  in  prayer  ;  repeat  thy  Koran  with  measured  tone;  for  the  words 
we  send  thee  are  weiy;hty  !  "  ^ 

Heeren  defines  the  desert  steppes,  over  which  the  com- 
merce of  early  time  followed  its  perilous  tracks,  as  "  the 
ocean  of  Asia."  But  the  lonely  caravan  had  other  than 
merely  mercantile  associations.  It  was  the  function  of  the 
desert  to  front  the  voyager  with  the  direct  sense  of  sov- 
ereign Will,  as  separate  from  its  works,  yet  instant  to  warn, 
to  command,  to  revive,  and  to  destroy.  It  was  one  of 
Herder's  boldest  generalizations  to  credit  the  old  desert 
life  with  that  keen  scent  for  minute  observation  of  details, 
that  passion  for  remote  ramifications  of  thought,  which 
characterized  the  later  subtlety  of  Arab  philosophy. 
However  this  may  be,  while  certainly  in  a  much  larger 
degree  the  same  conditions  explain  the  raid  and  the  am- 
bush, the  rivalries  and  the  revenges  of  a  too  isolated  tribal 
life,  —  their  profoundest  historic  part  has  been  to  educate 
the  monopolists  of  revelation,  the  egoists  of  spiritual  au- 
thority. The  desert  was  the  mother  of  the  Semitic  temper- 
ament, prompter  of  its  personal  intuitions  and  exaltations, 
nurse  of  its  autocratic  deity  and  its  imperious  creeds. 

"  The  nomad,"  says  Ibn  Khaldun,  "  is  nearer  God  than 
the  settled  man,  because  nearer  Nature,  more  open  and 
sensitive.     Given  to  luxury  and   gain,  the  townsman  de- 

'  Sura  Ixxiii.   1-5  ;  Ixxiv.  1-6. 


MAHOMET.  563 

generates:  the  nomad  desires  only  what  he  needs."  This 
preference  is  not  the  mere  instinctive  hate  of  the  dweller  in 
tents  for  the  tiller  of  the  ground  and  builder  of  States,  —  of 
Shem  for  Tubal-Cain ;  modern  travellers  bear  testimony 
to  the  superior  ijwrale  of  the  Bedouin  tribes,  and  to  the 
degeneracy  of  both  sexes  after  a  short  residence  in  towns. -^ 
They  describe  a  rare  refinement  in  physical  organization, 
a  self-restraint  and  dignity  of  bearing,  a  pride  in  accurate 
speech,  —  even  in  the  absence  of  reading  and  writing,  —  a 
delight  in  generous  feelings  and  noble  actions,  which  can 
be  explained  only  by  the  unchanging  consciousness  of  a 
supreme  ideal  law.  The  desert  spaces  fail  not  of  symbols 
of  that  law:  the  bare  horizon;  the  slow,  sure  movement  of 
sun  and  stars ;  the  sky  stooping  from  its  infinite  remoteness 
close  down  without  intervention  to  the  earthly  traveller; 
the  mystery  of  the  universe,  boundless  and  one,  without 
veil  or  refuge  for  body  or  soul,  —  arc  all  direct  contacts 
with  overmastering  laws,  with  stern  realities  of  life  and 
death.  Temple,  priest,  or  mediator,  reliance  on  the  help 
of  man,  or  an  instituted  Church  and  State,  are  here  imper- 
tinent and  impossible.  Everything  is  immediate  revelation 
of  unseen  Will.  The  oasis  springs  amidst  the  sands,  in- 
stantaneously quickened  by  the  word  of  God ;  its  palms 
are  the  longed-for  men  and  angels  sent  to  cheer  the  lonely 
march.  Night,  with  its  coolness  and  dews,  a  restful  relief 
from  the  vast  monotony  of  level  spaces  and  far  horizons, 
a  sweet  limit  to  weary  eyes  and  reproof  to  eager  hearts,  — 
night,  whose  fountains  of  primeval  light  have  gathered  for 
all  time  around  the  silent  watchers  of  the  mysteries  within 
them  and  without,  is  the  God  of  the  desert  in  his  kindly 
aspect,  as  the  burning  day  is  his  relentless  wrath.  "  The 
very  mirage,"  says  Sprenger,  "  is  a  theophany.  Allah  is 
etymologically  traced  to  it,  as  vision  and  gleam."  ^    Recent 

1  Burckhardt :  Notes  on  ike  Bedouins,  i.  1S7.     Geary,  chap.  xiv. 

*  Allah,  according  to  Sprenger,  is  the  shining  vision,  as  of  the  mirage  (Sprenger,  i.  286). 
Palmer  says  it  only  means  the  God.     Goldziher  :  Mythology  among  the  Hebrews. 


564  ISLAM. 

scholars  find  in  this  difference  of  the  desert  aspects  of  day 
and  night  the  key  to  Semitic  mythology,  whose  friendly 
forms  are  a  reflection  from  the  night-side  of  Nature,  its 
hostile  ones  from  those  forces  of  the  day  on  which  the 
settled  tribes  depend.  Much  of  this  etymological  in- 
duction is  doubtless  fanciful ;  but  that  night  is  the  soul 
of  the  desert  faith  is  indubitably  shown  by  psychological 
necessities  of  a  deeper  kind.  The  nomad's  retreat  into  his 
night-watches  inevitably  leads  him  into  unbroken  reverie, 
slowly  concentrated  and  kindled  into  the  enthusiasm  of 
prophecy.  When  the  distractions  and  illusions  of  the 
march  have  silently  vanished,  and  the  petty  passions  are 
stilled  by  the  slow  approaching  and  enfolding  shadow  of 
a  world-purpose,  the  secret  chamber  of  his  own  soul  be- 
comes the  one  listener  for  whom  the  universe  speaks. 
Social  relations  or  suggestions  are  not  present  to  divide 
the  burden  or  give  it  objective  relief.  In  all  Arabia,  not 
one  river  runs  that  could  draw  off  the  thought  to  earthly 
distances  for  human  strivings  and  divided  desires ;  every 
stream  is  lost  in  the  immeasurable  sand.  The  response  is 
an  inward  exaltation  so  intense  that  the  very  images  that 
have  beset  the  senses  are  absorbed  and  lost  in  its  spiritual 
and  moral  heat.  It  is  observable  that  Semitic  religious 
poetry  has  fewer  images  of  the  desert  in  proportion  to 
the  degree  in  which  the  desert  has  been  the  source  of  its 
inspiration ;  in  the  Koran,  for  instance,  they  are  much  less 
conspicuous  than  in  the  Hebrew  psalms  and  prophecies. 
Here  and  there  Mahomet  is  reminded  of  the  mirage  as  a 
symbol  of  sin,  or  of  the  sudden  burst  of  fertility  out  of 
parched  barrenness  after  a  rain.  But  he  is  too  much  in 
earnest  to  dwell  on  natural  imagery.  "  It  does  not  beseem 
me  to  be  a  poet."  Symbols  have  done  their  work  in  rous- 
ing his  self-consciousness  to  the  intensities  of  duty,  to  hope 
and  fear,  and  awful  command.  They  are  transmuted  into 
personality,  —  hidden  fuel  of  his  absolutism  as  Prophet  of 


MAHOMET.  565 

the  Will  they  have  made  known.     Identity  of  subject  and 
object  is  here   completed  and   instructive.     As  he  stands 
there  on  his  desert  rock,  unmindful  of  physical  surround- 
ings, bent  only  on  his  message  from  One  before  whom  the 
earth  and  the  sky  are  but  a  grain  of  sand,  we  can  hear  the 
desert  voices  behind  every  accent  of  his  warning  and  ap- 
peal.    Between  the  lines  of  the  Koran  we  read  the  inex- 
plicable mystic  lights  and  shadows ;   the  terrible  contrasts 
of  life  and  death  ;  the  shifting  sand-column,  the  unswerving 
simoom,  directed  by  invisible  Will  upon  pure  destruction; 
the  hopeless  wastes,  the  bitter  waters,  the  dry  bones  of  long- 
perished  caravans,  —  all  this  has  made  the  desert  symbolic 
of  absolute  evil,  of  theological  wrath   and   eternal  death. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  life-giving  springs  ;  the  palm 
with  its  feet  in  burning  sands  and  its  head  in  the  light  of 
heaven ;   the  herbs  whose  saltness  is  medicinal ;   the  sweet 
returns  of  men  for  ages  to  the  same  fountains  and  shades; 
the  joyous  rush  of  living  creatures,  when  the  great  river 
bursts  from  its  mountains  and  fills  the  bed  long  dry  with 
rolling,  resistless  waves ;   the  grand  uprise  of  the  king  of 
day  out  of  the  dissolving  gloom,  and  the  cloudless  autoc- 
racy of  his  march,  —  all  this  has  made  the  same  desert  a 
rebuke  to   those  old   dreams  of  absolute  evil  and  Divine 
hate.     In  that  anxious  verge  of  hope  and   fear  on  which 
the  message  runs,  that  sharp  stress  on  the  moment's  call 
and  on  the  fate  that  goes  with  the  instant  moral  act,  we  can 
recognize  what  the  Prophet  has  learned  from  the  deception 
of  the  mirage,  —  the  desert's  penalties  for  delusive  hopes, 
the  hallucinations  of  ear  and  eye  in  pathless  wastes ;   from 
the  mutterings  of  demons  far  off  or  close  by,  their  spectres 
surrounding  the   fever-stricken   pilgrim;    from   the  voices 
of  ruined  cities  of  an  unknown  past,  half-buried  in  sand, 
and  whispering  of  penal  whirlwinds  and  earthquakes  that 
have  swept  them  away  forever;   and  withal,  from  the  con- 
centration of  every  sight  and  sound  on  the  little  caravan  or 


566  ISLAM. 

lonely  rider,  till  the  world  has  become  one  mighty  reflex 
of  a  more  or  less  complete  egoism  of  religious  function 
and  fanatical  faith  in  its  dictates  as  the  voice  of  God. 

In  this  introversion  of  the  symbol  there  is  nothing  of 
contemplative  thought  The  roving  life,  the  undisciplined 
feeling  and  will,  the  physical  susceptibilities,  forbid  it; 
and  these  undoubtedly  help  explain  the  sceptical  charac- 
ter of  the  Arab  mind,  where,  instead  of  rising  into  enthu- 
siasm, it  reacts  from  the  pressure  of  Nature  into  a  realism 
all  the  more  cautious  and  analytic.  But  if  the  Arab  is  not 
contemplative,  he  is  all  the  more  certainly  an  impassioned 
prophet  whenever  the  constant  presence  of  the  Inexplicable, 
the  Inevitable,  the  Overruling,  the  Changeless  among  fleet- 
ing forms,  seizes  his  imagination  and  inspires  his  feelings. 
The  natural  outcome  is  that  absolute  monotheism  in  which 
we  discern  not  only  the  type  and  reflex  of  intense  individu- 
alism in  the  conscious  will,  but  the  ceaseless  suggestion  of 
the  desert  horizon,  of  sky-marches,  and  of  unchangeable 
facts  and  laws. 

The  germ  of  the  Prophet  of  this  monotheism  is  that 
total  self-reliance  and  self-sufiiciency  which  civilization 
destroys.  To  this  very  hour  the  desert  is  its  natural  soil. 
The  Arab  is  and  has  always  been  the  Epictetus  of  Nature ; 
to  him  the  Stoic  creed  is  practicable,  —  that  the  happy 
man  is  he  who  can  dispense  with  every  possession.  His 
dependence  is  reduced  to  the  minimum,  —  to  camel,  water- 
skin,  mat,  tent,  and  sword.  All  beyond  this  is  accidental, 
a  badge  of  servitude  to  things.  "  Riches  confer  no  influ- 
ence here ;  the  sheikh  lives  and  dresses  like  his  meanest 
follower.  Even  the  Emir  dares  not  command  or  scold." 
The  Turcomans  say,  "We  are  all  equal;  every  one  is 
king."  ^  Here  is  the  pride  that  makes  sharp  critics  of 
poetry,  without  schools  or  even  books ;  that  walks  in  the 
open  night  as  master  of  the  heavens,  without  astronomy; 

*  Burckhardt:  Notes  on  ilie  Bedo:ii?ts,  i.  65,  72,  74,  112,  117,374. 


MAHOMET.  567 

that  makes  its  centaur-life  strong  and  beautiful,  without 
mechanic  arts ;  that  girds  even  woman  with  rights  and 
dignities  unknown  to  high  civihzation.^  What  need  of 
weakh  or  rank  to  him  who  owns  the  desert  world  !  What  a 
hut  is  civilization  to  this  mount  of  vision,  camping-ground, 
council-field,  sea  of  adventure,  table  of  hospitality,  tryst- 
ing-place  for  song  and  tale  and  interchange  of  mysterious 
love !  Here  is  manhood  in  full  and  free  accord  with  its 
outward  conditions.  "  Voyaging  is  victory,"  says  the  des- 
ert proverb.  Here  the  bravest  may  not  loiter,  nor  waste 
his  strength,  nor  fall  back  in  ease;  he  must  battle  till  his 
presence,  like  Antar's,  is  a  spell  and  a  host.  The  modern 
traveller  scents  the  whole  Saracenic  history  in  the  desert 
atmosphere.  "  Here,"  exclaims  one,  "  your  morale  im- 
proves ;  you  become  frank  and  cordial.  Your  senses  are 
quickened  by  the  air  and  exercise  alone,  and  spirituous 
liquors  only  disgust.  The  hypocrisy  and  slavery  of  civili- 
zation are  left  behind.  All  hearts  dilate  as  they  look  down 
from  their  dromedaries  on  the  glorious  desert.  What  trav- 
eller did  it  ever  disappoint?" 

Was  Mahomet's  dream  of  world-liberation  strange  ? 
The  recesses  of  the  desert  have  ever  been  the  Rock- 
Rimmons  of  the  oppressed.  In  Africa  and  Arabia  every 
tribe  has  its  proud  traditions  of  liberty.  The  fatalism  of 
such  a  world  does  not  quench  self-assertion  or  suppress 
achievement,  but  is  thrown  with  omnipotent  force  to  their 
side.  Even  Ah's  sentence  finds  its  meaning,  —  "  Despair 
is  a  freeman,  hope  is  a  slave."  Christianity  abjures  fate, 
but  its  disciples  might  profitably  study  this  creed  of  the 
desert  in  its  startling  combination  with  energy  and  faith ; 
for  Christianity  has  not  taught  man  to  escape  the  necessity 
that  rules  his  life  and  death. 

■■  Burckhardt  found  among  the  most  numerous  tribes  only  here  and  there  a  blacksmith  and 
leather-mender.  A  wife  can  be  divorced  at  will,  but  can  flee  to  her  father's  house  from  the 
husband's  tyrannv,  and  be  safe.  The  honor  and  defence  of  woman  is  the  glory  of  Bedouin 
poetry  and  romance.     The  Arabs  were  the  parents  of  chivalry. 


568  ISLAM. 

Whence,  then,  but  from  the  desert  could  come  the  fire 
that  should  burn  up  thrones  and  empires,  and  call  the 
poor  to  the  shelter  of  a  King  of  kings?  What  contempt 
is  bred  here  for  the  decrepitude  of  nations !  Is  not  the 
Arab  of  Islam,  with  his  whelming  tide  of  conquest,  and 
his  swift  ruin  of  the  spoils  of  ages,  and  his  instant  re- 
construction of  the  civilized  world,  explicable  enough? 
Islam  was  the  nomad  claiming  his  original  birthright  in 
the  religion  of  personal  Will.  Its  conquests  were  but  the 
triumph  of  an  all-commanding  instinct  to  master  personal 
barriers,  to  move  with  unlimited  freedom  on  the  willing 
earth. 

Is  the  religious  passion  that  exalted  these  tendencies 
into  conquering  forces  less  natural?  The  desert  is  the 
prophet's  cell  and  throne.  Forth  from  its  wastes  march 
the  self-chosen  preparers  of  highways  for  their  God. 
Moses  brings  its  rocky  sternness,  Zoroaster  its  battle  of 
good  and  evil,  and  John  the  Baptist  its  passionate  thirst 
for  waters ;  Jesus  its  absolutism,  its  self-concentration  and 
self-assertion,  its  intolerance  of  the  practical  conditions 
of  social  work,  its  prophecy  of  their  swift  destruction,  its 
haunting  thought  of  the  Eternal ;  and  finally  Mahomet, 
with  not  a  few  of  these,  its  revelations,  had,  besides,  the 
flash  of  its  sworded  sunbeams,  and  its  compulsion  to 
trust  in  the  all-sufficiency  of  such  means  and  forces  as 
await  the  master's  will.  It  is  not  here  that  idolatry  shall 
sink  the  person  in  the  thing,  the  Maker  in  his  work,  where 
every  symbol  burns  with  concentrated  purpose.  So  long 
as  these  symbols  abide.  Theism  shall  not  fail  of  apostles. 
Of  the  sun  in  the  desert  one  has  said :  "  He  seemed  to 
command  me,  and  to  say,  '  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods 
but  me.'  I  was  all  alone  before  Him."^  Another  has 
called  Jahveh  "  the  genius  of  the  desert,  its  eternal  in- 
habitant." ^     Not  more   so,  we   may  add,   than  Ormuzd, 

1  Kinglake.  ^  Quinet. 


MAHOMET.  569 

than  Allah,  than  the  Creator  and  Father  under  every 
name,  —  than  all  forms  of  suprcm.e  providential  care.  It 
is  a  Hymn  of  the  Ages  that  the  English  traveller  Pringle 
has  sung  in  his  matchless  description  of  a  desert  ride  and 
rest :  — 

"  Afar  in  the  desert  I  love  to  ride, 
With  the  silent  Bush-boy  alone  by  my  side.  .  .  . 
And  here  while  the  night-winds  around  me  sigh, 
And  the  stars  burn  bright  in  the  midnight  sky, 
As  I  sit  apart  by  the  desert  stone, 
Like  Elijah  at  Horeb's  cave  alone, 
'A  still  small  voice'  comes  through  the  wild 
(Like  a  father  consoling  his  fretful  child), 
Which  banishes  bitterness,  wrath,  and  fear, 
Saying,  Man  is  distant,  but  God  is  near." 

Such  were  the  geographical  conditions  which  nurtured 
a  special  form  of  the  religious  ideal,  dominant  thus  far  in 
the  foremost  lines  of  civilized  humanity, — that  of  mono- 
theistic revelation.  The  sublime  unconscious  egoism  oi 
its  masters,  the  fruit  of  solitary  prayers  and  struggles,  is 
essentially  of  the  mountain,  the  waste,  the  cave,  where  the 
inward  message  could  not  be  shared  nor  brought  by  in- 
stitutions or  rival  seers.  When  they  trod  the  crowded 
streets  of  Jerusalem,  of  Memphis,  of  Mecca,  or  Bokhara, 
it  was  not  as  fellow-students  of  laws  which  all  could  see 
for  themselves,  but  as  chosen  teachers  of  what  had  been 
commanded  in  themselves  alone.  Regions  like  Palestine, 
Edom,  Arabia,  —  deserts,  or  tracts  encircled  and  set  with 
desert  spaces,  marked  out  among  the  nations  by  a  pure  tri- 
bal individualism, —  shaped  these  living  types  of  self-asser- 
tion and  revelation.  Their  God  could  not  be  social,  nor 
his  word  a  progressive  reason  in  man.  He  must  be  a 
solitary  indivisible  Force,  an  authority  not  to  be  scruti- 
nized, rivalled,  or  shared.  The  infinite  play  of  harmoni- 
ous laws  in  Nature  and  life,  in  which  the  divine  substance 
of  the  world  is  now  coming  to  be  manifested  to  the  free 


570  ISLAM. 

Student  of  world-uses  and  united  powers,  had  no  place 
there ;  that  nobler  meaning  of  Unity,  for  which  this  mo- 
narchical phase  has  been  the  preparation,  is  yet  to  appear. 
Only  the  absolutely  unmodified  and  final  personal  Will  — 
now  a  tender  parent,  now  a  terrible  judge  —  can  answer  to 
the  highest  forms  of  religious  need,  summed  up  in  an  ulti- 
mate simplicity  which  forbids  science,  forecloses  progress, 
and  suppresses  freedom.  Its  word  is :  "  /  am  hath  sent 
me  unto  you."  "There  is  no  God  but  One,  and  Mahomet 
is  his  prophet."  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."  The 
judgment  day  shall  reveal  it.  On  a  lower  plane,  but  with 
no  greater  finality,  a  Genghis  announces,  "  One  God,  one 
Khan."  ^ 

Such  influences  account  in  no  slight  measure  for  Maho- 
met, because  they  shaped  the  race  of  which  he  was  born. 
The  genius  of  a  race  or  of  a  civilization  always  determines 
that  of  its  highest  mind ;  and  no  examples  of  this  law  are 
more  decisive  than  those  which  are  supposed  to  be  due 
to  an  inspiration  superior  to  human  conditions.  In  the 
thought  and  method  of  the  highest  masters  there  is  a 
nafve  element,  an  unconscious  temperament,  which  pene- 
trates all  that  is  conditional  and  all  that  is  universal.  And 
for  that  wonderful  force  of  natural  selection  which  made 
Arabia  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  through  its 
typical  man,  the  autocrat  of  the  faith  and  life  of  nations, 
we  must  find  the  momentum  in  its  population  of  free 
tribes,  swayed  by  the  impulse  of  individualism,  inured 
to  physical  endeavors,  exalted  by  an  imaginative  self- 
conscious  temperament  and  an  intense  force  of  personal 
concentration.  That  Arab  ideal  of  personal  dignity  and 
self-respect  which  formed  the  warrior  and  the  God  of 
Islam  is  conspicuous  in   the  passion  of  these  tribes  for 


*  The  reference  here  is  not,  of  course,  to  the  special  legislation  of  these  masters  of  revealed 
religion,  which,  as  we  have  seen  in  Mahomet,  has  often  established  freer  institutions  than 
it  found,  but  to  the  idea  of  God  as  unchangeable  and  past  question  or  judgment  of  men. 


MAHOMET.  571 

biography  and  genealogy.  The  whole  poetic  literature  of 
pre-Islamic  Arabia  for  half  a  century  before  Mahomet  is 
of  the  lyrical,  or  distinctively  individual,  kind.  Even  its 
narrative,  legendary,  and  didactic  portions  are  inspired 
by  the  same  qualities  of  direct  intuition  and  free  emotion. 
The  prolific  energy  of  this  national  poetry  cannot  be  con- 
ceived without  study  of  the  immense  labors  of  Hammer- 
Purgstall  in  collecting,  classifying,  and  translating  its  pro- 
ducts ;  and  the  strongest  impression  made  by  this  survey 
is  of  the  multitudinous  variations  that  may  be  played  on 
a  few  personal  instincts  and  relations.  The  Hamasa  of 
Abu  Temmam  contains  nearly  a  thousand  poems,  which 
pour  out,  with  startling  spontaneity  and  frankness,  the 
jealousies,  rivalries,  hospitalities,  ambitions,  the  loves  and 
hates,  the  magnanimities  and  revenges,  the  hopeless  griefs 
of  bereavement,  the  stoical  pride  in  endurance,  and  the 
passionate  yearnings  for  the  lost,  whereof  the  old  Bedouin 
life  was  made  up.^  Their  changes  are  rung  on  themes  of 
war  and  rapine,  of  tribal  and  ancestral  pride,  of  haughty 
self-assertion  and  self-praise,  on  tender  tributes  to  worth,  on 
extremes  of  personal  eulogy  and  satire,  on  the  immortality 
of  heroic  deeds,  on  the  deep  sense  of  the  irremediable,  on 
the  necessity  of  trust  in  life  and  death,  or  the  pessimism 
of  brooding  grief.  More  touching  loyalty  to  natural  affec- 
tion and  domestic  ties,  more  freedom  from  all  pretence  to 
solve  their  insoluble  problems,  more  frank  acceptance  of 
the  realities  of  destiny,  can  nowhere  be  found.  An  in- 
tensely sensuous  susceptibility,  a  keen  instinct  for  actuality, 


1  Immense  labor  has  been  expended  by  the  Mahometans  in  collecting  and  criticising 
these  poems  of  the  "Age  of  Ignorance."  The  first  studies  were  immediately  after  Mahomet, 
and  were  purely  philological ;  but  in  less  than  a  century  poetic  merit  was  the  object  of  re- 
search ;  the  traditions  of  the  tribes,  the  memories  of  bards  and  reciters,  were  explored  in 
every  quarter.  (Muir:  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  xx.  pt.  i,  4472-449).  Forgeries  and  corrupt 
readings  are  of  course  frequent  in  the  innumerable  verses  that  have  thus  accumulated.  The 
lowest  calculation  of  these  pre-Islamic  poets  puts  their  number  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  ;  but 
there  is  no  historical  ground  for  these  inquiries  beyond  the  century  before  Mahomet.  Wiittke 
{Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhcli.,  ix.  144,  157).     Hammer,!   3S4. 


572  ISLAM. 

easily  runs  into  scepticism  about  a  future  life ;  and  old  age 
is,  next  to  death,  the  saddest  of  prospects,  —  "  the  dregs  of 
life's  full  goblet."  ^  No  formula  of  immortality  checks  the 
full  flow  of  the  bereaved  sympathies.  "Very  near  are  the 
dead  to  the  living,  yet  how  remote  and  dubious  their  com- 
panionship !  "^  Koss  lingers  by  the  graves  of  his  brothers, 
and  will  not  leave  them  by  day  or  night.  "  How  long, 
dear  ones,  have  you  slept?  Know  you  not  I  am  alone 
here,  with  no  friends  but  you.  Death  watches  you  so 
closely ;  it  draws  my  body  to  you  in  the  grave.  If  a  man 
could  offer  his  life  for  another's,  how  gladly  would  I  be 
your  ransom !  Lo,  I  have  seen  the  entrance  to  death,  but 
not  its  exit."  ^ 

In  the  midst  of  strife,  blessed  are  the  peace-makers  even 
here ;  the  noble  men  who  broke  up  a  tribe-feud  of  forty 
years  receive  all  the  honor  a  Christian  poet  could  accord 
for  their  self-sacrifice  and  courage ;  and  their  reward  is 
contrasted  with  the  sure  ignominy  and  misery  of  the  self- 
convicted  foe  of  God  and  man.^  The  old  Arab  ideal  re- 
quired every  man  to  be  "brave,  generous,  and  a  poet;  " 
a  self-dependent,  self-asserting  personality  is  the  soul  oi 
this  prolific  muse,  even  of  her  didactic  proverbs.^ 

"  'Tis  for  thee,  what  thou  dost  honor  within  thyself  to  find." 
"  Life's  goods  are  but  a  loan  ;  fools  only  fancy  them  their  own." 
"  The  past  is  fled,  and  what  we  strive  for  gone ;  only  the  moment 's 
ours."  ^ 
"One  man  is  better  than  a  thousand  oft."     "And  he  whose  worth 
is  known  goes  not  to  ground."     "  Delay  and  weakness  are  destruc- 
tion."    "  He  who  can  make  the  most  of  a  part,  is  sure  of  success." 
"Strife  is  the  mother  of  despair."     "  Honor  thy  horse,  and  overload 
not  thy  camel."     "Fear  God,  and  love  thy  kin."     "  He  is  generous 
who  succors  them  that  need."     "  Of  such  as  awaken  neither  fear  nor 

1  Haraasa  of  Abu  Temmam,  447a  (49). 

-  Hatnasa,  2Sg.     See  also  Kremer  :  Gesck.  d.  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islains,  pp.  i66-i63. 

*  Sprenger,  i.  104. 

*  SoJieir  Ben  Ebi  SoltncCs  M(f  allakat. 

^  Mohl :  Vingt-sept  ans  des  Etudes  Orient.,  ii.  54.  ^  Hamasa,  447a  (13). 


MAHOMET.  573 

hope,  make  not  your  friends."  "  Be  brief,  for  many  words  are  wont 
to  be  folly."  "  Let  not  a  stranger  be  misused  ;  for  many  a  man  is  worth 
a  thousand  other  men."     "The  misfortune  in  plans  is  desire."  ^ 

Here  is  none  of  the  paraphrase  and  far-sought  metaphor 
that  bedeck  the  artificial  emotion  of  Persian  poetry.  What 
this  spontaneous  singer  utters  is  his  bold  confession,  his 
fiery  impulse,  his  faith  or  his  despair.  The  ethics  of  the 
desert  rest  on  solemn  resistless  laws.  The  sentences  of 
Lokman,  the  father  of  Arab  gnomic  wisdom,  to  whom 
Mahomet  devotes  a  Sura  of  his  Koran,  are  charged  with 
this  instinctive  worship  of  the  moral  order. 

"  Of  old  we  bestowed  wisdom  upon  Lokman,  and  taught  him  to 
say :  '  Be  thankful  to  God,  join  not  other  gods  to  God,  this  is  the  great 
impiety.  O  my  son,  God  will  bring  everything  to  light,  though  it  were 
but  the  weight  of  a  grain  of  mustard-seed,  and  hid  in  a  rock,  for  God 
knoweth  all.  O  my  son,  observe  prayer  and  enjoin  right,  and  forbid 
wrong ;  be  patient  under  whatsoever  shall  betide  thee.  Walk  not  loftily 
on  the  earth,  for  God  loveth  not  the  arrogant.' "^ 

Mahomet's  quotations  are  doubtful ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  great  semi-mythic  form  of  Lokman  rises  on  us 
in  the  gray  Arab  antiquity  as  the  natural  precursor  of 
the  Prophet,  who  found  in  this  recognized  type  of  the 
race  to  which  he  belonged  the  substance  of  his  own 
message  to  the  world.  Contemporary  of  David,  a  second 
Noah,  saved  from  the  doom  of  a  wicked  race,  teacher 
of  the  wisdom  of  animals,  a  patriarch  twenty  genera- 
tions old,  king  of  the  primeval  Sabean  tribes,  builder 
of  the  gigantic  dike  of  Ma'rib,  Job's  nephew,  judge  of 
the  Jews ;  moreover  by  birth,  like  Antar  the  hero  of  Arab 
romance,  a  black  slave, —  Lokman  has  been  a  centre  of 
pre-Islamic  mythology  for   all   later  romance.^     Whether 

1  Haninier-Purgstall :  Literaticr  gesch.  d.  Araber,  i.  332  (Amru)  ;  and  i.  39,  40  (Ektem 
Ben  Ssaifi). 

^  Sura  xxxi.  10-18. 

^  Sprenger  :  Das  Leben  nnd  Lehre  des  Mohammad:  i.  95.  Busch :  Urgeschichte  d. 
Orients,  iii.  28,  242.     Wiittke  (Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  ix   142). 


574  ISLAM. 

the  fables  ascribed  to  him  are  of  native  or  Greek  origin  is 
still  debated  among  scholars;  but  their  extreme  simplicity, 
compact  sense  and  humor,  as  well  as  the  absence  of  all 
associations  of  an  advanced  state  of  society,  point  naturally 
to  the  traditional  lore  of  the  nom.adic  tribes  of  ancient 
Arabia.^  They  represent  the  practical  side  of  life  rather 
than  the  ideal,  but  hold  fast  the  same  centre  in  individual 
responsibility;  their  precepts  are  of  piety,  modesty,  pru- 
dence, benevolence,  and  honor.  Saadi  says  that  Lokman 
learned  wisdom  from  the  blind,  who  go  nowhere  till  they 
know  the  place.  JMahomet  might  have  learned  of  him 
the  instincts  of  equality  and  personal  force.  "  Whoever 
has  not  borne  the  injustice  of  the  rich,  knows  not  how  to 
sympathize  with  the  poor."  Nor  do  the  legends  fail  to 
find  the  natural  man  of  the  senses  in  him,  gladly  holding 
him  to  the  conditions  of  human  weaknesses  and  passions. 

The  poets  of  that  Age  of  Ignorance  at  least  lived  in 
that  direct  contact  with  the  objects  of  thought  which 
makes  of  perception  pure  intuition  and  inspiration.  Their 
songs  are  bursts  of  self-abandonment.  Whatever  the  ex- 
citing touch,  the  imagination  is  ready  to  kindle  into  flames 
that  consume  the  world.  The  old  Arabic  has  no  future 
tense ;  memories,  traditions,  hopes,  are  melted  into  the 
moment's  mood.  This  tactile  feeling  is  too  sensuous  for 
dogma,  too  keenly  susceptible  for  theories  or  analyses  of 
things.  A  battle  with  circumstances  opens  life :  a  tragic 
storm  of  feeling,  even  an  outburst  of  sensual  excess,  is 
likely  to  end  it.  Of  this  intensity  of  instinct,  especially  of 
self-will,  the  natural  outcome  is  apparent  in  vices  of  tem- 
per and  social  conduct;  but  there  is  no  orgiastic  worship 
of  sensuality,  as  in  the  Phrygian  rites  that  had  infested 
the  Greek  and  Christian  worlds.^ 


'  Fables  de  Lokman,  translated  by  Leon  et  Henri  Helot,  1857.     Also  Sprenger,  i  95-101. 
Busch,  iii.  23. 

^  See  Tbarafa's  Afo' allakai  poem.     Hammer-Purgstall :  i.  305. 


MAHOMET.  575 

The  greatest  of  these  Hbertines  of  picture  and  song 
was  Imriol-Kais.  In  his  youth  he  sings  his  love  to  a 
maiden,  at  hazard  of  his  hfe ;  and  is  saved  from  his 
own  father's  rage  by  the  devotion  of  a  slave,  who,  when 
ordered  to  put  out  his  eyes,  carries  the  infuriated  sheikh 
a  pair  of  roe's  eyes  instead  of  his  son's.  The  old  man 
relents  from  his  barbarous  purpose,  but  never  from  his 
hatred  of  the  muse.  Yet  when  he  is  murdered,  the  son, 
with  instant  change  of  heart,  forsaking  wine  and  women, 
swears  to  avenge  him  on  a  whole  tribe ;  and,  being  de- 
feated, escapes  to  the  court  of  Justinian,  whence  he  is 
compelled  by  a  new  love-adventure  to  flee,  and  dies  at 
last,  Hercules-like,  of  a  poisoned  tunic  sent  by  imperial 
hands.^  His  genius  is  far  more  imaginative  and  fine  than 
that  of  any  of  his  fellows.  Yet  though  he  has  seen  the 
great  centres  of  Chaldean  and  Persian  life,  and  knows  the 
sea  as  well  as  the  desert  and  the  town,  he  none  the  less 
remains  the  true  Arab,  who  lives  in  the  joy  of  the  moment, 
for  the  fair  maidens  like  gazelles,  and  knows  not  how  to 
reflect,  so  urged  is  he  by  stress  of  life  and  desire.  He  can 
pause  to  describe  the  freshet's  rush  or  the  pangs  of  love ; 
but  his  pride  is  the  free  lance  and  victory,  and  his  scorn  is 
for  mere  subsistence.^ 

What  stirs  these  knightly  lays  is  the  tragic  situation, 
the  embroilment  beyond  relief,  the  command  to  heroic 
sacrifice  for  friendship  and  love,^  Twelve  songs  of  praise 
immortalize  as  many  women,  all  famous  in  their  day.* 
Not  less  ideal  is  the  wild  raid,  fit  school  for  these  spoil- 
ers of  nations.  The  desert  Ishmael  glories  in  rhyming 
his  swoop  on  his  neighbor's  camel-herd  and  the  feud  that 
came  of  it,  and  even  the  summer  hunt  for  ostrich-eggs  in 
the  sands  on  his  swift  flight  through   the   naked  land  to 


1  Hammer-Purgstall  :  i.  2g2.    Wuttke  (Zeitsckr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsck.,  ix.  149). 

2  Kremer:  Cidturgesch.  d.  Araber,  i.  297. 

2  Hamniei-Purgstall :  i.  29,  67,  68,  70.  *  Ibid.,  i. 


576  ISLAM. 

his  beloved.     He  is  a  lord  so  free  of  his  desert  home  that 
it  is  but  nature  to  go  singing  on  his  way.^ 

"There  howls  the  wolf:  well  know  we  one  another; 
The  voice  of  man  sounds  like  the  bird's  wild  lay. 
And  night  rolls  o'er  my  head  to  point  my  work  and  way  ; 
At  sunset  I  my  vows  renew." - 

He  stops  his  steed  when  at  full  speed,  at  the  summons  of 
a  thought, to  write  his  Kassidet  of  love,  his  "stirrup  song;  " 
his  eye  and  ear  quicker  than  the  fine  senses  of  the  Greek, 
—  the  heavens  and  earth  and  all  that  live  and  move  therein 
their  larger  nerves.  This  eye,  ear,  hand  of  the  desert  must 
be  his  own  instant  and  sufficient  providence,  king  of  the 
moment  by  wit  and  will.  No  oath  but  his  word ;  no  house 
but  his  tent;  no  fortress  but  his  sword;  no  law  but  the 
traditions  of  masters  like  himself^  These  old  songs  of 
desert  raids,  in  the  so-called  Age  of  Ignorance,  could 
not  be  dispensed  with  in  the  later  days  of  the  great  Mus- 
sulman conquests,  and  the  glories  of  the  Caliphate;  they 
were  sung  before  combat  in  the  Omeyyad  camps.* 

"  I  am  he  who  swerves  not  from  his  plan;  unmoved,  whate'er  befall ; 
Who  plunges  'neath  the  flood  of  death  and  grasps  the  prize  he 

claims ; 
Who  takes  no  counsel  but  his  own  mind's  law,  and  asks  no  help  but 
his  good  sword."  ^ 
"  He  who  drives  not  the  foe  from  his  cisterns  will  see  them  destroyed. 

He  who  avoids  injury  to  others  shall  not  escape  harm  even  so."  ^ 
"  To  the  words  of  other  men  't  is  common  to  say  7tay,  when  one  will ; 

But  no  man  says  nay  to  us  when  we  give  sentence." 
"  Not  in  all  our  line  is  there  one  of  blunted  heart,  nor  one  who  is  a 
niggard."  "^ 

'  Hammer-Purgstall :  i.  278. 

-  Hammer-Purgstall:  i.  258.     See  also  Baur:    Der  arab.  Held.  u.  Dichter,  Ta'abbatu 
Sarran  (Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgeid.  GeseUsch.,  x.  74-109). 
5  Hammer-Purgstall :  i.  266,  293,  321.  335,  378,  etc. 
*  Kremer  :  Cultitrgesch-  7i>iter  d.  Ckali/en,  ii-  356. 
5  Hammer-Purgstall :  i.  263.     Saad  Ben  Naschib. 
8  Wright :  Christianity  in  A  rabia,  p.  66. 
'  Poole's  Preface  to  Extracts  from  the  Koran,  p.  xv. 


MAHOMET.  577 

"  The  world  is  ours,"  sings  Amru,  "  and  all  that  is  on 
the  face  of  it;  and  none  can  resist  our  attack.  When  a 
tyrant  oppresses  a  people,  we  scorn  to  submit  to  his  will. 
We  fill  the  earth  with  our  tents,  till  it  becomes  too  narrow 
to  hold  them,  and  cover  the  sea  with  our  ships."  This 
gaze  over  the  rim  of  the  desert  after  a  mission  to  right  the 
world,  hints  of  social  aspirations  beyond  the  impermanence 
and  isolation  of  the  nomadic  life,  everywhere  writ  on  its 
vestiges  of  ruined  towns  and  tribes.  Ancestral  and  tribal 
ties  were  the  Arab's  nearest  approach  to  civil  or  political 
relations ;  his  patriotism,  his  immortality,  meant  these. 
"  Love  thy  tribe ;  it  is  more  close  to  thee  than  the  tie  of 
man  and  wife."  ^  There  were  shrines  where  the  tribes 
repaired  every  year  to  hold  a  pious  truce;  where  every 
precaution  was  taken  to  avoid  collisions,  even  to  the  ex- 
tent of  wearing  masks  and  veils ;  where,  also,  it  is  prob- 
able, the  imagination  was  kindled  by  fresh  superstitions 
to  confirm  or  heighten  the  old  terrors  of  solitude.  Only 
so  could  they  counteract  that  all-pervading  sense  of  tran- 
siency which,  as  in  the  beautiful  Mo'allakat  verses  of  Lebid, 
everywhere  breaks  forth  in  minor  key,  through  all  their 
fortitude,  freedom,  and  zest  for  sensual  and  warlike  enjoy- 
ments.^ A  peculiar  melancholy  showed  itself  in  their  tem- 
perament as  soon  as  it  was  brought  in  contact  with  the 
luxury  and  frivolity  of  Oriental  manners.  The  desert  fates 
were  stern ;  and  even  the  humanities  awakened  by  these 
tribal  gatherings  do  not  seem  to  have  restrained  certain 
cruel  customs  arising  from  poverty  and  isolation,  against 
which  the  Prophet  was  obliged  to  raise  his  voice.  All  the 
more  intensely  must  have  burned  the  longing  and  need 
for  social  sympathies ;  or  whence  that  thirst  for  heroic 
dealing  before  which  our  ethical  refinements  pale?  Hence 
the  knighthood,  — 

1  Dozy  :  Histoire  d'lslamistne,  p.  loi. 
*  Hammer-Purgstall :  i.  319. 

37 


5/8  ISLAM. 

*'  Whose  word  is  enough  to  shield  the  unsheltered  when  peril  comes, 
in  strife  and  storm. 
Yea,  noble  are  they ;  not  from  them  shall  the  vengeful  gain  the  blood 

of  his  foe  ; 
Nor  shall  even  he  who  has  wronged  them  be  left  without  help." 
"  For  the  night  wanderer  one  light  is  never  quenched  ; 
Nor  has  ever  a  guest  reproached  us  where  men  meet  together."  ^ 

To  these  proud,  free  instincts  political  disciplines  were 
intolerable.  From  their  own  necessities  they  carved  their 
civilization.  Retaliation  became  a  restraining  law;  the 
protection  of  chiefs  a  court  of  justice,  a  refuge  for  the 
wronged ;  chivalrous  treatment  of  women  a  domestic  and 
social  jurisprudence.  Honor  to  the  best  and  most  capable 
had  drawn  these  fiery  units  as  by  magnetism  to  lines  of 
aristocratic  tradition.  Yet  they  had  no  genius  for  subor- 
dination, no  instinct  of  permanent  unity  beyond  the  tribe 
itself.  Mahomet  united  them  but  for  a  moment,  and 
through  wonderful  conjuncture  of  times  and  persons.  On 
his  death  they  were  all  in  arms,  and  only  restrained  from 
disintegration  by  the  genius  of  Abu  Bekr  and  Omar,  and 
the  prospect  of  foreign  raids.  Nevertheless,  the  depres- 
sion of  the  desert  and  their  unsatisfied  social  yearnings 
pushed  them  to  larger  spheres  of  sympathy  and  power. 
Mahomet's  call  to  religious  unity  of  purpose  was  followed 
up  by  the  more  peremptory  summons  to  boundless  citizen- 
ship and  mastery,  —  to  a  national  organization  suited  to 
grasp  an  imperial  world.  The  southern  tribes,  as  well  as 
those  in  the  extreme  north,  had  reached  something  more 
nearly  approaching  nationality  than  those  of  the  inter- 
mediate deserts ;  their  literature  centres  in  the  kings  of 
Himyar,  Saba,  and  Hira,  and  on  wars  and  trophies  almost 
Assyrian  in  type   if  not  in  scale.^     To  them  the  crusade 

*  Translated  from  Arabic  by  C.  T.  Lyall,  quoted  in  Poole's  Extracts  from  tlie  Koran. 
Preface  on  "  The  Arabs  before  Mohammed,"  pp.  xv,  xix. 

2  For  a  minute  account  of  the  Arabian  tribes  and  their  relations  in  Mahomet's  time,  see 
Blau  {Zeiisckr.  d.  Deutsck.  Alorgenl.  Geseilsch.,  xxiii.  569). 


MAHOMET.  579 

now  opening  must  have  offered  immeasurable  hopes.     In 
this  Arab  exodus,  spontaneity,  force  of  circumstances   and 
natural  reaction  are  so  united  that  the  resultant  might  well 
have  been  a  tidal-wave  in  history.     The  -bbme  swearmg 
of  the  Koran  seems  but  the  concentrated  thunder  of  the 
old  Bedouin  vows  of  individual  passion,  love  and  revenge, 
pride  and  grief,  and  of  absolute  faith  in  personal  destmy 
and  heroic  morale.     The  summons  it  authenticated  was  in- 
deed new;  but  it  was  the  more  inspiring  in  that  its  objects 
were    close    at   hand,  -  the  overthrow  of  time-worn  and 
despised  idolatries,  and  the  rally  of  equa    children  of  the 
one  God,  Father  of  the  fathers  and  Sheikh  of  sheikhs,  to 
mstant  judgment  of  a  disobedient  world. 

This  preparation  of  the  Arabs  for  war  on  idolatry  may 
be  distinctly  discerned  in  the  popular,  non-religious  poetry 
of  the  Hamasa.      The  old  rites,  however  tenaciously  ad- 
hered to  by  their  aristocratic  guardians,  had  not  only  lost, 
as  we  have  seen,  their  hold  on  the  imagination  of  this  natu- 
rally rationalistic  race,  but  had  even  become  objects   of 
hiily  secular  ridicule.^     It  cannot  be  entirely  explained 
by  the  liberties  taken  with  these  national  songs  by  later 
collectors,  that  they  contain  scarce  an  allusion  to  the  old 
planetary  Sabean  gods  worshipped  in  animal  or  vegetable 
forms;  to  the  cult  of  Venus  and  of  the  sun,  long  prevalent 
in  Arabia;  to  the   idols  of  the  Kaaba;   to  the  male  and 
female  tribal  deities,  or  to  the  demonology  introduced  by 
neighboring  rehgions.     There  seems  to  have  been  a  pre- 
science even  of  higher  rehance.     When  religious  fear  or 
trust  takes  possession  of  the  poet,  its  object  is  some  uni- 
versal power,  such  as  Fate  or  Providence,  or  the  unity  of 

'  Mahomet  declared  war  against  the  poets  as  misleaders 
of  the  people,  partly  because  they  criticised  his  claims  to 

;  ?::^:e^;:r J^rs::  "^^o^  ^^iuc^r. ..  n...,.  ..^«/.  o...... 

vii.  464-5°3)' 


580  ISLAM. 

a  higher  inspiration  than  their  own,  and  partly  upon  per- 
sonal grounds.  He  did  not  enjoy  the  taunts  of  practical 
people,  who  asked,  "  Shall  we  leave  our  gods  for  a  crazy 
poet?  "  It  was  not  pleasant  to  be  classed  in  a  category  so 
large  that  camels  and  lizards  were  popularly  described  as 
members  of  it.  Yet  he  said  of  Lebid's  line,  "  Is  not  all 
besides  God  nought?  "  that  it  was  the  greatest  of  verses; 
and  glorified  Said  Ben  Newfil  for  singing,  — 

"  I  .serve  not  O.sa  and  her  goddess  child, 
I  turn  me  not  to  Thasm's  idol  shrine, 
I  serve  not  thousand  lords,  but  One  alone ;  "  ^ 

and  found  Waraka  inspired,  when,  hearing  Belal,  under 
torture  for  denying  the  gods  of  his  tribe,  cry  out,  "  One, 
One,  One  !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  By  Allah,  you  tribe  of  Bclal, 
though  you  slay  him,  you  shall  not  have  your  will;  "  and 
then  sang  an  ode  in  praise  of  God.- 

In  fact  Mahomet,  though  repudiating  the  name  of  poet 
and  rejecting  regular  metre  in  his  Suras,  was  him.self  in- 
comparably the  greatest  of  Arab  poets,  and  has  the  same 
title  to  the  name  as  Amos  or  Isaiah.^  Perhaps,  like  some 
great  masters  of  the  art,  —  like  Goethe,  partly  from  in- 
tense earnestness  or  realism,  —  he  regarded  poetry  as  less 
natural  than  prose.  He  knew  well  what  the  singers  had 
done  for  him  in  anticipating  his  grandest  revelations.  Tra- 
dition credits  him  even  with  composing  odes,  and  storing 
his  memory  with  those  of  other  men.  The  Sunna  says 
"  he  bade  that  children  should  be  taught  poetry,  which 
opened  the  mind,  made  courage  hereditary,  and  bore  the 
fruit  of  wisdom."  Illiterate  as  he  called  himself,  he  had 
no  contempt  for  letters.  He  set  the  captives  at  Badr  to 
ransom  themselves  by  teaching  writing  to  his  ignorant 
converts.*      If  he  set  his   face   against  the   great   literary 

'  Hammer-Purgstall :  i.  56.  -  Hammer,  i.  56. 

3  See  his  beautiful  parables,  x.  25 ;  ii.  266 ;  poem  of  the  conversion  of  Abraham,  vi.  74. 
Sura  of  the  Desert  Horses,  c 
*  Hammer,  i.  396. 


MAHOMET.  581 

reunions  of  Okadh,  where  "  a  magical  language  was  built 
ready  to  his  skilful  hand,"  and  where  the  friendly  rivalry 
of  tribal  bards  must  have  nourished  the  noblest  aspira- 
tions, it  was  doubtless  because  the  old  institution  re- 
fused to  become  merged  in  his  own  universal  aims  and 
beliefs.  It  has  been  said  that  "  in  destroying  it,  he  put  an 
end  to  the  Arab  nation  and  created  his  own  new  nation  of 
Muslims,  who  cannot  sit  in  the  places  of  the  old  Arabs."  ^ 
The  change  transformed  a  race  of  semi-nomads  into  mas- 
ters of  a  world  faith  and  law,  —  an  unparalleled  change, 
reaching  on  with  widening  power  for  a  thousand  years. 
Mahomet  knew  his  instruments.  He  recognized  his  coun- 
trymen's claims  as  superior  to  those  of  Jew  or  Christian. 
He  put  every  waiting  capacity  to  ideal  use.  He  gave  his 
nation's  genius  moral  energy  and  self-mastering  obedience 
to  a  purpose.  Carlyle  has  put  the  substance  of  this  mys- 
tery into  words  that  will  never  be  supplanted :  — 

"  Belief  is  great,  life-giving.  The  history  of  a  nation  becomes 
fruitful,  soul-elevating,  great,  as  soon  as  it  believes.  These  Arabs, 
the  man  Mahomet,  and  that  one  century,  —  is  it  not  as  if  a  spark  had 
fallen,  one  spark,  on  a  world  that  seemed  black  unnoticeable  sand  ! 
But  lo,  the  sand  proves  explosive  powder,  blazes  heaven-high  from 
Delhi  to  Granada.  I  said  the  Great  Man  was  always  like  lightning 
out  of  heaven ;  the  rest  of  men  waited  for  him  like  fuel,  and  then  they 
too  would  flame." 

So  rooted  in  his  age  and  country,  so  natural  as  the  cul- 
mination of  ages  of  will-worship,  what  remains  for  Ma- 
homet as  an  original  personal  force?  As  the  focus  of 
tendencies,  the  great  man  becomes  their  new  and  all- 
commanding  organ.  He  is  new  and  creative ;  not  indeed 
as  outside  of  the  line  of  Nature,  but  as  fulfilling  the  process 
of  existing  causes,  which  demand  concentration  in  personal 
insight  and  will.  Genius  is  not  historical  merely;  it  is  as 
profound  a  mystery  in  the  world  of  mind  as  the  new  and 

'  Poole  :  Preface  to  Selections  from  the  Koran,  p.  xxvi. 


582  ISLAM. 

higher  element  that  springs  into  visibility  from  the  collision 
of  flint  and  steel.  The  advent  of  unexpected  energy  in 
the  transformation  of  lower  conditions  is  the  law  of  pro- 
gress :  it  is  the  constant  sign  of  cosmical  forces  in  every 
step  of  evolution,  —  in  other  words,  of  the  immanence  of 
the  Infinite  in  the  finite.  When  we  have  summed  up  all 
the  conditions  for  the  result  which  our  science  can  reach, 
there  remains  always  this  untraceable  element  of  conditions 
past  our  knowing.  The  names  we  give  it  do  not  alter  its 
nature ;  inspiration,  revelation,  miracle,  latent  forces,  mys- 
tery of  growth,  are  terms,  more  or  less  blind,  to  cover 
these  cosmical  conditions,  equally  real  in  the  growth  of 
an  acorn  into  an  oak,  and  in  that  of  an  age  or  a  civili- 
zation into  a  religion.  Genius  and  personal  mastership  are 
powers  that  differ  from  the  rest  only  as  focal  expressions 
of  more  subtile,  vast,  and  even  universal  conditions.  This 
is  the  ground  of  their  special  sanity,  their  redeeming,  all- 
glorifying  power.  Of  a  Shakspeare,  a  Goethe,  a  Plato, 
there  is  no  explanation  but  the  universe  of  mind.  So  it  is 
with  the  masters  of  religion,  of  philosophy,  of  character. 
They  move  the  world,  because  they  are  the  accord,  the 
rhythm,  the  unity  of  the  world.  Each  in  his  way  is  un- 
precedented, not  to  be  divined  nor  predicted,  for  Nature 
never  repeats  herself.  His  conscious  conditions  are  deter- 
minable only  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which  his 
spirit  is  shared  :  the  unconscious  conditions  lie  veiled  in  the 
infinite  complexities  of  being  and  growth.  But  not  one  of 
these  untraceable  personal  forces  can  fail  of  having  natural 
relations  to  such  simpler  ones  as  are  discernible  by  the  stu- 
dent of  historical  laws.  So  far  we  may  go,  and  no  farther ; 
and  this  is  adequate  for  all  needful  purposes.  To  seek  an 
ultimate  analysis  ol  causes  and  conditions  is  here  as  futile 
as  to  drain  Thor's  goblet  filled  from  the  sea.  There  is  no 
formula  for  making  genius.  The  scientific  understanding 
may  construct  a  manikin,  but  never  a  hero  or  a  seer. 


MAHOMET.  583 

Time  slowly  reveals  where  each  man's  personal  force 
lay,  and  separates  what  he  did  from  what  he  was  supposed 
to  do.  But  the  names  and  lives  to  which  the  great  his- 
toric religions  are  traced  back  have  been  so  enormously 
idealized,  and  are  involved  in  such  obscurity,  both  of  facts 
and  of  records,  that  the  difficulties  are  in  most  instances 
insuperable. 

These  difficulties  need  not  disturb  us  in  the  case  of 
Mahomet.  However  idealized  after  his  death,  his  life  is  a 
matter  of  verifiable  record.  His  book  and  his  sword  were 
his  own.  He  is  a  palpable  power,  from  the  moment  of  his 
Hegira,  in  Arabia  and  among  the  nations.  Numbers  of 
the  great  men  of  Islam  were  his  personal  companions,  and 
the  first  four  caliphs  may  be  said  to  have  passed  from  his 
death-bed  to  reconstruct  empires  from  the  issues  of  his 
heart  and  brain.  Of  all  religious  founders,  this  man  alone 
shaped  his  own  work  to  imperial  success,  and  substantially, 
even  within  his  own  lifetime,  through  the  wonderful  per- 
sonal instruments  which  he  won  to  his  side  from  out  the 
little  Arab  world. -^  There  stand  his  merits  and  faults  in 
the  full  blaze  of  the  Arabian  sun,  without  attempt  on  his 
part  at  concealment.  He  is  an  Arab  of  the  Arabs,  and 
naively  proud  of  his  dependence.  "  I  am  the  truest  of 
Arabs :  my  descent  is  from  the  Koreish,  my  tongue  is  of 
the  Beni  Saad."  ^  He  was  a  nomad  in  genius  and  in  taste. 
Bokhari  tells  us  that  he  said  "  a  prophet  must  first  be  a 
long  w^iile  a  shepherd,"  and  that  agriculture  made  men 
vain  and  impudent.  Seeing  a  ploughshare,  he  said, 
"  When  these  things  enter  a  people's  house  they  become 
low-minded."  ^  There  he  stands  before  an  unlettered  race, 
whose  native  genius  for  poetry  despised  all  written  records, 
to  cry:   "  Bountiful  is  God,  who  has  taught  man  the  use  of 

'  Ibn   Icaba  gives  biographies  of  eight  thousand  persons  who  knew  him.     Sprenger: 
Introduction,  xi 

-  Kitab  al  Wakidi's  Hisham. 

'  Mussulman  tradition,  quoted  by  Goldziher:  Mytltology  among  the  Hebrews,  p.  81. 


584  ISLAM. 

the  pen ;  "  and  therewith  to  give  forth,  written  on  blade- 
bones,  bits  of  parchment,  palm-leaves,  and  on  the  tablets 
of  the  heart  of  hearers,  in  impure  Arabic  and  without  con- 
structive method,  out  of  the  emergencies  of  inward  and 
outward  struggles,  the  Book  i^Kiirdn,  somewhat  to  be 
read)  which  should  be  the  fountain  of  faith,  letters,  and 
institutions  to  hundreds  of  millions  of  men  for  fifty  gen- 
erations. Here  was  no  refinement  of  linguistic  or  logical 
art,  no  elaborate  rhyme,  no  far-fetched  metaphor,  but  a 
divine  motion,  conscious  of  supreme  command,  riding 
forth  on  his  confused,  stammering  tongue ;  sweeping  an 
agonized,  semi-delirious  brain  into  contradictions,  retrac- 
tions, blind  devices,  confused  dilemmas,  strange  dealings 
with  moral  soundness  and  religious  fear,  —  all  of  which 
have  been  too  critically  judged  by  outside  observation. 
It  seems  to  have  been  in  sheer  sense  of  failure  to  bear  the 
burden  of  his  word  that  he  called  the  right  use  of  language 
the  perfection  of  success ;  and  he  admitted  his  inability  to 
understand  his  revelations  in  their  coming,  so  that  he  must 
needs  work  them  over  after  the  angelic  utterance,  before 
they  could  come  to  shape  for  mankind.  Why  should  we 
cavil  at  the  marks  of  such  self-criticism  in  the  Koran, — 
the  conscious  revisals  of  a  message  which  his  best  render- 
ing could  only  stain  and  mar?  Vain  attempt,  at  best,  to 
translate  the  open  talk  of  a  man  with  the  God  of  his  ideal 
conviction,  imagined  as  an  objective  real  presence,  and 
hide  no  word,  nor  tone,  nor  hint  of  its  meaning  whether 
to  his  own  honor  or  rebuke  !  Might  it  not  well  end  in  a 
book,  "  written,"  as  Carlyle  says,  perhaps  not  too  strongly, 
**  as  badly  as  almost  any  book  ever  was,  so  that  nothing 
but  a  sense  of  duty  could  carry  a  European  through  it,  — 
an  incoherent  bundle  of  experiences,  no  more  capable  of 
certain  arrangement  than  the  ripple-marks  on  a  beach 
after  heavy  storms  "  ?  Yet  in  all  this  the  marvellous  Ara- 
bic tongue  went  through  a  transformation  that  consigned 


MAHOMET.  585 

all  Mo'allakats,  Kassidets,  or  other  literary  treasures  to 
comparative  oblivion,  —  no  continuation  of  their  styles 
even,  but  a  new  creation.  What  triumphant  mastery  so 
to  transform  a  nation's  jealously  guarded  ideal,  mingling 
native  with  foreign  words  !  For  language  was  the  Arab's 
religion  more  than  all  the  gods  of  the  Kaaba ;  yet  the 
Koran,  the  Koran  only,"is  henceforth  the  norm  of  books 
to  this  book-adoring  Arab,  the  veritable  Arabic  speech 
of  Allah,  the  tracing  of  the  infinite  pen  ! 

"  See  you  not  that  I,  an  ignorant  prophet,  could  never  have  done 
this  thing,  —  lifted  your  organ  for  the  love-songs  of  Imriol-Kais,  or  the 
Hanifite  Rolls  of  Abraliam,  into  a  holy  tongue  for  all  mankind  ?  Ask 
you  greater  miracle  than  this,  O  unbelieving  people,  than  to  have 
your  profane  Arabic  turned  into  a  message  of  universal  mercy,  a 
thunderbolt  against  tyranny,  a  trumpet  to  call  the  world  to  singleness 
of  heart  and  faith?  Do  they  bid  thee  change  it?  Say,  it  is  not  for 
me  to  change  it  by  my  own  will.  Verily,  I  fear  if  I  rebel,  the  punish- 
ment of  the  great  day." 

Yet  this  supernaturalist,  cowering  under  the  terrors  of 
his  own  awful  trust,  has  been  detected  by  the  modern  critic 
in  altering,  transposing,  reconstructing,  to  suit  new  con- 
junctures, till  the  whole  is  past  the  critic's  analytic  and 
collocating  skill.  Hence  the  ready  charge  of  hypocrisy, 
the  cool  dealing  of  an  impostor  with  his  own  fraud.  Why 
not  find  rather  an  over-anxious  care  to  get  the  momentous 
message  rightly  put  by  the  half-seeing  human  faculties, 
whose  light  on  its  meaning  can  only  be  made  clear  by 
the  process  of  events? 

Successful  he  was  at  all  events,  blind  and  confused  as 
the  message  lay  before  his  companions  at  his  unlooked-for 
death,  when  he  who  alone  could  say  what  was  in  it,  was  no 
longer  with  them.  Only  a  year  elapsed  before  his  scribe 
Zeyd  must  gather  up  its  fragments,  so  that  it  could  be 
committed  verbatim  by  heart.  Then,  eighteen  years  after- 
wards, when  his  first  companions  were  all  dying  in  battle, 
and  an  authentic  version  must  be  hastened  up,  the  same 


586  ISLAM. 

hand  is  set  to  compiling  an  even  more  careful  text.  Caliph 
Othman,  the  third  of  the  line,  fixes  this  as  the  final  appeal 
of  Islam,  now  centred,  as  a  positive  faith  is  bound  to  be,  in 
a  Book  of  books,  and  all  other  versions  are  burned  through- 
out the  empire  (650  A.D.).  No  arrangement  seemed  then 
feasible  but  to  put  the  longest  Suras  first,  where  the  sharp 
historical  criticism  of  to-day  says  they  do  not  belong. 
Even  now  it  lies  in  its  well-nigh  structureless  plasma  of 
emotion,  beat  up  from  abysses  of  woe,  lifted  on  gusts  of 
passionate  will,  paling  with  confession,  glowing  with  fierce 
rebuke,  —  strange,  unconscious  chaos  of  objective  truth 
with  subjective  error.  If  it  is  not  poetry,  —  and  it  is  hard 
to  say  whether  it  be  or  not,  —  it  is  more  than  poetry.  It 
is  not  history,  nor  biography.  It  is  not  anthology,  like 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  nor  metaphysical  dialectics, 
like  the  Buddhist  Sutras;  nor  sublime  homiletics,  like 
Plato's  conferences  of  the  wise  and  foolish  teachers.  It 
is  a  prophet's  cry,  Semitic  to  the  core ;  yet  of  a  meaning 
so  universal  and  so  timely  that  all  the  voices  of  the  age 
take  it  up,  willing  or  unwilling,  and  it  echoes  over  palaces 
and  deserts,  over  cities  and  empires,  first  kindling  its 
chosen  hearts  to  world-conquest,  then  gathering  itself  up 
into  a  reconstructive  force  that  all  the  creative  light  of 
Greece  and  Asia  might  penetrate  the  heavy  gloom  of 
Christian  Europe,  when  Christianity  was  but  the  Queen 
of  Night. -^  In  the  eleventh  century,  when  the  Christian 
Church  was  the  mortal  foe  of  science  and  of  Nature,  five 
thousand  two  hundred  and  eighteen  teachers  of  the  schools 
of  the  Koran  were  commending  these  studies  to  the  civil- 
ized world.  Saduk,  when  asked  why  the  Koran  appeared 
the  newer  the  more  it  was  read,  answered,  "  It  was  not  sent 
for  one  age  or  time,  but  for  all  mankind  to  the  end  of  the 
world."  ^     Its    monotheism  was  the   climax  of  exclusive 

^  See  St.  Hilaire's  testimony.     Jongiiiere :  Hist.  deP  Empire  Ottoman,'^.  86. 
-  Wiittke  (Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  GeselUch-,  ix.  137). 


MAHOMET.  587 

religion ;  yet  so  all-embracing  was  its  objective  ideal  that 
it  created  the  largest  unities  in  the  sphere  of  religious 
belief.  "  The  leaves  of  God's  book,"  said  its  Sufis,  "  are 
the  religious  persuasions." 

Much  of  a  similar  nature  might  be  said  of  the  powers 
of  other  Scriptures.  The  difference  is,  that  of  this  book 
Mahomet  was  himself  the  indubitable  maker.  There  is 
no  pretence  that  any  apostle  conceived,  or  gathered,  or 
fathered  it  upon  his  master.  No  lapse  of  a  period  like 
that  which  separates  most  of  the  New  Testament  writings 
from  the  days  of  Jesus,  parted  it  from  the  living  subject; 
no  deposit  was  ever  made  in  it  of  Jewish  or  Arabic  stores 
by  later  schools.  Even  the  many  elaborations  which  the 
merciless  scalpel  of  the  critic  now  brings  to  view,  are  un- 
questionably of  Mahomet's  own  devising.  Crowded  with 
national  traditions,  and  steeped  in  foreign  lore  and  garbled 
legend  out  of  every  faith,  the  Prophet's  ideal  purpose  flames 
through  the  whole,  fusing  everything  over  and  over  again 
to  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  houi*  I  hold  it  to  be  as  abso- 
lutely sincere  as  any  human  book  composed  under  the 
pressure  of  imagined  Divine  special  direction  has  ever 
been  or  can  be ;  its  faults  reveal  best  the  inherent  falsity 
of  the  conception  itself,  but  it  is  none  the  less  the  irre- 
pressible cry  of  a  possessed  enthusiast  and  apostle  of  his 
times.  The  miracle  of  the  book,  of  the  rhymed  prose 
that  silenced  the  pride  of  ancestral  metres,  the  mark  on 
ages  and  tribes  that  never  grows  dim,  is  the  son  of  Ab- 
dallah  himself. 

Probably  we  may  say  that  there  is  nothing  like  this 
record  in  the  whole  history  of  authenticated  personal 
achievement.  Results  even  more  amazing  are  ascribed 
by  Christian  faith  to  an  historic  personage,  but  under  cir- 
cumstances that  forbid  our  knowing  what  he  really  was 
and  did.  In  the  one  case,  everything  not  purely  ideal  has 
been  smoothed  away  from  the  adored  image  of  an  incar- 


588  ISLAM. 

nate  God,  age  after  age;  in  the  other,  there  stand  out, 
honestly  admitted,  all  the  errors,  irrationalities,  and  delu- 
sive dreams  that  belong  to  the  pretension  of  supernatural 
claims  and  private  revelation. 

It  seems  incomprehensible  that  far  down  into  the  pres- 
ent century,  through  all  ages  of  Christian  development, 
this  name  has  been  synonymous  with  Satan,  and  its  swarm- 
ing confessors  abhorred  as  infernal  hosts.  So  much  can 
the  rivalries  of  creeds  and  churches  effect  in  foreclosing 
even  the  desire  of  justice.  With  Christendom,  the  relent- 
less charge  of  infidelity  and  imposture  has  rested  on  the 
assumption  that  every  claim  to  personal  inspiration,  save 
that  of  Jesus,  must  have  been  a  conscious  lie.  He  and 
none  other  could  by  any  possibility  be  honest  and  sane  in 
claiming  to  be  the  Son  of  God  and  "Judge  of  quick  and 
dead."  The  inconsistency  proves  that  reason  repudiates 
the  claim  itself.  Still  more  glaring  is  the  theological 
malice  of  the  highest  minds,  persevered  in  down  to  the 
moment  when  Arab  histoi4ans  like  Al  Hisham,  Abulfeda, 
and  others  forced  open  the  eyes  of  scholars  in  the  present 
age;  and  the  dense  ignorance  of  Christendom  concerning 
Mahomet  and  his  work  for  civilization  was  scattered  by 
resultant  studies  of  the  Book  and  the  Faith. 

It  was  natural,  since  the  fine  arts  were  the  pupils  of  the 
Church,  that,  while  Michael  Angelo  painted  the  Christ  as 
awarding  eternal  life  and  death  at  the  last  judgment,  an- 
other great  painter  —  Orcagna — should  represent  Mahomet 
as  torn  in  pieces  by  devils,  and  that  Dante  should  find  him 
cloven  in  twain  and  displaying  his  rent  bosom  in  hell  for 
having  torn  the  Church  by  schism. ^  Yet  we  cannot  con- 
ceal the  fact  that  not  a  century  before  this  terrible  anath- 
ema the  great  Arabic  work  of  SharastanT  had  shown  how 
much  broader  a  feeling  of  the  sympathy  of  religions  than 
existed  in  Christendom,  had  sprung  up  in  the  soil  of  the 

1  Inferno,  xxvili. 


MAHOMET.  589 

Koran.^  Protestantism,  worshipping  its  own  Bible,  had  all 
the  less  tolerance  for  a  rival  Bible,  and  from  the  outset  pro- 
nounced its  author  the  chief  of  liars.  It  would  serve  little 
purpose  to  enumerate  the  phases  of  this  wild  and  worth- 
less abuse.  So  fully  identified  were  the  titles  "  impostor" 
and  "  infidel  "  with  this  one  name,  that  they  became  catch- 
words for  historians  of  all  grades,  from  Prideaux  to  Hallam.^ 
Even  Goethe,  in  his  tragedy  of  "  Mahomet,"  makes  him  a 
ruthless,  unprincipled  assassin,  without  a  sign  of  faith  in 
his  own  creed.  To  this  very  day  that  mediaeval  exegesis 
frequently  reappears,  and  the  little  horn  of  Daniel's  vision 
still  reminds  Christendom  of  the  Antichrist  of  Mecca,  and 
aggravates  political  hatred  towards  his  infidel  lair  upon 
the  Bosphorus.  The  first  word  of  justice  to  the  accursed 
Paynim  was  spoken  by  that  earliest  and  kindliest  of  Eng- 
lish travellers.  Sir  John  Mandeville,  —  a  clear  bugle-note  in 
the  night  of  superstition  and  hate.  Four  centuries  passed 
before  another  noble  tribute  was  paid  to  the  worth  of  Islam, 
when  Lessing  struck  the  key  of  modern  religious  liberty  in 
his  "  Nathan  the  Wise."  How^  it  startled  English  decorum 
when  Carlyle  dared  to  lift  Mahomet  among  the  heroes  of 
history,  in  letters  of  fiery  indignation  !  Then  came  scholars 
like  Sprenger  and  Kremer,^  Noldeke,  Dozy,  Geiger  and 
Rodwell,  Sale  and  Lane,  with  clearest  proof  that  here  was  a 
force  too  vast  and  too  concentrated  to  be  treated  with  con- 
tempt, and  that  the  Prophet  and  his  message  were  in  the 
natural  order  of  historic  movement.  The  sum  of  all  evi- 
dences, now  abundantly  available,  will  convince  us  that  this 
exalted  person  was  in  fact  substantially  real  and  sincere, 

1  The  History  of  Religions  Sects. 

2  See  Retian  :  Etudes  d' Histoire  Reiigiej/se,  p.  223. 

3  Kramer,  especially  {Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam  and  Culinrgesck.  unter  d.  Chali/en\ 
has  done  full  justice  both  to  Mahomet  and  his  religion.  The  same  cannot  be  said  of 
Sprenger's  learned  and  minute  biography,  which  refuses  him  every  quality  of  greatness  and 
even  of  common  morality,  finds  no  element  of  genuineness  in  him  save  his  fanaticism, — a 
pathological  cnndition  merely,  —  and  no  sign  of  original  genius  or  noble  motive.  Sprenger  is 
not  a  generous  critic,  nor  is  he  capable  of  spiritual  insight ;  but  he  shows  even  to  excess  the 
dependence  of  Mahomet  on  his  times.     (See,  especially.  Das  Leben,  etc.,  i.  39-49.) 


590  ISLAM. 

wonderfully  self-sustained  and  self-directed  towards  ideal 
ends,  and  rooted,  not  in  his  age  and  its  demands  only,  but 
in  the  truth  of  things  and  the  soul  of  truth. 

Mahomet  had  at  once  the  temperament  of  genius  and 
the  tendency  to  melancholia,  noticeable  even  at  the  present 
day  in  the  Arab  race.  Naturally  modest,  timid,  irresolute 
even,  extremely  sensitive  to  pleasure  and  pain,  he  was 
easily  carried  beyond  self-control  by  impressions  from  the 
moral  and  spiritual  imagination,  to  which  he  ascribed  ob- 
jective reality.  How  far  these  phenomena  were  caused  by 
the  morbid  excitability  of  his  pli)'sical  system,  subject  to 
febrile  and  cephalic  spasms  from  what  has  been  defined  as 
"  muscular  hysteria,"  and  how  far  the  disease  itselt  was  a 
result  of  mental  convulsions,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine. 
His  birth  fell  at  a  period  of  intense  affliction  in  the  life  of 
his  mother;  but  it  is  little  less  than  atrocious  to  ascribe 
his  whole  history  to  that  circumstance.^  Partly  from  dis- 
ease, and  partly  from  moral  and  religious  passion,  that 
projection  of  inward  into  outward  sense,  which  has  had 
more  or  less  to  do  with  the  experience  of  men  of  genius 
like  Luther,  Swedenborg,  Goethe,  and  others,  rose  into  a 
permanent  state  of  exaltation  by  supposed  possession, 
demonic  or  divine,  and  at  last  into  absolute  self-surrender 
to  the  inspirations  of  the  Supreme  Will  through  the  visits  of 
its  angelic  messenger.  Yet  we  must  not  ascribe  too  much 
of  this  conviction  to  special  disease,  since  it  was  the  natu- 
ral product  of  belief  in  anthropomorphic  deity,  and  as 
true  of  Moses  and  Jesus  as  of  Mahomet.     Down  to  m.odern 

*  Robertson  Smith.  Sir  W.  Muir  goes  to  the  opposite  extreme,  in  clenyin,c;  this  depend- 
ence, but  charges  him  with  dehberately  abandoning  his  inspiration  to  expediency  ;  evidently 
dissatisfied  that  he  "did  not  become,  as  he  might  have  done,  a  St.  Mahomet,  or  founder  of 
Christian  churches  in  Arabia  by  martyrdom." 

E.  A.  Freeman's  History  and  Conquests  of  the  Saracens  passes  a  judgment  for  the  most 
part  hberal  and  just,  tliough  not  without  some  superficial  criticism  (pp.  52,  53,  57).  Oscar 
Reschel  {Races  0/  J\Ien,  302)  coolly  calls  him  "  a  crafty  impostor."  As  fair  an  account  of  the 
whole  subject  as  can  be  found  is  the  work  of  R.  Bosworth  Smith,  in  entire  contrast  with  which 
is  the  one-sided  little  treatise  on  Islam  published  by  the  Society  for  promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  in  their  non-Christian  Systems. 


MAHOMET.  591 

times  every  one  believed  in  the  possibility  of  inspiration, 
and  in  the  direct  movement  of  the  Divine  Will  upon  man 
by  vision  or  by  voice.     How  easily  it  adapted  itself  to  the 
ordinary  mental  processes  of  its  subject  is   seen  by  the 
remarkable  degree  to  which  this   medium  of  the  Infinite 
remained    Mahomet,   son    of    Abdallah,   still,  —  no    mere 
dreamer,  but  prudent,  skilful,  and   self-controlled  in  the 
details  ot  his  appointed  work.     He  was  of  noble  form,  of 
genial,  tender  manners,  humane  and  sympathetic,  and  of 
an  integrity  that  had  won  him  the  title  of  El  Amin, —  the 
Upright.^     The  tales  of  his  recognizing  with  tears  ol  grati- 
tude, in  a  captive  brought  to  him  after  battle,  the  old  nurse 
who   had  tended   him  in   his  childhood  among  the  Beni- 
Saad ;    of  the   courage  with  which   he   faced   the   rage  of 
Omar;    and   the   firmness   of   his   religious   loyalty,  which 
would  not  yield  to  the  prayers  or  rebukes  of  his  only  pro- 
tector among  the  leaders  of  his  tribe,  —  are  sustained  by 
the  general  tenor  of  his  conduct.     He  had  belonged  to  a 
society  of  chivalrous  men,  formed  for  the   protection  of 
foreign  traders  against  ill  treatment  in  Mecca.     According 
to  tradition,  the  descendant  through  five  generations  from 
the  founder  of  the  glories  of  the  Koreish,  the  real  father  of 
Mecca  itself,  he  was  overarched  by  the  immemorial  majesty 
of  Abraham  and  his   temple,  with   its    holy  stone  coeval 
with    creation.      His    divine  commission   is   foreshadowed 
by  events  in  the   lives  of  his    immediate   ancestors.     His 
father,  thrice  chosen  by  lot  as  a  sacrifice,  is  thrice  saved  by 
substitution  of  animal  victims  on  a  great  scale.    His  grand- 
father is  born  with  white  hair  (innate  wisdom),  digs  out  the 
well  Zemzem.and  finds  old  buried  treasures  of  sacred  things. 
This  messianic  prestige  is  held  of  no  account  by  Sprenger, 
who  places  him  in  a  decayed  branch  of  the  Koreish,  con- 
fined to  the  right  of  supplying  pilgrims  with  water.- 

^  Dozy  :  L'Hisioire  d'Islamisme,  p.  21.     Also  Selections,  etc..  Preface,  pp.  28,  29. 
2  Sprenger:  Das  Leben,  etc.,  i.  141. 


592  ISLAM. 

The  serious  introversion  that  determines  his  destiny  is 
made  conceivable  by  his  having  been  left  an  orphan  in 
infancy,  bereaved  of  his  grandfather's  care  in  boyhood, 
and  set  to  the  lonely  and  despised  work  of  tending  goats. 
However  it  may  be,  he  walks  modestly  and  industriously 
among  men  till  his  hour  comes,  a  trusted  and  honored 
merchant,  whose  chief  employer  is  proud  to  become  his 
wife.  Slowly  the  heavens  and  earth  fill  with  predestined 
vision  and  command.  Everything  in  him  —  powers  and 
defects,  will  and  temperament,  honor  and  fear — works 
together  to  intensify  his  destiny.  Even  the  cataleptic 
trances  serve  to  convince  his  nearest  companions  of  a 
divine  afflatus.  In  his  youth  a  devout  believer  in  the 
popular  polytheism,*  slow  to  fix  his  faith  on  the  absolute 
unity  of  God,  and  overwhelmed  by  the  burden  of  inspi- 
ration which  he  could  not  resist,  the  solitary  dreamer  is 
convulsed  by  spiritual  throes,  in  which  familiar  super- 
stition and  terrible  self-disparagement  by  turns  torment 
him,  till  he  is  driven  to  the  brink  of  self-destruction,  and 
saved  only  by  the  gracious  whispers  of  his  divine  guest. 
He  hurries  back  from  the  desert,  trembling  like  a  child,  to 
the  bosom  of  his  Khadija,  praying  only  to  be  covered, 
whether  from  the  overwhelming  presence  or  from  the 
night-chills  of  his  agony  —  who  can  tell? 

For  two  years  imprisoned  or  shut  out  from  social  sym- 
pathy, his  inward  struggles  become  the  more  impassioned 
and  desperate.  But  the  angel  has  bidden  him  be  patient, 
and  in  due  time  comes  the  self-surrender  and  the  conso- 
lation, and  at  last  the  irresistible  outflaming  of  his  ideal 
into  that  image  of  omnipotent  absolutism  to  which  the 
worship  of  personal  Will  has  in  all  ages  steadily  led  its 
believers.  Yet  he  shows  neither  the  rage  of  the  Christian 
Montanist  nor  the  conceit  of  a  Neoplatonic  theurgist. 
Year  after  year  he  follows  the  command  to  convert  and 

'  Koran,  xclii.  7  ;  Ixiv.  5. 


MAHOMET.  593 

save  mankind,  with  but  one  loyal  woman  to  encourage 
him.  He  counts  but  thirty  followers  as  the  reward  of 
three  years  of  life-and-death  struggle,  not  with  the  proud 
traditions  of  his  native  city  alone,  and  the  Koreish,  their 
representatives,  but  with  the  common-s^ense  of  a  sceptical 
people,  who  had  known  him  from  childhood,  and  who  now 
verily  believed  him  to  be  a  crazy  poet,  and  mocked  him 
with  questions  about  the  latest  news  from  heaven.  It  was 
a  sharp  test  of  his  sincerity  to  be  rejected  by  the  wisest 
and  best  people,  and  ridiculed  by  the  popular  good  sense. 
Yet  he  persevered,  unmoved.  Even  the  kind  remonstrances 
of  Abu  Talib,  his  only  relative  and  protector  among  the 
great  men,  were  put  aside,  though  with  tears.  "  If  Allah 
should  put  the  sun  in  my  right  hand  and  the  moon  in  my 
left,  to  abandon  his  great  work  before  I  have  accomplished 
it  or  to  perish  in  the  attempt,  I  would  not  abandon  it." 
The  brave  old  Arab  was  moved :  "  Say  what  you  will,  I 
will  not  forsake  you."^  Tabari  tells  us  that  the  very  stones 
cried  out  to  hail  him  as  the  prophet  of  God.  Called  on 
to  prove  his  mission  by  miracles,  he  dares  to  rest  every- 
thing on  the  power  of  his  conviction  and  the  efificacy  of 
his  word.  Once^  his  great  central  truth  pales  a  moment 
before  the  temptation  to  a  compromise  for  the  benefit  of 
his  cause,  so  that  he  permits  himself  to  recognize  some 
good  in  the  popular  worship,  though  by  no  means  to  admit 
the  divinity  of  the  false  gods;  and  the  readiness  of  the  peo- 
ple, on  so  slight  a  concession,  to  fall  on  their  knees  before 
Allah,  proves  how  easily  he  could  have  had  their  applause 
for  the  seeking.  But  the  sin  of  policy  will  not  let  him 
rest  till  he  has  renounced  it,  with  all  its  rewards,  even  be- 
fore they  have  been  enjoyed.  No  tampering  with  truth  !  '^ 
Even  when  a  friend  who  had  dared  defend  him,  though 
unconverted,  asks  the  crucial  question  what  has  become  of 

1  Dozy  :  VHutoire  cTIslamisme,  p.  45.  '  Sprenger,  of  course,  makes  the  most  of  it. 

3  Dozy:  V Histoire  d''Isla)nisme,p.  50. 

38 


594  ISLAM, 

his  son,  dying  outside  of  the  true  faith,  the  answer  is  un- 
flinching,— "  He  is  in  hell !  "  and  the  father's  face  is  turned 
away  in  natural  vvrath.^  Though  some  of  his  earliest  fol- 
lowers who  took  refuge  in  Abyssinia  were  of  good  families 
and  not  without  means,  most  of  those  who  heard  gladly 
the  preacher  of  equality  and  a  simple  faith  were  poor, 
ignorant,  and  despised  persons,  many  of  them  slaves.^ 
Naturally  enough,  —  the  data  of  that  problem  being  then 
as  inscrutable  and  inconclusive  as  they  are  now,  —  he  could 
give  but  an  incoherent  account  of  the  methods  by  which 
the  Divine  will  was  made  known  to  him.  Sometimes  the 
revelation  was  gentle,  sometimes  like  the  ringing  of  bells, 
"which  rent  him  in  pieces;  "and  the  interjectional  out- 
breaks and  transitions  of  the  Suras  confirm  his  story. 

Mobbed,  stoned,  assailed  by  plots  and  passions,  his  fol- 
lowers driven  from  Mecca,  outlawed,  imprisoned,  or  starv- 
ing, for  ten  years  Mahomet  struggles  on,  never  doubting 
the  sovereignty  or  the  purpose  of  his  Guide.  The  first 
gleam  of  success  comes  through  the  old  hostility  of  the 
desert  to  the  city,  —  in  the  conversion  of  two  Bedouin 
tribes,  more  from  hate  to  Meccan  aristocracy  than  from 
love  to  him  or  to  each  other;  and  from  their  jealousy  of 
the  Jews  of  Medina,  against  whose  claims  of  a  Messiah 
they  were  glad  to  set  a  prophet  from  their  own  race.  Then 
out  of  the  enmities  of  Mecca  and  Medina  came  the  seventy 
Helpers  (Afisdr')  of  the  latter  city,  who  offer  him  the  one 
possible  refuge.  At  last  he  must  flee  for  his  life,  with  but 
one  companion  to  share  his  perils,  save  that  the  God  of 
his  old  desert  struggles  makes  the  third ;  for  whom,  as  the 
legend  runs,  nothing  stronger  than  a  spider's  web  across 
the  cave's  mouth  was  needed  to  save  the  servant  of  His 
will. 

It  is  a  commonplace,  even  for  liberal  Christianity,  that 
the  life  of  Mahomet  of  itself  proves  on  how  much  lower 

*  Dozy  :  VHisioire  d'Islatnisine,  p.  57.  *  Sprenger  :  Das  Leben,  etc.,  i.  392. 


MAHOMET.  595 

and  narrower  a  plane  his  religion  stands  than  docs  that  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ.  There  is  great  need  of  careful  dis- 
crimination in  the  study  of  religious  ideals ;  but  how  can  a 
more  universal  conception  possibly  be  framed,  so  long  as 
wc  stand  witJiin  the  limited  idea  of  Personal  Revelation, 
than  that  of  one  sole  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  making 
known  His  will  by  sovereign  choice  of  instruments,  "  in 
mercy  to  all  mankind"?  Nor  can  anything  broader  and 
more  humane  be  easily  imagined,  under  these  limits,  than 
Mahomet's  obedience  to  a  moral  and  religious  instinct  in 
the  shape  of  such  a  conception.  "  For  this,"  he  says,  "  I 
ask  of  you  no  wage  but  the  love  of  my  kin."  ^  The  demands 
of  humanity  were  always  closest,  in  his  mind,  to  the  heart 
of  God.  The  fear  of  becoming  poor  through  giving  to 
others  was  a  diabolic  suggestion.  Giving  for  righteous- 
ness' sake  "  is  like  a  grain  of  corn  that  produceth  seven 
ears,  and  each  ear  a  hundred  grains."  ^  All  he  had  and 
gained  was  spent  on  his  work,  and  he  left  neither  debt  nor 
substance  behind  him.  "  Shall  they  have  a  share  in  the 
kingdom,  who  would  not  bestow  on  their  fellow-men  the 
speck  in  a  date-stone?  "^  "  He  who  shall  mediate  between 
men  for  a  good  purpose,"  says  this  reputed  "  Prophet  of  the 
Sword,"  "shall  be  the  gainer  thereby;  but  the  mediator 
for  evil  shall  reap  the  fruit  of  his  doing."  *  When  he  said, 
"  Let  there  be  no  compulsion  in  religion,"^  his  conduct 
showed  that  he  meant  it. 

His  first  success  was  uniting  hostile  tribes  in  a  common 
faith  a;id  purpose,  substituting  referees  for  the  old  tribal 
blood-penalties,  inducing  each  of  his  Meccan  followers  to 
choose  a  brother  among  the  jealous  Helpers  of  Medina, 
and  planting  such  germs  of  cordial  relations  among  all 
believers.^  It  shall  be  an  "  expiation  with  God  "  when 
one  shall  drop  his  right  of  retaliation  according  to   the 

1  Sura  xlii.  22.  ^  Sura  ii.  263.  3  gura  iv.  56. 

*  Sura  iv.  87.  ^  Sura  ii.  257.  *  Il»t  Hishdtn,  i.  250. 


596  ISLAM. 

old  Jewish  law}  Wrangling  over  creeds  is  his  abhor- 
rence. "  What,  wilt  thou  force  men  to  believe,  when  be- 
lief can  come  only  by  the  will  of  God?  "  ^  "  Jew,  Sabean, 
or  Christian,  —  whoever  shall  believe  in  God  and  the  judg- 
ment, and  do  what  is  right,  on  him  shall  come  no  fear."  ^ 
The  constitution,  drawn  up  to  fix  the  relations  of  his  Mec- 
can  fugiti\'cs  with  the  Jews  and  Christians  of  Medina,  is  to 
/similar  effect.^  To  all  conquered  nations  he  offered  liberty 
of  worship  on  payment  of  tribute ;  and  in  this  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  his  first  generals,  so  that  the  Mussulman  arms 
were  welcomed  by  the  oppressed  of  every  land.^  The 
humiliations  to  which  the  vanquished  were  subjected  were 
political  only.  It  is  evident  that  proselytism  by  the  sword 
was  wholly  contrary  to  his  instincts.  His  Islam  itself  be- 
ing substantially  akin  to  Judaism  and  Christianity,  he  was 
strongly  inclined  to  adopt  forms  and  traditions  from  both 
these  faiths.  It  was  Omar  who  lifted  the  standard  of  an  in- 
dependent religion,  and  nationalized  Islam  by  centralizing 
its  worship  in  Mecca  as  the  Kebla,*" — to  Mahomet  merely 
a  matter  of  convenience,  preferred  to  Jerusalem  after  his 
break  with  the  Jews.  "To  God  belong  East  and  West  alike, 
and  whichever  way  ye  turn.  His  face  is  there." '^  Appeal 
to  the  sword  was  involved  in  the  practical  necessities  of  his 
monarchical  creed,  but  it  was  not  deliberately  chosen. 

After  the  flight  to  Medina  his  followers  were  in  great 
indigence,  and  would  have  been  put  to  death  but  for  the 
arms  in  their  hands,^  The  Koreish  had  sworn  Mahomet's 
death,  and  their  army  was  in  the  field  before  he  heard 
God's  command  to  battle.  Enraged  that  they  could  not 
use  him  to  convert  Arabia  to  Judaism,  and  that  his  belief 
was  so  much  simpler  than  their  Talmudic  legends,  the  Jews 

1  Sura  V.  49.  -  Sura  x.  100.  ^  Sura  ii.  59  ;  v.  73. 

*  Sprenger:  Das  Leien,  etc.,  iii.  21. 

^  Dozy :  V Histoire  (f  Islamisme,  p.  1S4.     See  Ahfl  Bekr's  noble  counsels  to  his  army  of 
invasion  on  the  march  to  Syria.     Ockley  :  History  of  the  Saracens,  p.  94  (Bohn). 
^  Sura  ii.  139.  '  Sura  ii,  109.  *  Braun,  p.  5S. 


MAHOMET.  597 

of  Medina  attempted  his  life ;  and  poison  administered  by 
a  Jewess  was  believed  to  be  the  remote  cause  of  his  death. 
On  the  scabbard  of  his  sword,  the  Persian  legend  says, 
was  written:  "Adhere  to  those  who  forsake  you;  speak 
truth  to  your  own  heart ;  do  good  to  every  one  that  does 
ill  to  you."  ^  He  justified  anathema  and  war  on  unbeliev- 
ers, at  first,  on  account  of  their  aggressions.^ 

"The  infideLs  help  each  other;  unless  ye  do  the  same,  there  will  be 
great  demoralization."  ^  "They  regard  not  in  a  believer  either  ties  of 
blood  or  faith  ;  when  they  break  their  oaths  of  alliance,  and  revile  your 
religion  and  attack  you,  then  do  battle  with  them."  * 

It  has  been  well  said  that  it  is  the  political  rather  than 
the  religious  authority  of  Islam  that  has  been  propagated 
by  force.  Mahomet  overturned  governments  in  the  name 
of  God,  like  the  leaders  of  every  other  positive  religion 
save  Buddhism,  but  never  from  love  or  desire  of  mere 
destruction.  His  institutions  prove  this,  —  never  hostile 
to  proprietorship,  never  false  to  the  people,  never  nihilistic 
in  their  iconoclasm. 

The  change  in  Mahomet's  spirit  towards  unbelievers  can 
never  be  understood  by  those  who  do  not  perceive  that 
monotheism,  conceived  as  the  source  of  a  revelation,  must 
be  exclusive  and  destructive  simply  because  it  is  one  of  the 
necessities  of  its  commands  that  they  shall  be  executed. 
It  is  not  revelations,  but  science  and  humanity,  that  allow 
liberty  to  doubt  and  deny.  As  soon  as  a  positive  religion 
has  reached  the  point  of  practical  organization  and  exten- 
sion, and  is  brought  into  conflict  with  the  forces  it  would 
supersede,  it  appeals  to  force  as  naturally  as  it  appealed 
at  first  to  persuasion.     As  soon  as  Christianity  acquired 

*  Deutsch  :  Der  Islam,  p.  6i.  T/ie  Hyai-iil-Kulub  (Merrick,  p.  235)  draws  a  marvellous 
picture  of  the  humanities  with  which  he  invested  the  cruel  necessity  of  war. 

2  Dozy  :  L^Hisi.  des  Mitsui.,  i.  152.  3  Sura  viii.  74. 

*  Why  Sprenger  should  call  this  perfidious,  is  difficult  to  discover.  Ibn  Ishak's  traditions 
maintain  this  self-defensive  character  of  his  warfare.  —  Sprenger,  iii.  4S1.  Ibn  Hisham,  i.  230, 
373i  376-     Sura  ix.  10,  12. 


598  ISLAM. 

strength  enough  to  draw  the  notice  of  the  powers  of  this 
world,  it  forgot  its  non-resistance  and  its  unworldhness, 
and  set  the  example  which  Islam  was  not  slow  to  follow. 
It  rose  to  sway  by  a  warfare  even  more  long-continued  and 
barbarous  against  every  form  of  unbelief;  mostly  waged 
by  civil  and  fraternal  hates.  To  this  day,  wherever  science 
has  not  infused  a  new  soul,  the  old  necessity  of  all  revealed 
religions  —  "  compel  them  to  come  in"  —  holds  its  own,  in 
spirit,  if  not  in  power.  Mahomet  resisted  the  temptation 
to  return  blow  for  blow  as  long  as  it  was  possible.  Had 
he  been  slain  after  a  few  years  of  his  ministry,  or,  like 
Jesus,  at  a  much  earlier  period  of  it,  he  would  have  died 
with  words  of  mercy  and  forgiveness  on  his  lips,  —  a 
divine  man,  but  not  the  founder  of  a  positive  religion. 
While  the  prophet's  function  remains  individual,  he  may 
follow  the  loftiest  ideal;  the  conditions  upon  which  his 
faith  becomes  accepted  and  organized  in  society  are  very 
different.  Whether  it  is  forced  to  meet  them  in  his  own 
person  or  in  the  devotion  of  his  followers  to  his  cause,  the 
price  is  a  sacrifice  of  that  higher  morality  for  ignoble 
means.  In  this  respect,  so  inevitable  is  the  logic  of  ideas 
by  which  each  in  turn  shows  its  imperfection  and  enforces 
a  better ! 

Once  convinced  of  Allah's  will  that  the  new  word  should 
be  received  by  His  creatures,  the  Prophet  naturally  found 
in  every  invincible  condition  of  that  result  a  new  divine 
guidance,  which  glorified  every  instinct  and  demand.  We 
can  only  wonder  that  in  such  an  age  so  much  freedom, 
humanity,  and  constructive  aim  attended  his  steps.  We 
can  mark  the  period  when  the  necessity  of  conquest  took 
possession  of  his  mind,  in  those  haughty  letters-missive  to 
the  emperors  of  Rome  and  Persia,  demanding  submission 
to  the  will  of  God.  Yet  on  the  great  day  of  triumph,  when 
he  entered  the  old  shrine  of  Mecca  and  broke  down  the 
idols,  it  was  not  in  wrath,  but  in  pity, —  announcing  amnesty 


MAHOMET.  599 

almost  universal,  commanding  protection  to  the  weak  and 
poor,  and  freeing  fugitive  slaves.  No  self-exaltation,  but 
the  same  democratic  habit  towards  men,  the  same  humility 
before  God.^  Against  a  few  acts  of  severity^  —  a  part  of 
which  are  fully  proved  to  have  been  military  necessities,  and 
a  part  are  but  indirectly  his  work,  while  all  are  merciful  in 
view  of  what  might  have  been  expected  in  the  situation 
and  the  customs  of  the  times  —  we  may  put  the  prohibition 
of  selling  children  apart  from  their  parents,  the  rebuke  to 
his  generals  for  barbarous  warfare  and  the  effort  to  com- 
pensate the  families  of  their  victims,  incessant  care  for  the 
poor  and  suftering,  and  hosts  of  noble  precepts  for  making 
religion  one  with  humanity.^  Even  the  list  of  graver 
charges  which  Renan  and  Sprenger  have  given  in  full,  — 
such  as  direct  deception  for  his  own  advantage,  charged  on 
the  will  of  God,  and  a  general  policy  of  paltering  with  the 
moral  law,  —  have  in  part  been  disproved,  and  in  part  are 
explicable  as  natural  in  one  whose  single  aim  was  the  fulfil- 
ment of  an  inspired  mission ;  as  Renan  somewhat  naively 
says,  "  Man  is  too  weak  to  bear  the  burden  of  apostleship 
very  long."  It  would  be  equally  true  to  add  that  the 
sense  of  inspiration  is  simply  the  self-affirmation  of  one's 
whole  nature,  —  rational,  passionate,  instinctive,  as  alike 
instruments  to  the  appointed  end."*  There  is  no  instance 
in  history  of  a  religious  founder  under  these  conditions 
so  ready  as  Mahomet  to  confess  his  faults,  whether  of 
momentary  weakness  towards  idolatry  or  of  personal  un- 
kindness  towards  others.  The  early  death  of  Jesus  was 
fortunate  for  his  example,  but  it  did  not  alter  the  law  of 
deterioration ;   that  was  only  reserved  for  those  who  gave 

'  Smith,  p.  128.     Sprenger  :  Das  Leben,  etc.,  iii.  331. 

*  See  these  charges  in   Sprenger,  iii.  chap.  xix.     On  the  other  side,  Smith,  pp.   122,  123. 
Freeman  :  Conquests  of  the  Saracens,  pp.  42-49. 

2  Poole:   Introduction  to   Lane's  Selectio^is  from  the   Koran,  pp.  Ixiii-Ixv.     Sprenger, 

J    321- 

'  Renan:    Etudes  d'Histoire  Relif^ieuse,  p.   252.      See  Bosworth  Smith,  pp.   122,   123. 
Also  Freeman  :  Conquests  of  ilie  Saracens,  pp.  42-49. 


600  ISLAM. 

his  church  its  hold   on  society.      This  burden   Mahomet 
could  not  shift  from  his  own  neck. 

Mahomet  had  a  great  sensuous  nature,  and  it  was  doubt- 
less a  source  of  his  success.  But  polygamy  was  the  ine- 
radicable demand  for  male  offspring  in  the  East ;  nor  did 
his  permission  of  it,  under  the  conditions  he  enforced, 
add  to  its  strength.  For  himself,  his  fidelity  to  his  wife 
Khadija  during  her  whole  life,  and  his  devout  gratitude 
to  her  to  the  end  of  his  own,  outweigh  all  charges  of 
mere  bald  sensualism  on  the  excesses  of  his  later  years. 
All  his  children  were  born  before  he  entered  on  his  mis- 
sion, and  all  were  Khadija's.  The  propensity  to  enlarge 
his  harem  was  gradually  developed,  and  has  been  ascribed 
by  Sprcnger  to  a  phase  in  his  nervous  disease.  Yet  the 
same  critic  has  dealt  much  too  severely  with  his  procur- 
ing the  cession  of  a  wife  from  his  follower  Zeyd,  —  an  act 
which  can  only  be  judged  after  a  full  view  of  the  persons 
and  relations.  The  supreme  rights  of  the  Prophet  in  these 
and  other  respects  are  simply  analogous  to  those  assumed 
by  all  other  claimants  of  special  revelation  and  authority. 

Low  as  was  Mahomet's  estimate  of  woman  and  rude  as 
Islam  has  always  been  to  her  in  his  name,  devoid  as  the 
Koran  is  of  that  chivalrous  spirit  of  which  she  was  the 
ideal  in  the  life  of  the  older  Arabs,  his  regulations  really 
improved  her  condition,  by  abolishing  the  cruelties  to 
female  children,  by  limiting  the  number  of  wives  for  each 
man,  punishing  infidelity  and  kindred  crimes  with  extreme 
severity,  making  divorces  less  easy  and  subject  to  severer 
conditions  and  humane  obligations,  and  requiring  proof 
by  four  witnesses  of  adultery  on  the  part  of  a  wife.^ 
Mahomet  gave  women  the  right  of  inheritance,  —  half  a 
male's  part,  —  and  the  right  of  disposing  of  property ;  and 
forbade  temporary  marriage  arrangements,  besides  putting 
the  children  of  concubines  on  a  level  with  those  of  wives.^ 

1  See,  especially,  Sura  iv.;  Ixv.  i-6.  ^  Sura  iv.  23. 


MAHOMET.  60I 

The  prevailing  belief  that  the  Koran  does  not  admit  that 
women  have  souls  or  enter  Paradise,  is  absurd;^  as  also 
the  idea,  hardly  reconcilable  therewith,  that  its  Paradise  is 
sensual.  With  all  the  external  joys  familiar  to  the  Arab, 
as  in  all  apocalyptic  promises,  highly  colored  pictures  and 
symbols  are  used  to  attract  the  tastes  of  the  worshippers; 
yet  IMahomet,  as  elsewhere,  subordinates  the  passions  to 
the  moral  law. 

"  How  happy  shall  be  the  people  of  the  right  hand  !  in  extended 
shade  by  flowing  waters  and  with  abundant  fruits,  unfailing  and  un- 
forbidden." "And  they  shall  have  wives  of  perfect  purity,  and  abide 
there  forever."  - 

Even  Hallam  admits  that  Mahomet  did  not  rely  on 
sensual  inducements  for  the  spread  of  his  system. ^  Where 
have  the  sexes  been  placed  on  a  more  perfect  religious 
equality  than  in  the  following  passage  of  the  Koran,  — 

"  The  men  who  resign  themselves  to  God,  and  the  women  who 
resign  themselves,  and  the  men  and  women  believing  and  devout, 
and  the  men  and  women  patient,  humble,  fast-observing,  alms- 
giving, chaste,  —  for  them  has  God  prepared  forgiveness  and  a  rich 
reward."  * 

That  the  common  idea  of  the  influence  of  the  Koran 
on  the  condition  of  woman  is  exaggerated,  at  least,  ap- 
pears from  the  testimony  of  careful  observers  like  Stanley 
Poole,  who  says  that  "  in  many  important  senses  a  Turkish 
woman  has  more  liberty  than  an  English,  being  in  her 
home  perfect  mistress  of  her  time  and  her  property." 
Similar  and  even  stronger  testimony  is  given  by  Geary, 
Urquhart,  Farley,  and  De  Amicis,  to  the  freedom  and  pu- 
rity of  woman  in  Turkey.^  The  comparative  infrequency 
of  prostitution  in  Mahometan  countries  has  been  generally 

1  Sura  iv.  123  ;  xiii.  23;  xl.  44;  xlviii.  5,  etc.  2  Sura  Ivi.  20-30;  ii.  23. 

3  MiM/e  Ages,  chap.  vi.  4  Sura  xxxiii.  35. 

s  Poole:  Modern  Turkey,  chaps,  iv.  xv.  Geary:  Travels  through  Asiatic  Turkey. 
Urquhart :  The  Spirit  of  the  East,  i.  252.  De  Amicis :  Turks  0/  Consta7itinople,  pp.  212- 
226.     Farley:  Modern  Turkey  {iSjz^,  p^.  116-130. 


602  ISLAM. 

observed ;  and  several  recent  travellers  have  ventured  to 
show  conclusively  how  great  are  the  compensations  for 
the  evils  of  Mussulman  polygamy  in  the  regulation  and 
restraint  of  the  passions.  That  the  institutions  of  the 
Koran  are  no  bar  to  the  progress  of  woman,  appears  not 
only  from  the  immense  influence  always  accorded  to  her 
in  public  and  private  affairs,  but  from  positive  decisions  of 
Imams  like  Abu  Hanifa,  that  women  could  lawfully  exer- 
cise the  functions  of  a  judge,  and  from  the  special  honor 
in  which  they  were  held  in  the  splendid  days  of  Sara- 
cen Spain  and  under  the  great  caliphs  of  the  East,  before 
the  theologians  began  to  preach  the  sinfulness  of  earthly 
love. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  Mahomet  should  attempt 
the  abolition  of  slavery.  He  did  what  had  been  the  ex- 
tent of  Christian  work  in  that  direction  by  many  mitigating 
precepts  and  laws,^  forbidding  the  separation  of  parents 
and  children,  putting  the  duty  of  kindness  towards  the 
slave  on  the  same  ground  with  the  claims  of  "  kindred 
and  neighbors  and  fellow-travellers  and  wayfarers ;"  ^  en- 
couraging manumission,  and  therewith  the  gift  of  "  a 
portion  of  that  wealth  which  God  hath  given  you ;  "  and 
above  all,  forbidding  sensual  uses  of  a  master's  power  over 
the  slave,  with  the  promise  of  divine  mercy  to  the  wronged.^ 
To  free  a  slave  is  the  expiation  for  ignorantly  slaying  a 
believer,'*  and  for  certain  forms  of  untruth.  As  we  have 
already  seen,  the  whole  tenor  of  Mahomet's  teaching 
made  permanent  chattelhood  or  caste  impossible ;  and  it 
is  simply  an  abuse  of  words  to  apply  the  word  slavery,  in 
our  sense,  to  any  status  known  to  the  legislation  of  Islam. 
From  the  slave-laws  of  the  early  caliphate,  by  which  a 
fugitive  fleeing  to  Islam  became  free,  and  the  child  of  a 
slave-woman  followed  the  condition  of  the  father,  while 

'  Kremer:   Cttlturgesch.  tintcr  d.  Khalifen,  ii.  loi. 

*  Sura  iv.  40.  ^  Sura  xxiv.  33.  ^  Sura  iv.  94. 


MAHOMET.  603 

the  mother  became  free  at  his  death,  and  the  slave  could 
contract  for  his  freedom,  and  part  of  the  poor-tax  went  to 
his  rehef,  down  to  the  institutions  of  modern  Mussul- 
man countries,  which  allow  the  bondman  of  to-day  to 
become  the  grand  vizier  of  to-morrow,  the  status  of  slaves 
has  stood  for  a  political  incident,  not  a  state  of  nature,  nor 
even  for  a  degraded  race.^ 

It  would  be  wrong  to  omit  here  the  peculiar  tenderness 
of  Mahomet  towards  the  brute  creation.  The  horse  and 
camel,  true  protectors  of  the  desert  man,  inherit  the  mys- 
tic honors  torn  from  broken  idols  and  cowering  super- 
stitions. Islam  admits  into  Paradise  the  dog  of  the  Seven 
Sleepers,  the  whale  of  Jonah,  the  calf  of  x^braham,  the  ram 
of  Ishmael,  the  mule  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  the  ox  of 
Moses,  and  the  ass  of  Mahomet,  —  a  broader  recognition 
of  the  humbler  forms  of  life  and  service  than  that  of  the 
hero  of  the  Hindu  epic  who  refused  to  enter  heaven  with- 
out the  company  of  his  faithful  dog. 

From  the  hour  of  mental  anguish  when  he  struggles  to 
escape  the  conviction  of  an  immeasurable  divine  task,  to 
that  in  which,  his  message  borne  and  his  mission  fulfilled, 
he  dies,  old  before  his  time,  amidst  mourning  companions, 
distributing  his  few  goods  to  the  poor,  and  murmuring  of 
Paradise  and  the  prophets  before  him,  —  when  the  devo- 
tion of  Omar  will  not  suffer  him  to  believe  the  great  life 
has  departed,  and  he  rushes  out  wildly  to  deny  that  it  is 
so  before  the  people,  so  that  Abu  Bekr  has  to  silence  him 
with  the  admonition,  "  Know  ye  that  the  Prophet  was  but 
a  man,  and  has  died  like  the  rest;  but  let  those  who  trust 
him  understand  that  God  can  never  die,"  —  through  all 
that  is  hard  and  semi-barbarous,  self-delusive,  and  seem- 
ingly self-seeking  in  his  thinking  and  doing,  there  is 
indubitable  evidence  of  an  absolute  sincerity  and  an 
almost  equally  absolute    power,  natural    enough    thereto, 

1  Kremer  :   Culturgesch.  dcs  Orients  unicr  d.    Chalifen,  ii.  18. 


604  ISLAM. 

of  attracting,  convincing,  and  controlling  men  and  things. 
His  consecration  to  his  great  idea  was  not  less  perfect 
than  its  necessity  to  his  age ;  and  its  compulsion  utilized 
his  virtues  and  his  faults  by  a  force  of  tendency  beyond  all 
measurement.  He  stands  as  the  truest  type  of  that  great 
phase  in  the  evolution  of  religious  belief, — faith  in  author- 
itative private  revelation  from  a  divine  sovereign  Will,  — 
whose  good  and  evil  alike  are  now  rapidly  becoming  su- 
perseded by  a  higher.  And  of  this  faith  Mahomet  was 
the  truest  type  among  all  Semitic  prophets  and  religious 
founders,  because  he  alone  in  his  own  lifetime  vindicated 
its  practical  and  political  demands.  Accordingly,  his  per- 
sonal history  will  be  found  to  associate  itself  more  readily 
than  those  of  other  representatives  of  the  class  with  our 
experience  of  the  new  phase  of  religion  to  which  the  old 
faith  in  positive  revelations  has  given  way. 

His  purely  historical  character;  his  simple  humanity, 
claiming  only  to  be  a  man  among  men  and  an  imperfect 
instrument  of  the  truth  ;  his  intense  realism,  avoiding  all 
mystical  remoteness;  his  rejection  of  miracle;  the  thor- 
oughly democratic  and  universal  form  under  which  his 
idea  of  the  divine  monarchy  led  him  to  conceive  the  rela- 
tions of  men ;  the  force  of  his  ethical  appeal ;  his  reliance 
on  the  voice  and  pen,  and  his  strenuous  endeavor  for 
peaceful  interpretations  of  a  religious  ideal  with  which 
his  own  history  is  the  most  perfect  evidence  of  his  incom- 
patibility,—  all  affiliate  Mahomet  with  the  modern  world. 
These  elements  of  positive  monotheism  are  predictive  of 
humanitarian  science.  The  passion  of  Islam  for  science 
for  five  centuries,  and  its  prodigious  influence  on  intellect- 
ual progress,  are  not  accidental ;  they  came  in  the  natural 
development  of  the  Prophet's  faith  in  the  unity  and  order 
of  the  universe  and  the  uses  of  this  present  world.  These 
are  foundations  of  science ;  and  only  the  principle  of  per- 
sonal Will  throned  above  them  became  a  barrier  to  liberty 


MAHOMET.  605 

and  progress,  especially  in  its  human  analogue  of  a  des- 
potic caliph  or  sultan.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that  Islam 
has  been  the  entering  wedge  for  civilization  among  lower 
races.  The  doctrine  of  one  God  and  one  Prophet,  speak- 
ing in  strict  moral  edicts  of  unlimited  authority,  without 
pretence  of  theological  mysteries,  offers  a  comparatively 
easy  step  out  of  barbarian  rites  and  superstitions.  Un- 
encumbered by  speculative  modifications,  and  moving  with 
the  tremendous  fanaticism  of  the  full  sense  of  direct  reve- 
lation, it  has  proved,  especially  among  the  tribes  of  Asia 
and  Africa,  capable  of  doing  what  no  other  positive  re- 
ligion could  do  in  lifting  the  lowest  members  of  the  human 
family  into  the  paths  of  brotherhood.  But  this  is  only  a 
part  of  its  achievement.  Fertile  in  splendid  epochs  of 
civilization,  in  every  form  of  free  speculation,  and  in 
noble  endeavors  after  the  largest  unities  and  sympathies 
of  faith,  and  adapting  itself  to  more  varied  forms  of  race 
and  culture  than  any  other  religious  proselytism,  it  well 
deserves  the  honor  accorded  it  in  the  declaration  of  Ori- 
ental scholarship,  that  "  there  is  no  grander  landmark  in 
history."  ^ 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  Islam  in 
detail.  It  interests  us  at  present  only  as  interwoven  with 
the  history  of  Iranian  religions,  and  thereby,  in  a  larger 
point  of  view,  as  illustrating  the  connection  betAveen  re- 
ligions of  personal  Will  by  revelation  and  that  universal 
form  of  religion  which  is  being  shaped  out  of  free  science, 
philosophy,  and  faith,  —  the  worship  of  Cosmic  Order,  Unity, 
and  Law.  Islam  is  the  ultimate  and  consistent  expression 
of  that  earlier  basis  of  authority  which  we  have  been  tra- 
cing through  its  phases  as  the  Iranian  ideal  to  its  abstract 
logical  perfection  in  the  Koran.  Whatever  has  succeeded 
Islam  on  that  line  of  belief  is  an  impure  intermixture  and 
transformation  of  the  original  idea  by  the  contact  of  other 

-  Cust:  Linguistic  and  Oriental  Essays,  p.  129. 


6o6  ISLAM. 

tendencies,  ethnic,  secular,  and  wholly  antagonistic  in  their 
direction  to  its  theory  of  origin  and  authority.  Yet  to  this 
more  rational  philosophy  of  religion  the  pure  monarchical 
idea  was  the  transition.  It  was  the  purest  conception  of 
unity  possible  till  this  should  be  reached. 

Intense  as  its  germination  was  in  Semitic  Arabia,  Iran 
was  really  its  natural  field  of  development.  The  study  of 
the  conditions  to  which  it  was  subject  after  the  conquest 
of  the  Persian  empire,  is  of  the  highest  historic  value  ;  and 
it  is  one  which,  indicating  the  necessities  involved  in  re- 
vealed monotheism  and  its  steps  over  into  a  rational  faith, 
has,  so  far  as  I  know,  never  been  pursued.  The  great 
works  of  Sprenger,  Weil,  and  Kremer,  invaluable  as  his- 
torical researches,  do  not  touch  this  point  of  view,  save  as 
affording  worthy  material  for  its  illustration,^  To  this  we 
shall  now  devote  our  attention. 

We  have  found  that  one  inevitable  result  of  the  idea  of 
revelation  by  Divine  Will  through  the  prophet  or  media- 
tor, whether  pretending  to  infallibility  or  otherwise,  has 
been  his  elevation  into  that  supreme  dignity  to  which  his 
representative  function  legitimately  points ;  so  that  he 
either  becomes  God,  or  is,  under  some  superficial  dis- 
tinction, practically  inseparable  from  God.  If  this  was 
not  the  case  in  Judaism,  it  was  because  the  law  of  Moses, 
as  the  expression  of  Jahveh  and  his  will,  was  not  made 
known  at  once  by  a  single  prophet,  as  Christianity  and 
Islam  were  supposed  to  be,  but  was  the  slow  product  of 
national  experience  and  foreign  influence;  and  its  mono- 
latry  could  not  be  ascribed  to  one  person,  although  the 
later  priestly  construction  of  the  national  literature  strove 
hard  for  that  end.     Therefore  Judaism  became  the  wor- 

'  It  should  be  said  that  the  work  of  Kremer  (Herrschende  Ideen  d.  Islam)  has  by 
far  the  most  claim  to  philosophical  breadth  of  any  thus  far  offered  to  the  public;  yet  its  aim 
is  not  to  cover  the  relations  of  special  religions  to  the  law  of  their  development. 


MAHOMET.  607 

ship  of  the  Law,  rather  than  of  Moses  or  the  prophets. 
Moreover,  the  apotheosis  of  a  rehgious  revelator  must 
depend  in  large  degree  on  the  promulgation  of  his  word 
being  speedily  followed  by  a  speculative  and  mystical 
period  in  its  development;  and  this  period  was  not  possi- 
ble for  the  Hebrews  until  after  the  return  from  Babylon, 
and  the  conscious  reconstruction  of  the  religion  in  a  very 
un-Mosaic  manner.  In  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
conditions  of  the  age  favored  an  immediate  commence- 
ment of  the  idealizing  process ;  and  the  Will  of  God,  as 
revealed  in  Jesus,  rapidly  became  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
himself.  We  shall  now  observe  the  same  process  i.ii  the 
kindred  religion  of  Islam.  Here,  also,  the  Person  above 
was  soon  inevitably  merged  and  lost  in  the  Person  or 
Persons  below. 

Incarnation  of  the  Personal  Power,  or  Powers,  of  the 
universe  in  a  human  will  was  of  course  familiar  to  Asiatic 
races  and  religions.  Buddhism  carried  it  everywhere  in 
its  northward  and  westward  march.  The  Persians  had 
long  called  their  chiefs  gods.  Brahmanism  embodied  it 
in  its  priesthood,  every  member  of  which  was  himself  a 
Brahma.  But  that  identity  with  Deity  which  belongs  to 
its  human  organs  reaches  its  complete  form  only  in  pure 
monotheism,  where  the  unity  of  the  original  makes  the 
process  of  human  representation  more  simple  and  clear. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  Islam,  with  all  that  horror  of 
"joining  gods  with  God,"  which  was  expressed  by  Ma- 
homet, has  been  a  hive  of  anthropolatry  at  every  point 
of  its  history.  This  fact  is  of  the  utmost  importance, 
as  showing  by  the  full  confession  of  revealed  religion 
itself  the  necessity  of  a  principle  more  universal  than  its 
worship  of  a  personal  consciousness,  which  involves  this 
localization  and  confinement  of  the  ideal  in  powerful 
human  personalities,  or  in  what  historical  conditions  have 
caused  to  appear  as  such. 


6o8  ISLAM. 

In  Islam  the  process  began  with  the  first  establishment 
of  the  Arabs  on  the  great  rivers  of  Asia  in  the  idealization 
of  Mahomet  himself.  It  was  continued  in  the  worship  of 
All ;  later  in  that  of  the  twelve  Imams;  and  still  further  in 
the  immense  hagiology  of  subsequent  times. 

Such  is  the  first  form  under  which  these  limitations  of 
the  class  of  religions  now  before  us  were  apparent  in  Islam. 
There  is  also  a  second  form.  It  is  the  concentration  of 
aspiration,  discussion,  and  momentous  purpose  on  purely 
personal  questions ;  in  other  words,  on  the  rights  of  oppos- 
ing claimants  for  religious  honors.  The  relation  of  such 
facts  to  the  law  of  historic  development,  which  is  merging 
"  revealed  religion "  in  the  higher  recognition  and  use 
of  human  reason  in  the  discovery  of  truth,  is  at  once 
obvious. 

I.  Iran,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  pre-eminently  the  land 
of  hero-worship.  Its  god-kings  of  Assyria  and  Babylon, 
its  homage  to  Cyrus,  its  cultus  of  Alexander,  its  admira- 
tion of  the  Sassanian  Ardeshir  and  Nushirvan,  made  it 
natural  that  Mahomet  should  be  greeted  as  the  Star  of 
the  West,  and  that  in  less  than  ten  years  the  whole  em- 
pire should  have  submitted  to  his  sway.  That  wonderful 
achievement  was  due  to  an  idealizing  imagination  rather 
than  to  mental  or  moral  assent.  It  was  the  immense 
transformation  wrought  by  Persian  intellect  on  Arabian 
zeal  and  passion,  that  made  of  the  desert-born  creed  an 
all-constructive  and  enduring  power. 

The  apotheosis  of  Mahomet  began  very  early,  not- 
withstanding the  strong  reaction  that  opened  against  him 
in  Arabia  immediately  after  his  death,  and  the  succession 
of  the  Omeyyad  family  (his  personal  enemies)  to  the  cali- 
phate. The  sound  sense  of  Abu  Bekr,  the  overshadowing 
military  and  organizing  genius  of  Omar,  the  historical 
tastes  of  Othman,  the  extraordinary  manliness  and  free- 


MAHOMET,  609 

dom  of  the  leaders  whom  the  Prophet  had  drawn  around 
him,  —  "no  mere  fanatics,  but  men  of  practical  insight, 
and  susceptible  of  lofty  impressions,"  ^  —  could  not  pre- 
vent the  operation  of  a  tendency  involved  in  the  very 
substance  of  his  claim.  The  teacher  who  always  assured 
his  followers,  in  all  humility,  that  as  prophet  he  had  no 
higher  function  than  to  transmit  a  book  written  in  heaven, 
nevertheless  did  assume  an  exclusive  commission,  which 
absorbed  his  human  nature  in  the  supernal  splendors  of  a 
divine  election.  He  claimed  to  have  been  authenticated 
by  prophetic  scriptures  as  conveyor  to  mankind  of  saving 
truth  direct  from  the  mouth  of  God,  who  spake  indeed  in 
the  first  person  familiarly  from  his  lips.  How  could  he 
fail  to  be  regarded  as  the  intercessor  for  his  followers,  and 
even  for  his  nation  as  such,  at  the  judgment  and  before  the 
throne?  The  legend  relates  that  Moses  asked  Allah  to 
reward  the  good  deeds  of  Jews  tenfold,  and  to  grant  them 
other  prerogatives  over  other  races;  but  Allah  replied, 
"  These  privileges  are  accorded  only  to  believers  in  Ma- 
homet, in  whose  name  even  Adam  prayed  to  me."  ^ 
Soon  his  intervention  became  necessary  for  the  attain- 
ment of  Paradise  even  by  the  good,  and  his  name  had 
magic  virtue  to  the  same  end.  Even  at  this  day  the  pil- 
grim at  his  grave  cries,^  "  Thou  must  be  our  advocate  ! 
Intercede,  oh !  intercede  for  us  whose  sins  have  broken 
our  backs  !  "  Mahomet  had  said,  "  Whoso  visits  my  grave 
shall  have  my  good  word  with  God  ;  "  ^  and  even  Al  Ghaz- 
zali,  who  allows  the  tradition  that  he  had  in  his  lifetime 
deprecated  the  future  use  of  his  grave  for  an  "  idol  stone," 
is  careful  to  observe  that  he  had  afterwards  instituted  this 
very  cult.^  The  name  of  the  Son  of  Abdallah  is  men- 
tioned, like  that  of  Christ  in  Christian  churches,  in  every 

1  Sprenger:  Appendix  to  chap.  v.     See  his  account  of  them  in  detail. 

*  Weil:  Biblical  Legends,  151. 

8  Kremer  :  Die  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam,  p.  284. 

*  Braun  :  Geiiidlde  d.  Islam,  p.  435.  "J  Kremer  :  CuUurgesch.,  etc.,  p.  296. 

39 


6lO  ISLAM. 

prayer.  In  every  feast  it  is  the  benediction,  in  every  peril 
a  charm,  in  every  grief  and  loss  a  victory  over  death. 
He  had  divided  the  Jordan  by  a  word ;  he  had  pierced 
the  veil  that  hides  the  innermost  heavens.  It  was  denied 
that  he  had,  even  in  youth,  been  an  idolater,  or  had  ever 
wavered  in  his  faith.  His  own  brief  reference  to  a  vision  of 
visiting  Jerusalem  was  magnified  at  once  into  the  amazing 
myth  of  Borak  and  the  night  journey  to  heaven.^  He  was 
dogmatically  pronounced  sinless  and  infallible,  the  black 
drop  having  been  taken  from  his  heart  by  Gabriel ;  and 
the  world  was  held  to  have  been  created  for  his  sake. 

In  Arabia,  the  free  spirit  of  the  desert  refused  this  per- 
sonal homage,  as  the  Jewish  Christians  refrained  from  a 
like  homage  to  Jesus.  The  ablutions,  fasts,  and  organized 
forms  of  his  religion  could  take  no  root  in  the  Arab's  semi- 
nomadic  life,  and  never  supplanted  the  old  usages,  which 
sprung  from  the  nature  of  the  country  and  immemorial  so- 
cial needs.^  But  in  Persia  the  apotheosis  went  on  without 
restraint.  The  emanative  Light,  before  creation  deposited 
in  Adam's  loins,  shining  on  the  brows  of  patriarchs,  ex- 
panded into  twenty  spiritual  oceans,  and  avoiding  contact 
with  impure  persons  or  with  even  the  shadow  of  a  doubt, 

—  down  to  its  perfect  incarnation  in  Mahomet,  and  re- 
solved at  last  into  the  ideal  Mahomet  of  the  panthe- 
istic Sufis,  in  whom,  as  in  Jesus,  multitudes  of  devotees 
were  absorbed,  bearing  his  very  stigmata  on  their  persons, 

—  corresponded  essentially,  if  not  in  detail,  to  the  Logos- 
Christ,  the  Gnostic  ^Eons,  and  to  the  God-Christ  of  the 
later  saints  and  mystics.  This  mythic  exaltation,  with  the 
innumerable  cosmic  miracles  afterwards  gathered  about 
his   birth,  was   no    imitation    of  Christian    precedents,   as 

'  Ibn  Hisham,  from  Ibti  Ishak,  i.  196-202. 

2  Yet  even  in  Arabia  there  was  his  genealogy  to  work  on  ;  and  nothing  in  this  kind  ever 
equalled  that  of  Mahomet's  "mothers,"  traced  back  for  ages,  to  the  number  of  five  hundred, 
every  tribe  supplying  an  ancestress,  with  names  and  branches  past  number.  Sprenger  :  Intro- 
duction, chap.  xlii. 


MAHOMET.  6ll 

Sprenger  constantly  intimates,  but  the  natural  evolution 
of  this  form  of  religious  belief.^  In  the  Persian  "  Hyat-ul- 
Kulub  "  his  ancestry  are  immaculate ;  Satan  shrieks  and 
falls  headlong  at  his  advent,  and  Paradise  is  suffused  with 
joy.  He  is  the  crown  of  humility,  forgiveness,  and  every 
virtue,  and  his  presence  converts  the  worst  to  humanity. 
So  commanding  are  his  beauty  and  majesty  that  no  one 
could  resist  them,  and  no  unjust  person  could  stand  before 
him  till  right  had  been  done.  The  elements  do  him  hom- 
age as  he  walks  the  earth,  and  the  angel  of  death  must  ask 
his  permission  to  cross  his  threshold  to  bear  him  to  Para- 
dise. He  is  lord  of  life  and  death,  and  his  body  transcends 
their  laws.^  Such  the  transfiguration  of  the  man  who 
would  hear  of  no  miracle  but  his  revealed  word.  It  is 
true  that  the  Shiite  prayers  are  generally  addressed  to 
Allah,  and  the  Prophet  and  his  Imams  are  but  remembered 
in  them ;  but  we  shall  see  that  the  spirit,  as  we  have  just 
described  it,  must  interpret  the  form. 

No  doubt  his  real  personality  had  much  to  do  with  this 
swift  exaltation.  The  oldest  traditions  testify  at  least  of 
the  awe  and  love  of  his  companions.  They  say  of  Omar, 
that  he  cut  a  Moslem  in  two  who  appealed  from  the 
Prophet's  judgment  to  his  own.-^  One  of  his  companions 
avowed  that  he  should  prize  one  of  the  master's  hairs 
beyond  all  the  gold  and  silver  in  the  world.*  His  wife 
Ayesha  is  made  to  describe  him  as  more  beautiful  than  a 
veiled  virgin ;  as  sympathetic  with  every  mood  or  experi- 
ence, even  with  the  sports  of  little  children ;  as  making 
every  one  in  a  company  think  that  he  was  his  most  favored 
guest;  as  incapable  of  withholding  anything  he  had  from 
those   who    had    need.^      No    Moslem    ever    doubted    the 

*  Wackidi,  p   36.  ^  Merrick :  Hyat-ul-Kiduh,  pp.  36,  37. 
3  Tales  of  the  Kalifihate,  p.  256. 

*  Wakidi,  p.  279.  Muir:  The  Life  of  Mahomet  and  History  <y  A/a ;«,  Introduction, 
XX  ix. 

^  See  Muir:   The  Life  of  Maho?net,  etc.,  ii.  305. 


6l2  ISLAM. 

authenticity  of  his  dying  words,  — "  By  the  Lord,  verily  no 
man  can  lay  hold  of  me  on  any  matter.  I  have  made  noth- 
ing lawful  except  what  God  hath  made  lawful,  nor  permitted 
anything  which  He  hath  in  His  Book  forbidden."-^ 

The  line  of  personal  traditions  in  which  the  divinizing  of 
the  Prophet  has  gone  on,  began  at  a  very  early  period,  in 
fact  immediately  after  his  death.^  They  had  become  enor- 
mous in  quantity  by  the  second  century  of  the  Hegira, 
though  not  more  enormous  or  monstrous  than  those  which 
have  grown  up  around  the  Christ  and  his  saints.  The  ra- 
pidity of  their  growth  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a  com- 
piler who  died  in  the  year  58  of  the  Hegira  had  collected 
three  thousand  five  hundred  from  the  immediate  hearers 
of  the  Prophet,  as  rehearsed  to  their  scholars.  All  the 
companions  and  contemporaries  of  Mahomet  were  busied 
in  collecting  them.^  Before  the  age  of  the  great  Abbaside 
caliphs  the  science  of  tracing  traditions  through  long  series 
of  verbal  witnesses  had  become  perfected,  orthodoxy  being 
of  course  the  chief  test  of  authority.  Of  the  multitude  of 
those  examined  by  the  great  scholar  Bokhari,  only  one  in 
one  hundred  and  fifty  stood  the  test  of  his  conscientious 
inquiries  ;  and  of  these,  "  modern  criticism  would  certainly 
strike  out  half."  Yet  the  patient  honesty  with  which  the 
millions  of  a  later  growth  still  have  been  wrought  over  by 
scholars  to  form  the  orthodox  Siinna  is  at  least  respecta- 
ble, and  Sprenger  does  not  despair  of  reducing  the  inter- 
minable series  of  authorities  to  something  like  historical 
value.  The  prodigious  energy  of  these  constructions  is 
shown  in  the  earliest  biography  of  the  Prophet  now  extant, 
that  of  Ibn  Ishak,  transcribed  and  enlarged  with  great  care 
by  Ibn  Hisham,  dating  as  far  back  as  the  early  part  of  the 
second  century  of  the  Hegira.'*    The  endless  minuteness  of 

*  See  Muir:   TJie  Life  of  Maho7net,  etc.,  lii.  277. 

*  Sprenger:  Das  Leben,  etc.,  iii.  61.  s  Ibid.,  iii.  Ixxxiii.,  bcxxv. 

*  Translated  by  Weil  (1864).  See  also  Sprenger  (Zeitschr.  d.  Devtsch.  Morgenl- 
Geselhch.i  xiv.).     Leben  Moh.  iii.  Ixi.     Mohl:    Vingt-sept  ans,  etc.,  ii.  627. 


MAHOMET.  613 

detail,  both  in  names  and  events,  given  us  in  this  simple 
and  unadorned  chronicle,  the  treasures  of  contemporary 
poetry  gathered  around  it,  the  natural  appreciation  of 
parties  and  situations,  and  the  impartial  hearing  to  their 
diverse  reports,  combine  to  produce  upon  the  reader  an 
impression  of  reality  which  is  only  weakened  by  the  quiet 
confidence  of  the  author  in  miracles  as  accredited  facts. 
Not  only  is  the  supernatural  power  of  the  Prophet  in  full 
play  thus  early,  even  to  the  sacredness  of  his  person  from 
attacks,  and  the  homage  of  nature  to  his  presence,  but 
the  adoration  of  him  has  gone  so  far  that  his  com- 
mon replies  are  quoted  as  the  words  of  Allah,  not  as  his 
own ;  and  his  whole  speech  and  conduct  from  birth  to 
death,  as  well  as  his  Koran,  are  evidently  regarded  as 
divine.  The  energy  of  the  mythopoetic  tendency  in  thus 
rapidly  divinizing  the  founders  of  positive  religions,  espe- 
cially Semitic,  becomes  the  more  astonishing  when  we 
consider  how  entirely  the  amazing  capacity  of  the  Arabs 
for  accurately  remembering  oral  testimony,  as  well  as  the 
conscientious  use  of  it  in  Ibn  Ishak's  researches,^  failed 
even  to  retard  the  process.  Nothing  at  all  comparable 
to  this  check  upon  the  traditional  imagination  existed  in 
the  Jewish  mind  during  the  infancy  of  the  Christian  rec- 
ords ;  so  that  the  rapid  formation  of  a  deific  halo  about 
the  head  of  Jesus  became  a  fortiori  a  fact  of  easy  and 
natural  explanation. 

So  fruitful  of  personal  theopoetic  traditions  is  a  revealed 
religion,  that  myriads  of  Mussulman  teachers  were  conse- 
crated to  the  study  of  this  oral  personal  wisdom,  and  every 
corner  of  Islam  was  ransacked  in  the  search  thereof,  until 
it  came  to  be  reckoned  that  the  Prophet  had  been  sur- 
rounded by  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  companions, 
so  that  not  a  word  of  God  that  fell  from  his  lips  could 
have  been  lost.^     The  parallel  with  Christian  traditionalism 

*  Mohl,  !.  490;  ii.  445,  2  Hishftm's  Ibtt  Ishak,  i.  113,  192,  290. 


6l4  ISLAM. 

may  be  carried  further;  and  in  the  later  work  of  Wakidt, 
and  still  more  in  the  latest  and  best  of  all,  that  of  the  great 
chronicler  Tabari,  who  has  been  called  not  very  accurately 
the  "  Livy  of  Islam,",  there  is  a  certain  degree  of  reaction 
towards  a  rationalistic  point  of  view. 

The  rage  for  deification  naturally  acts  in  a  monotheis- 
tic religion  by  concentration,  once  for  all,  upon  one  per- 
sonal representative,  as  in  the  Christian  worship  of  Jesus 
as  God.  Yet  in  Islam  it  takes  a  continuous  form,  always 
creating  new  objects.  The  reason  lies  in  the  character  of 
the  races  with  which  this  religion  had  to  deal ;  in  its  being 
imposed  on  polytheistic  antecedents  in  these  races,  who 
were  accustomed  to  find  a  deity  in  every  fresh  phenomenon 
of  human  power.  Thus  the  polytheistic  instinct  perse- 
veres even  through  the  change  by  which  every  newly 
deified  man  becomes  the  manifestation  of  one  and  the 
same  God.  In  Christianity  this  tendency  was  contravened 
by  an  intense  Aveariness  of  polytheistic  systems  in  the 
Roman  world,  and  a  profound  desire,  everywhere,  of  politi- 
cal, social,  and  religious  unity.  The  worship  of  saints, 
relics,  and  the  papal  power,  indeed,  represented  it  in  an 
inferior  degree ;  but,  however  practically  intercepting  and 
absorbing  the  worship  of  the  one  God  and  the  one  Christ, 
it  did  not  theoretically  invalidate  the  exclusive  identity  of 
the  Only  Begotten  with  the  Father.  Herein  the  worship  of 
personal  Will  was  less  logical  than  in  Islam,  which  knew 
no  Only  Begotten,  and  did  not  attempt  to  control  the 
supreme  purpose  of  incarnation  within  numerical  limits. 
In  Asia,  in  the  seventh  century,  the  freedom  of  Divine 
Will,  instituted  by  polytheism,  could  not  so  easily  be  con- 
fined. Persia  was  not  content  with  lifting  the  chief  of 
prophets  to  the  side  of  God.  For  five  centuries  the  pro- 
cess was  repeated,  with  teachers  of  new  sects;  soldiers, 
party  leaders,  veiled  and  unveiled  prophets,  rebellious 
sheikhs,  —  more   open  paths   for  Deity  through   human 


MAHOMET.  615 

organs  than  in  the  Buddhist  Avatirs.  The  thoughtful  stu- 
dent will  recognize  in  both  these  tendencies  —  alike  in  the 
extreme  limitations  of  the  one  and  the  extreme  caprices 
of  the  other  —  the  inherent  inadequacy  of  the  worship  of 
personal  Will.  While  in  both  the  essential  identity  of 
the  human  and  divine  is  dimly  foreshadowed,  and  uncon- 
sciously pursued  in  these  highest  of  revealed  religions, 
they  are  but  "  the  motion  toiling  in  the  gloom." 

All,  the  son-in-law  of  Mahomet,  his  first  great  convert, 
his  dearest  companion,  was  the  legitimate  heir  of  his  inspi- 
ration, if  there  was  one;  but  the  intrigues  of  the  harem  set 
him  aside  from  the  caliphate.  To  three  successive  exclu- 
sions from  his  rights  he  submitted  with  the  quiet  dignity 
of  a  great  man.  Nevertheless,  the  disputes  among  the 
Arab  leaders  as  to  the  succession  not  only  broke  out  into 
war,  but  immediately,  both  in  Egypt  and  Irak,  resulted  in 
exalting  All  into  an  incarnation  of  God.  The  object  of 
this  adoration  did  not  hesitate  to  rebuke  it,  and  to  pun- 
ish the  leaders.  The  famous  Fatimite  dynasty  in  Africa, 
founded  in  due  time  upon  the  divinity  of  Ali,  shows 
how  vainly  men  resist  the  logic  of  beliefs.  Oriental  fa- 
miliarity with  the  godhood  of  priests  and  kings,  religious 
enthusiasm  for  the  prophetic  function  which  Mahomet 
had  observed  in  Ali,  his  martyrdom  at  Kerbela  by  the 
treachery  of  companions,  combined  with  the  persecutions 
of  his  friends  by  the  Omeyyad  caliphs,  and  with  the  posses- 
sion of  many  noble  traits,  to  exalt  this  personal  devotion 
into  positive  worship,  until  in  Persia,  where  all  these  influ- 
ences had  peculiar  force,  the  name  of  Ali  became  the  sym- 
bol of  the  national  faith.  The  principal  sects  in  that  coun- 
try are  Shiite,  or  Aliite,  in  distinction  from  the  Western 
Mahometans,  who  hold  to  the  Siinna,  or  traditional  law,  in 
the  interest  of  the  three  Omeyyad  caliphs  who  had  super- 
seded Ali.     In  their  hostility  to  All,  the  Omejyad  family^ 

*  Belonging  to  the  old  first  families  of  Mecca. 


6l6  ISLAM. 

represented  a  reaction  against  the  authority  of  the  Prophet 
and  his  Hne,  —  or  rather  an  aristocratic  resistance  at  the 
outset  to  his  popular  institutions,  which  showed  itself  at 
once  in  their  free  dealing  with  the  Koranic  laws.^  Not- 
withstanding their  discouragements  from  Damascus,  the 
Aliites  became  powerful  enough  in  Persia  to  overthrow 
their  Syrian  enemies,  and  by  help  of  the  disintegration  of 
sects  and  parties  to  substitute  the  Abbaside  dynasty.  And 
though  this  change  brought  little  immediate  advantage 
to  themselves,  it  was  succeeded  by  a  long  period  of  inter- 
necine civil  wars  and  dynastic  strifes,  through  which  the 
worship  of  this  human  god  and  his  descendants  became  a 
mighty  religious  cult,  and  at  last  the  very  heart  of  Iranic 
faith.  The  Dabistan  enumerates  eighteen  sects  of  this 
creed,  and  reports  a  Sura  in  All's  honor,  believed  by  them 
to  have  been  struck  out  of  the  Koran  by  Othman  when  he 
fixed  the  canon  of  Islamic  Scripture.^  Analogous  emo- 
tions to  those  which  Christians  felt  for  the  cross  of  Christ 
were,  and  still  are,  centred  in  the  martyrdom  of  All's  son 
Hosein,  who,  as  suffering  humanly  for  man,  holds  the  full 
place  of  his  father  in  Persian  gratitude  and  love.  This 
dramatic  sympathy  is  the  religion  of  modern  Persia.^  It 
is  easy  of  course  to  deny  all  analogy  between  this  "  man 
worship  "  and  the  Christian  adoration  of  Jesus.  But  these 
earliest  Imams  who  inherit  the  divinity  of  Ali  were  sup- 
posed to  have  really  dropped  their  human  natures,  and  to 
have  been  as  truly  absorbed  into  the  essence  of  Deity  as 
it  was  possible  for  the  second  and  human  person  of  that 
Christian  trinity  in  unity  to  be,  which  could  not  be  recog- 
nized in  the  spiritual  arithmetic  of  the  Mussulman,  These 
Imams  (Holy  Ones)  were  regarded  as  perfectly  immacu- 
late before  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  the  Hegira.*   The 

1  Renan :  Etudes  d'' H istoire  Religie^ise,  p.  264. 

•  Dabistan,  ii.  366-36S. 

3  See  Braun  :  Gemdlde  d.  Islam,  p.  20. 

*  Kremer .  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam,  p.  375. 


MAHOMET.  617 

line  of  apotheosis  reaches  through  Persian  history,  ulti- 
mating  in  the  expectation  of  a  now  hidden  member,  who 
is  to  come  in  clouds  and  hghtnings  out  of  his  sechision,  to 
judge,  redeem,  and  rule  the  world,  as  immediate  represent- 
ative of  All  himself.^ 

To  follow  All-worship  would  be  to  recount  the  intricate 
and  endless  tale  of  the  Persian  sects,  which  the  purpose 
of  this  work  requires  us  to  present  only  in  a  few  of  their 
general  bearings.  The  important  fact  is,  that  so  com- 
pletely did  this  new  idealization  efface  the  old  primitive 
faith,  that  the  Shiites  became  in  general  anti-Islamic,  and 
flung  aside  the  system  of  the  founder,  even  to  the  Meccan 
pilgrimages,  as  completely  as  the  Papacy  set  aside  the 
early  form  of  Christian  worship.  They  have  their  own 
pilgrimages  to  the  tombs  of  their  own  martyrs  at  Kerbela, 
where  the  Persian  holds  it  his  supreme  bliss  to  be  buried 
at  their  side.^  For  the  old  Arab  rites  they  substitute 
stated  lamentations  for  Hosein,  and  theatrical  shows  of 
his  death,  at  which  passions  are  aroused  more  vehement 
than  ever  attended  the  Mystery- Plays  of  Christendom,  and 
not  unlike  the  orgiac  rites  of  Semitic  fire-gods.  Some  of 
these  sects  cursed  the  Prophet  himself  for  the  sake  of  Ali. 
A  somewhat  philosophical  form  was  given  to  the  line 
of  Imams  by  the  theory  of  a  continuous  revelation  from 
age  to  age,  according  to  the  educational  needs  of  man- 
kind. Al  Hakim  (Al  Mokanna,  the  "  veiled  prophet "  of 
Khorassan,  as  famous  in  Western  poetry  as  in  Oriental 
politics)  was  a  propagator  of  Imam  divinity  in  its  strong- 
est form,  associated  with  Buddhistic  dogmas,  with  Iranian 
independence,  and  with  politic  and  even  deceitful  seclu- 
sion from  the  sight  of  his  followers,  and  placed  himself 
confidently  in  the  sacred  line.  Ismailism,  a  phenomenon 
of  immense  political  influence,  pursued  the  same  track, 
counting  seven  Imams,  all  included  in  the  unity  of  Allah. 

1  Kremer,  p.  377.     Dabistan,  iii.  36S.  -  Kremer,  p.  375. 


6l8  ISLAM. 

Abdallah  ibn  Maimun,  an  eclectic  preacher  holding  an 
esoteric  system  woven  of  Gnostic,  Manichaean,  Buddhist, 
and  Parsi  elements,  repudiated  even  the  descendants  of 
All  in  their  turn,  in  order  to  carry  the  doctrine  of  a  hid- 
den Imam  to  its  farthest  limits.  His  initiations  led  up 
gradually  to  the  rejection  of  all  prevailing  systems,  retain- 
ing only  their  common  idea  of  incarnation  in  some  form; 
and  his  sworn  bands  of  missionaries  went  out  to  hold  him 
forth  to  the  Oriental  world  as  the  Word  of  God.  Out  of 
his  movement  came  the  Karmates  of  Irak  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, who  worked  it  up  into  a  socialistic  and  predatory 
crusade  against  Islam  from  their  fortress  in  Nabathean 
Irak.^  They  pillaged  Mecca  and  terrified  the  caliphate  of 
Bagdad,  and,  after  a  crusade  against  all  thrones  but  that  of 
their  expected  Imam,  established  the  Fatimite  dynasty 
of  Syria  and  Egypt.  From  this  in  turn  came  a  number  of 
self-instituted  incarnations, —  such  as  Hakim  (A.D.  1021),  a 
strange  compound  of  the  philanthropist  and  savage,  whose 
return  the  Druses  are  still  expecting;  and  Hasan-Cabbah, 
the  pessimistic  and  unscrupulous  founder  of  the  sect,  named 
from  their  use  of  hashish  HasJusJiin,  which  in  the  mouth 
of  the  French  crusaders  became  Assassins,  with  the  signifi- 
cation of  murderers,  —  a  hierarchy  of  nihilists  sworn  to 
passive  obedience  and  the  martyrdom  that  awaits  the  pro- 
fessional murderer  of  all  eminent  foes,  yet  combining  with 
this  religious  rage  of  the  desert  most  of  the  personal  and 
social  virtues  in  which  all  the  rationalistic  Arab  schools 
abounded.  The  Assassin  fortress  of  Alamut  had  its  line 
of  incarnations,  its  protests  against  the  formalism  and 
superstition  of  the  older  faith,  until  a  reaction  brought 
the  sect  back  into  the  fold,  but  without  preserving  them 
from  the  retributions  of  another  and  mightier  human  god, 

1  Dozy,  pp.  246-278.  There  is  a  story  that  he  cheated  his  followers,  who  insisted  on  see- 
ing hi<n,  by  placing  a  row  of  mirrors  in  the  hands  of  his  wives,  so  that  their  reflections  of  the 
sunlight  overwhelmed  the  beholders,  who  fell  prostrate  under  the  dazzling  glory,  crying  out, 
"O  God,  this  light  of  thine  suffices  us."  —  Vamb^ry  :  Kkorassan,  pp.  49,  50. 


MAHOMET.  619 

the  Mongol  Hulagi^,  who  swept  away  Alamut  and  its  Ht- 
erary  stores  as  it  had  burned  its  own  Hashishin  books. 

The  Nosairts,  who  are  called  by  Gobineau  the  most  im- 
portant sect  of  Persia,  adore  Ali  as  the  supreme  God,  crea- 
tor of  Mahomet  himself!  They  repudiate  historical  Islam. ^ 
They  take  a  solemn  vow  not  to  reveal  the  mystery  of 
their  trinity,  in  which  All  is  the  father,  Mahomet  the  son, 
and  Salman  the  spirit.  All's  body,  like  the  Docetic  and 
Koranic  Christ's,  is  phenomenal  merely;  but  his  symbol 
is  wine,  before  which  they  fall,  and  know  no  other  Kebia 
than  his  invisible  face.  The  catechism  declares  that  Ali 
created  man,  and  is  ruler  of  life  and  death ;  that  in  Ma- 
homet he  was  hid  as  seed,  and  that  he  has  appeared  on 
earth  seven  times.  After  giving  his  genealogy,  it  gives  lists 
of  hierarchies  and  worlds,  rites  of  communion  and  mass, 
similar  to  the  Christian,  and  finally  a  store  of  those  high 
moral  precepts  which  run  like  a  golden  thread  through 
all  the  phases  of  personal  or  will  worship,  Avhether  of  a 
more  or  less  superstitious  kind.^  The  most  violently  intol- 
erant of  these  human  deities  were,  like  Al  Hakim,  famous 
for  kindness  to  the  poor  and  for  open  ears  to  all  the  needs 
of  their  subjects.  They  were  teachers  of  a  Puritan  mor- 
ality, which  had  no  respect  for  the  persons  of  priests  or 
kings.2  To  the  Christian  believer  these  doctrines  ought 
not  to  seem  blasphemous,  nor  the  good  ethics  illegitimately 
born,  since  they  come,  like  their  own,  out  of  the  premises 
of  revealed  religion. 

But  All  and  his  Imams  do  not  exhaust  the  list  of  Islamic 
apotheoses.  Every  sect  invariably  makes  its  founder  a  form 
of  Deity,  and  every  religious  reformer  has  ended  by  becom- 
ing in  this  sense  a  gate  (bdb)  of  God.*  From  the  second 
century  of  the  Hegira,  when  Babek  in  Persia  cut  adrift  from 

1  Salisbury  (American-Oriental  Journal,  viii.  no.  2,  pp.  235,  241,  245,  267)  gives  the 
Nosairian  ritual  in  full,  from  Mahometan  authors. 

2  Zeitsckr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgeiil.  Gesellsch.,  iil.  302-310,  where  the  Nosairian  catechism 
is  given,  translated  by  Dr.  Wolff. 

2  Kremer :  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam,  p.  74,  *  Braun,  p.  284. 


620  ISLAM. 

Moslem  tradition  into  a  kind  of  universal  religion  com- 
pounded of  preceding  ethnic  faiths,  and  passed  for  a  new 
Buddha,  the  substitutive  process  has  gone  on,  until  Ma- 
homet himself  is  probably  the  least  worshipped  of  the 
masters  of  Moslem  faith.  Every  one  hastens  to  the  em- 
pyrean, the  religious  norm  of  one  sovereign  Will.  Al 
Hakim  permitted  the  Cairo  university  to  proclaim  his 
divinity  at  the  age  of  fourteen ;  and  Hamza,  his  Persian 
follower,  renewed  the  claim  in  his  behalf  only  to  announce 
himself  as  the  Word,  and  Mahomet  as  the  spirit  of  Evil !  ^ 
The  Yezids,  ultra  Shiites,  who  are  rather  unfairly  called 
Devil-worshippers  merely  because  they  take  the  precaution 
to  put  themselves  right  with  the  chief  of  fallen  angels,  who 
is  by  and  by  to  be  redeemed  and  exalted  by  Allah,  adore 
their  sheikh,  who  said,  "  I  who  sought  truth  became  truth, 
and  they  who  possess  truth  shall  be  as  I."  Mirza  All 
Mohammed,  of  Shiraz,  founder  of  Babism  (1842),  the  politi- 
cal pantheism  of  the  Persian  masses  at  the  present  time, 
declared,  "  He  who  would  know  the  way  to  God  can  go 
only  by  me."  ^  His  preaching  against  the  Mollahs  and 
their  traditions  resulted,  contrary  to  his  desires,  in  armed 
rebellion ;  whence  came  terrible  persecutions,  and  a  record 
of  heroic  martyrdom  unsurpassed  in  history,  in  which  his 
own  (1849)  was  the  most  noble  and  touching  instance.^ 
His  pure  theology  and  ethics,  —  in  many  respects  the  crown 
of  Sufism,  —  his  justice  to  the  social  relations,  and  to  a  love 
of  order  and  peace  which  rebuked  the  fanatical  passion  of 
his  followers,  were  really  an  advance  on  the  Koran  itself; 
and  it  seems  by  no  means  without  reason  that  the  Prophet 
is  wholly  ignored  by  him  in  the  interest  of  these  higher 
spiritual  conceptions.  Characteristic  of  all  these  identifi- 
cations of  the  prophet  with  his  God  was  their  political 
absolutism.  Mahomet  and  the  Hebrew  prophets  assumed 
this   in  virtue  of  their  commissions,  even  though  holding 

^  Braun :  Getnalde  d.  Islam,  pp.  132,  133.  2  Vc\^,^  p.  178. 

'  See  a  tuU  account  of  the  Bab,  in  Gobineau's  Religions  de  PAsie  Centrale,  p.  267. 


MAHOMET.  62 1 

themselves  to  be  merel}-  human  instruments  of  the  Infinite. 
But  the  Hakims  and  Ismails  and  Babs  and  Imams  could 
not  be  less  than  masters  of  this  world,  if  not  in  their  own 
view,  certainly  for  their  devout  followers.  How  could  it 
be  otherwise,  under  religious  conceptions  wholly  analo- 
gous to  those  of  politico-monarchical  Will  ?  It  was,  in 
fact,  through  political  evolution  that  such  conceptions  were 
reached.  Where  the  only  notion  of  law  is  the  royal 
will,  that  type  must  be  carried  up  into  the  ideal  sphere, 
and  God,  with  his  incarnations,  becomes  simply  "  King  of 
kings."  As  the  death  of  an  Oriental  ruler  threw  an  em- 
pire into  utter  confusion  and  peril,  so  the  incarnated  pres- 
ence of  God's  will  in  all  human  affairs  was  a  permanent 
necessity,  which  could  take  no  other  form  than  that  of  an 
earthly  autocracy.  The  tendency  to  this  identification  has 
always  been  irresistible.  The  Roman  Caesars  were  dei- 
fied as  soon  as  they  became  politically  omnipotent,  and 
Augustus  could  not  prevent  it  in  his  own  case,  though  he 
certainly  seems  to  have  attempted  to  do  so.  It  was  the 
same  with  the  Egyptian  Pharaohs.  Deification  was  but 
the  reverse  side  of  monarchy.  It  was  an  easy  play  of  the 
imagination,  too,  for  the  court-poets  of  the  East  to  trans- 
form a  man  for  whom  the  world  was  indubitably  made 
into  the  God  by  whom  it  was  made.  For  the  thinker,  it 
was  only  to  change  the  final  cause  into  the  efficient. 
"  Mo'izz,"  says  the  Fatimite  poet  of  his  prince,  "  is  the 
cause  of  the  world ;  he  is  healing ;  outflow  of  the  essence 
of  the  spiritual  sphere;  intercessor;  reflected  light  of 
God."  ^  It  was  difficult  for  the  free  Arab  individuality 
to  come  under  such  influences;  and  apotheosis,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  not  in  its  line.  But  the  old  monarchies 
of  Egypt  and  Persia,  and  even  the  ruder  tribes  of  Asia 
and  Africa,  had  been  for  a  long  time  under  political  con- 
ditions most  favorable   to  the  process.      Judaism  was  a 

1  Kremer  i^Zeltschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geseilsch.,  xxiv.  491,  492). 


622  ISLAM. 

democracy  like  Arabia;  yet  its  culmination,  after  Ezra, 
was  in  a  priestly  theocracy.  Its  God  was  after  the  image 
of  a  human  autocrat,  owing  to  its  intense  monolatry  of 
personal  Will.  This,  moreover,  caused  it  to  bring  forth 
perhaps  the  most  complete  illustration  of  human  diviniza- 
tion  in  all  ecclesiastical  history,  as  soon  as  its  own  purely 
individual  religious  fruit  was  watered  by  Aryan  political 
experience.^  In  truth,  the  superiority  of  law  to  person  in 
religious,  as  in  political,  conceptions,  is  a  modern  idea, — 
a  result  not  of  Christianity,  but  of  that  mighty  complex  of 
relations,  inward  and  outward,  which  we  call  civilization. 
It  rests  on  the  pure  love  of  truth  as  truth,  not  as  a  revela- 
tion of  individual  Will  nor  as  the  gift  of  a  special  teacher. 
It  rests  on  the  development  of  intuition,  science,  and  in- 
tercourse, bringing  all  exclusive  volitions  to  the  level  of 
universal  human  nature  and  inviolable  law. 

It  may  seem  that  evidence  enough  has  been  given 
of  the  natural  expansion  of  belief  in  personal  revelation, 
through  the  very  conditions  of  a  free  divine  Will,  over  an  in- 
definite number  of  human  representatives  thereof,  who  not 
only  practically  intercept  the  worship  of  a  Supreme  One, 
but  —  what  is  of  more  moment — foreclose  the  universal 
relation  of  mankind  to  the  substance  of  truth  and  good. 
But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  very  extent  of  this  ex- 
pansion is  a  hint  of  the  aspiration  of  the  human  faculties 
toward  the  highest  spheres  of  thought  and  desire.  For 
this  reason,  as  well  as  to  show  how  inevitably  even  a 
monotheistic  faith  falls  into  the  interception  above  men- 
tioned even  while  theoretically  forbidding  it,  we  shall  try 
to  point  out  the  extreme  development  of  Islamic  anthro- 
polatry. 

1  Dr.  C.  P.  Tiele  {Histoire  Comparee  des  Ancienfies  Religions,  etc..  p.  492)  makes  the 
astounding  assertion  that  "  Jesus  never  appealed  to  a  special  inspiration  of  God,  nor  pre- 
sented his  word  as  tlie  word  of  God"  !  It  is  enough  to  ask,  how  could  he  have  failed  to  do 
so,  under  the  circumstances  of  his  education  and  ideal?  The  statement  shows  how  hard  it  is 
for  the  highest  perception  of  historical  laws  to  escape  the  prejudices  of  a  positive  religion. 


MAHOMET.  623 

Nothing  seems  more  incongruous  with  the  sublime  con- 
ception of  Allah  in  the  Koran  than  a  positive  adoration  of 
saints,  their  tombs  and  their  miracles.  Mahomet  indeed 
availed  himself  of  the  honors  traditionally  paid  by  the  old 
Arab  tribes  to  the  graves  of  their  heroes  and  bards.  He 
allowed  miraculous  gifts  to  the  earlier  prophets,  though 
not  as  a  mark  of  superiority,  since  the  Koran  was  above 
all  miracles,  the  very  speech  of  God.  He  firmly  maintained 
the  separation  of  the  human  from  the  divine  by  an  immeas- 
urable gulf,  which  it  was  blasphemy  to  deny  or  ignore. 

"  The  Jews  say  '  Ezra  is  a  son  of  God,'  and  the  Christians  say 
*  The  Messiah  is  a  Son  of  God.'  They  are  like  the  infidels  of  old  : 
God  do  battle  with  them  I  Fain  would  they  put  out  His  light  in  their 
mouths,  taking  their  teachers  and  monks  and  messianic  Son  of  Mary 
for  Lords  beside  God.     But  there  is  no  God  sive  God."  ^ 

Nothing  could  be  more  explicit.  Yet  not  only  were  the 
Prophet's  earliest  companions  made  into  divinities,  as  ca- 
liphs,—  not  only,  as  we  have  seen,  did  the  great  leaders  of 
sects  inevitably  become  objects  of  worship,  —  but  the  pro- 
cess is  repeated,  down  to  the  narrowest  local  experience, 
in  tens  of  thousands  of  thaumaturgic  ascetics,  whose  tombs 
are  temples,  and  who  live  after  death  as  real  representatives 
of  God.  It  seems  to  be  as  natural  to  the  strict  monotheism 
of  the  orthodox  Moslem  as  to  the  pantheism  of  the  Sufi, 
whose  very  purpose  is  to  reach  absorption  in  the  whole 
as  the  true  end  of  existence.  In  both  forms  it  is  equally 
common  for  the  devotee  to  proclaim  his  own  arrival  at 
this  identity  with  God,  and  to  receive  the  worship  which 
is  its  due. 

Nor  is  this  anthropolatry,  from  which  the  master  would 
have  shrunk  in  horror,  imposed  by  a  priesthood.  Islam 
recognizes  no  such  right  or  power  in  any  class  to  grant 
official  canonization,  still  less  to  deify  mortal  men.  The 
instinct  is  spontaneous  in  the  worshipper,  and  rests  entirely 

^  Sura  ix.  31,  32. 


624  ISLAM. 

on  merits  and  miracles  in  the  holy  man.  The  process  lies 
wholly  outside  of  the  recognized  rights  and  forms  of  the 
Church.  It  is,  then,  the  unconscious  following  out  of  some 
logical  necessity  in  the  conception  of  God.  It  is  the  prac- 
tical result  of  the  theism  of  personal  Will,  a  strictly  human 
quality  identified  with  the  Supreme.  So  intense  is  this 
thirst  for  union  of  the  actual  with  the  ideal,  that  a  great 
sheikh  is  quoted  as  saying  that  it  is  "  the  highest  joy  to 
believe  in  all  who  describe  themselves  as  in  union  with 
God,  even  when  the  claim  is  known  to  be  false."  ^  Every 
age  has  had  its  perfected  saint,  "  whose  foot  is  on  the  neck 
of  all  the  righteous ;  "  ^  perhaps  living  unknown,  and  pur- 
suing some  humble  trade.  Every  town  moreover  has  its 
centre  of  superstitious  legend.  Mussulman  Egypt  is  cov- 
ered with  local  myths,  and  names  shaped  on  divinizations 
analogous  to  those  of  mediaeval  Catholicism,  in  which  the 
same  logical  development  took  place.  Morocco  swarms 
with  adored  Sheikhs,  — literally,  "  elders;  "  Marabouts, — 
literally,  "bound  to  God;  "  Sherifs,  — nobles,  descendants 
of  the  Prophet;  and  Mokaddems,  —  representatives.^  The 
Oiialis,  ascetic  missionaries  of  Islam  for  three  centuries 
among  the  Kabyles  of  the  Tell,  whose  influence  has  been 
in  every  way  civilizing  in  faith  and  customs,  established 
individually  a  dominion  over  these  tribes  amounting  to 
theocracy.  They  are  credited  with  ubiquity  and  omnipo- 
tence, and  with  instant  command  over  the  laws  of  Nature 
and  the  lives  of  men.  In  the  legends  these  saints  *  often 
appear  as  flames  of  fire,  which  slowly  resolve  themselves, 
on  approach,  into  human  bodies  in  attitudes  of  rapt  de- 
votion ;  while  intruders  are  rooted  to  the  ground,  or  sent 
away  perfumed  with  incense  from  heaven.  Prayers  are 
regularly  addressed   to   them,  and  vows   of  absolute  obe- 

*  See  instances  in  Goldziher's  article  (Rev.  d.  VHist.  d.  ReHg-,  ii.  pp.  268-281). 

2  Kremer,  p.  173.  ^  Burton's  Pilgrimage,  ii.  10. 

*  See  a  full  account  of  these  saints,  with  their  literature,  in  Colonel  Trumelet's  work, 
Les  Saints  du  Tell,  iSSi,  Introduction,  xix.  ;  also  pp.  163,  174,  217. 


MAHOMET.  625 

dience  assumed.-'  Their  tombs  are  protected  by  their  mi- 
raculous presence  against  invasion,  and  become  shrines 
for  their  constant  responses.  In  hfc  and  death  all  time  is 
transparent  to  them,  and  their  will  is  God's.^  The  neces- 
sity is  too  strong  to  endure  the  invidious  distinction  of 
sex:  the  records  of  Islam  everywhere  show  equal  honors 
to  sainthood,  male  and  female.  Nunneries  and  cloisters, 
often  founded  by  women,  asylums  for  the  divorced,  are  un- 
der the  divine  protection  of  female  Marabouts  and  Oualis. 
Old  pagan  tombs  and  temples  and  feasts  have  been  trans- 
formed, as  in  Christianity,  into  shrines  and  rites  of  an 
apotheosis,  not  so  far  remote,  after  all,  from  their  original 
purpose.  Late  researches  by  De  Tassy  in  India,  and 
Renan  in  Phoenicia,  show  that  Islam  and  its  kindred,  Chris- 
tianity, have  easily  accepted  even  the  old  heathen  names 
of  saints ;  and  in  many  Mussulman  countries  the  passion 
for  divinization  has  kept  alive  the  oldest  forms  of  animal 
service.^ 

All  this  was  resisted  in  every  age  by  rationalistic  theists 
and  by  sceptics.  But  from  the  indignant  declaration  of 
Omar,  when  he  kissed  the  black  Kaaba,  that  he  did  so 
"  only  because  the  Prophet  had  set  the  example,  but  that 
it  was  nothing  more  than  a  dead  stone  after  all,"  down  to 
the  heroic  iconoclasm  of  the  VVahhabees,  extinguished  in 
blood  by  Mehemet  All  in  the  present  century,  every  pro- 
test split  on  the  rock  of  an  invincible  necessity. 

Wahhabism  was  the  most  significant  revolution  ever 
known  in  the  history  of  Islam.  It  was  the  revival,  after  a 
thousand  years,  of  the  old  Arab  individuality,  conservative 

1  Trumelet :  Introduction,  xxi.  -  Ibid.,  pp.  19,  245. 

3  Goldziher,  p.  290-300.  Thus  the  Mussulman  feast  of  Noruz  (New  Year)  is  grafted  on 
an  old  Iranian  solar  festival,  and  turned  (precisely  like  the  change  of  the  old  December  liber- 
ties into  Christmas)  into  a  commemoration  of  All's  choice  as  successor  of  tlie  Prophet.  The 
Mussultnan  pilgriins  to  Egypt  have  adopted  into  their  processions  the  sacred  cats  of  Bubastis. 
The  old  serpent-cult  of  Egypt  still  remains  under  Islam.  The  love  of  trees,  fishes,  and 
other  creatures  is  transmitted  in  Mussulman  forms.  Samson  has  passed  into  All,  and  St. 
George  into  Al-Chidr.  —  Goldziher,  pp.  308,  309,  316,  318,  322. 

40 


626  ISLAM. 

simplicity,  and  natural  scepticism,  —  of  that  reluctance  of 
the  desert  tribes  to  receive  Koranic  institutions,  or  an  in- 
termixture of  foreign  cults,  which  demanded  at  the  out- 
set, "  Why  should  we  practise  ablutions,  who  have  no 
water ;  or  give  alms,  who  have  no  money ;  or  pray  to  the 
Kaaba,  when  we  have  the  rising  sun?  "  Wahhab,  it  has 
been  said,  played  the  part  of  Luther  in  Islam.  He  did 
more.  He  went  back  to  the  freedom  of  natural  reli- 
gion. He  was  no  full  believer  in  the  Koran,  or  in  the 
Prophet,  —  certainly  not  in  the  orthodox  sense  of  belief. 
He  denounced  all  mediatorship  by  prophets  and  saints, 
and  all  worship  at  their  tombs.  He  assailed  the  Siinna 
traditions,  taught  the  primitive  democracy  of  the  desert, 
noted  the  human  limitations  of  Mahomet,  the  sinfulness  of 
all  rites  but  those  addressed  to  the  Supreme.  He  waged 
deadly  war  against  wine,  tobacco,  rosaries,  and  all  vanities 
of  dress  and  fashion.  He  denounced  the  vicious  and  sense- 
less habits  of  the  Mecca  pilgrims,  the  silly  legends  about 
the  graves  of  saints.  He  renewed  the  old  thunders  of  the 
Prophet  among  his  people,  and  with  like  results.^  The 
traditional  dignitaries  set  themselves  to  silence  him,  and 
soon  drove  the  new  puritans  to  take  up  arms.  A  new 
destruction  seemed  to  impend  over  Islam,  like  that  which 
Mahomet  had  brought  on  the  empires  of  his  day.  Bagdad 
trembled,  and  the  tomb  of  Hosein  itself  was  overturned. 
Mecca  was  captured,  and  a  general  sweeping  off  of  mosques 
and  trading-stalls  around  the  Kaaba  succeeded ;  the  black 
stone  itself  was  broken  up,  and  the  ornaments  stripped 
from  the  Prophet's  tomb.  Saiid,  the  chief  in  this  cru- 
sade, had  great  aims  for  the  regeneration  of  his  people. 
Like  Mahomet,  he  was  obliged  to  fight  his  way  through 
to  security  for  all;  and  so  far  as  he  found  power,  he  es- 
tablished order  and  peace.  Jews  and  Christians  were 
unmolested,  on  condition  of  tribute.      But  nothing  could 

1  Dozy  :  Histoire  de  Plslam,  p.  417. 


MAHOMET.  627 

keep  those  wild  Semites  loyal  to  settled  government.  This 
leader  compelled  obedience  to  law,  broke  up  the  old  blood- 
revenge  and  settlement  of  disputes  by  war,  enforced  re- 
conciliation, and  abolished  the  right  of  rogues  to  find 
refuge  by  fleeing  to  the  tent  of  a  chief  He  tried  to 
drive  the  masses  to  mosque  with  sticks,  and,  an  earlier 
Savonarola,  made  a  bonfire  of  Arab  abominations,  —  pipes, 
ornaments,  and  wine-vessels.  It  was  an  appeal  to  the  best 
instincts,  and  for  a  while  they  responded  bravely  to  the  stu- 
pendous task  of  reforming  the  world.  He  was  an  expert 
soldier;  only  a  tinge  of  avarice  lessened  his  power;  no 
treachery,  like  that  of  the  Egyptian  semi-barbarian,  who 
finally  marched  to  destroy  the  new  faith,  can  be  laid  to 
his  charge.  Orthodoxy  proclaimed  a  holy  war  against  the 
iconoclast,  and  Wahhabism  went  down  before  the  cruelty 
and  cunning  of  Mehemet  Ali,  who  succeeded  only  through 
the  untimely  death  of  its  chief.  But  Wahhabism  survives, 
because  the  free  Arab  lives.  It  wilf  again  rend  Islam  with 
its  war  on  saint  and  relic  worship,  —  the  settled  media- 
torialism  of  a  thousand  years.  But  it  will  always  find  the 
orthodoxy  of  a  revealed  religion  its  deadly  foe,  because 
these  and  the  like  anthropolatries  are  the  inmost  necessity 
of  such  belief.^ 

II.  The  second  point  I  proposed  to  consider  in  the 
evolution  of  Islamic  religious  monarchism  is,  that  just  as 
its  sentiment  became  absorbed  in  personal  apotheosis,  so 
its  speculative  and  even  ethical  controversy  has  centred  in 
questions  of  personal  claims.  The  statement  is  equally 
true  of  matters  human  and  divine.  Its  disputes  related 
either  to  the  right  of  certain  individuals  to  rule  human 
thought  and  conduct,  or  else  to  predestination  and  free- 
will in  the  relations  between  God  and  man  considered  as 
distinct  personalities.      The   great  war  between    the    cali- 

1  See  Braun  :  Gemdlde,eic.,x>.29^.     Crichton  :  Arabia.    Burckhardt :  A^i?/^^,  etc.,  vol.  ii. 


628  ISLAM. 

phate  dynasties  of  the  Omeyyades  and  the  Abbasides  was 
about  family  rights  rather  than  any  difference  of  prin- 
ciples. Shiite  and  Sunnite  did  not  substantially  disagree 
in  doctrine.  The  question  was  whether  Ah  or  Abu  Bekr 
was  entitled  to  the  prophetic  succession ;  and  this  strife  for 
men  has  rent  Islam  into  hostile  halves  from  the  beginnins" 
to  the  end  of  its  history,  as  if  to  show  how  surely  the  wor- 
ship of  personal  Will,  even  in  the  form  of  absolute  unity, 
breaks  up  into  practical  Dualism  and  intense  antagonism 
of  wills,  by  its  very  nature.  The  subordinate  sects  have 
battled  in  the  same  way  over  the  claims  of  the  Prophet 
himself;  and  the  history  of  free  thought  in  Islam  con- 
stantly revolves  around  the  disposition  to  repudiate  him  as 
the  centre  of  faith,  and  either  to  substitute  some  nearer 
name  or  names,  on  whom  the  age  or  region  is  supposed 
to  depend,  or  else  to  come  out  by  a  strong  reaction  into 
a  more  perfect  conception  of  the  unity  of  the  universe 
by  pantheistic  absorption  into  an  impersonal  substance 
(Sufism).^  Christian  history  presents  precisely  similar 
phenomena,  being  founded  on  essentially  similar  notions 
of  Deity.  Its  incessant  strifes  reveal  the  same  enormous 
proportion  of  purely  personal  questions,  beginning  with 
the  controversy  of  Jew  and  Gentile  in  the  early  Church 
over  the  humanity  of  Jesus,  passing  on  into  the  battle 
of  ages  over  his  essence,  —  whether  of  God  or  like  God, 
whether  one  or  twofold,  whether  involving  two  wills  or 
one  only,  —  and  then,  after  all  this  was  officially  and  dog- 
matically settled,  resolving  themselves  into  the  rival  claims 
of  metropolitan  bishops  to  represent  His  will  in  church 
government;  a  dispute  no  sooner  settled  than  the  pontifi- 
cal rule  was  broken  up  by  fragmentary  protestant  papa- 
cies, ending  only  in  the  sublime  revolt  of  historical  and 
intellectual  science  against  the  assumption  of  a  central 
head,  historical  or  ideal. 

'  Kremer,  p.  172. 


MAHOMET.  629 

As  soon  as  the  Prophet's  death  left  the  theology  of  Islam 
free  to  pass  from  an  instinctive  into  a  reflective  stage,  it 
divided  on  the  question  of  predestination  and  free-will; 
in  other  words,  the  will  of  a  Supreme  and  the  will  of  a 
finite  man.  And  this  strife  continued  till  the  former  was 
firmly  established  as  the  orthodox  norm  of  faith.  It  was 
the  natural  parallel  to  the  strife  of  Augustine  and  Pelagius 
in  the  Christian  Church.  The  predestinarianism  of  the 
Koran  was  intense ;  and  all  the  vehemence  of  Mahomet's 
appeals  to  free  moral  choice  could  not  hide  his  behef  that 
he  was  the  mere  instrument  of  Divine  will,  and  his  demand 
that  others  should  regard  themselves  as  no  less  so.^  But 
the  independence  of  the  Arab,  the  intellectual  energy  of 
the  Persian,  the  dialectical  rationalism  of  the  Graeco-Syrian 
schools  of  Basra  and  Nisibis,  were  never  suppressed  by  the 
absolutism  of  Allah  and  his  Koran.  Not  for  a  moment 
during  the  history  of  Moslem  supremacy  has  the  protest 
against  it  ceased.  Constantly  unsuccessful,  for  reasons 
already  given,  it  has  been  as  constantly  renewed,  —  the 
half-conscious  struggles  of  a  higher  ideal  by  and  by  to 
be  made  good. 

The  Omeyyad  caliphs,  born  of  an  anti-Mahometan 
stock,  were  indifferent,  literary,  luxurious.  They  encour- 
aged free  thought,  and  treated  the  orthodox  church  as  the 
Medici  treated  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  is  true  they  fell 
into  an  opposite  policy ;  but  the  Abbasides,  who  succeeded 
them,  renewed  the  free  movement,  and  led  it  to  its  culmi- 
nation. While  Europe  lay  in  mental  night,  the  Mahome- 
tan world  was  called  on  to  repudiate  bibliolatry  and  even 
revelation.  The  horror  of  an  orthodox  Spaniard  at  the 
intermixture  of  schools  and  religions  which  met  his  eyes 
at  Bagdad  in  the  tenth  century,  came  to  its  climax  when  he 
found  that  no  arguments  were  allowed  to  be  drawn,  in  these 

^  See  Salisbury  in  American  Oriental  Journal.,  viii.  no.  i,  —  an  excellent  and  suggestive 

article. 


630  ISLAM. 

discussions,  from  the  Koran  or  the  Prophet.  When  the 
reformers  had  the  upper  hand,  which  frequently  happened, 
they  knew  how  to  follow  the  track  of  all  battling  theo- 
logical sects,  applying  the  same  inquisitorial  and  barbarous 
penalties  which  they  had  experienced  from  others.-'  But 
these  are  eclipsed  by  the  stories  in  which  the  history  of 
Moslem  free  thought  abounds,  of  heroic  rebukes  and 
resistless  arguments  hurled  by  its  confessors  at  tyrannical 
priests  and  kings,  to  their  utter  confusion  and  shame ;  and 
the  "  Acta  Martyrum "  of  Islam  would  not  pale  beside 
the  noblest  records  of  self-sacrifice  for  conviction  in  any 
age. 

Earlier  discussions,  such  as  those  of  the  Kadarites  and 
Jabarites,  were  soon  merged  in  the  rise  of  the  great  sect 
of  Motazelites  (separatists),  in  the  eighth  century,  who 
represented  free  thought  for  many  centuries.  They  began, 
indeed,  by  so  firmly  holding  to  the  unity  of  God  that  they 
denied  the  existence  of  divine  attributes,  because  as  so 
many  distinct  forces  they  would  imply  that  He  was  not 
one,  but  many.^  They  did  not  deny  predestination  as  a 
necessity  of  infinite  Will ;  they  rejected  free-will  in  man 
in  any  sense  inconsistent  with  this.  Yet  they  stood  for 
human  rights  as  against  the  awful  objective  God  of  the 
Koran.  They  asserted  that  human  reason  was  the  judge 
and  source  of  knowledge.  They  protested  against  much 
Koranic  anthropomorphism,  and  sought  to  reconcile  faith 
with  a  more  rational  conception  of  Deity.  The  Kharijites 
and  others  opposed  the  sinlessness  of  the  Prophet.  The 
Morgites  rejected  the  idea  that  God  had  an  unlimited  right 
to  save  or  punish  to  all  eternity.^  They  repudiated  the 
dark  views  of  life  and  death  prevailing  in  the  Koran,  and 
afterwards  expounded   in   a   Calvinistic  form  by  Ghazzalt. 

'  Dozy  :  3fussi4l/n.  d.  P Espagne,  iii.  iq.     Kremer,  p.  241. 

2  See  account  of  their  doctrines,  with  abundant  quotations,  in  Salisbury's  article,  Atneri- 
can  Oriental  Journal,  vol.  viii.,  no.  i. 

*  Especially  Sura  liii.     See  Kremer,  p.  iS-20,  28.     Kremer,  p.  156. 


MAHOMET.  63 1 

They  rejected  eschatological  machinery,  like  Es  Sirat,  the 
Bridge  of  Judgment,  the  Final  Balance,  and  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  the  Body.^  The  protests  of  these  sects  developed 
into  a  positive  religious  philosophy,  which  for  a  long  while 
antagonized  the  orthodox  belief  in  predestination,  and  that 
worship  of  the  Koran  as  an  tmcreated  form  of  Divine  will 
to  which  the  Prophet  had  certainly  given  the  first  impulse. 
They  combined  with  their  refusal  to  personify  Divine  attri- 
butes insistence  that  man  could  fulfil  the  moral  law  even 
without  the  intervention  of  prophetic  revelation.  They 
had  no  mercy  on  miraculous  traditions,  Hebrew  or  Arab, 
or  on  the  immoralities  they  detected  even  in  the  life  of 
the  Prophet.^  Ibn  Koteybah  carries  back  the  beginnings 
of  this  liberty  of  thought  to  old  Arab  times,  but  the  his- 
torical founders  of  it  were  the  Persians  Hasan  and  Wasil ; 
and  so  great  was  its  influence  in  cultivated  Iran,  that 
princes  and  even  caliphs  were  among  its  followers,  — 
among  them  Mamun,  Rashid,  and  Mansur.  Under  these 
caliphs  it  produced  a  true  revival  of  letters  analogous  to 
the  European  Renaissance,  accompanied,  we  may  believe, 
by  similar  frivolities  and  extravagances  of  license.^  Even 
after  the  school  had  lost  its  influence  at  court,  its  liberty 
animated  the  whole  intellectual  life  of  western  Iran.  The 
gist  of  the  Motazelite  protest  was  directed  against  the  au- 
tocracy of  Divine  Will ;  against  an  arbitrary  determination 
of  the  soul's  destiny,  which  superseded  the  moral  law, 
Nazzam,  a  teacher  of  the  ninth  century,  distinctly  taught 
that  Allah  had  no  power  to  create  the  evil  actions  of  men, 
or  to  determine  their  future  rewards  and  punishments  by 
any  other  test  than  their  natural  moral  deserts.  He  went 
so  far  as  to  deny  volition  in  any  known  sense  to  the  Divine 
perfection,  which  is  superior  to  choice.*     The  Shah-Nameh 

1  Kremer,  pp.  271-273  ;  also  20-28.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  148. 

2  Dozy,   pp.    199-207.      Crichton  :  Arabia,   chap.    xii.      Palmer:    Haroun   Al  Rashid. 
Kremer,  p.   149. 

*  Steiner:  Mutazilitun,  5,  56,  57.     Kremer,  p.  31.     Salisbury,  as  above,  p.  158. 


632  ISLAM. 

says,  "  The  world  is  God's  work,  by  virtue  not  of  volition, 
but  of  His  nature."  ^  Ibn  Abbad  even  maintained  that 
God  could  not  be  self-conscious,  because  that  would  imply 
a  distinction  in  Him  of  the  knower  and  the  known  ;  nor  yet 
conscious  of  things  apart  from  Himself,  which  would  in- 
volve dependence  on  an  outward  world.  Both  Jubbat  and 
his  son  taught  that  "  since  God  has  prescribed  duties  to 
man,  He  is  bound  to  perfect  human  reason,  to  come  to 
the  support  of  human  ability  and  free-will,  and  do  away 
with  their  weakness  in  respect  to  His  commands."  ^  These 
and  many  other  similar  Motazelite  theses,  drawn  by  Pro- 
fessor Salisbury  from  the  writings  of  the  historian  Sharas- 
tani,  combined  with  the  earnest  affirmations  of  free-will,  and 
refutations  of  the  orthodox  dogma  of  eternal  decrees,  strik- 
ingly suggest  that  the  system  of  belief  against  which  the 
later  free-thinkers  of  Christendom  have  found  themselves 
obliged  to  contend  is  not  specially  revealed  in  Christian- 
ity, as  its  supporters  conceive,  but  is  evolved  by  necessary 
logic  out  of  the  very  substance  of  anthropomorphic  wor- 
ship. Later  Motazelite  teachers  fell  into  predestinarian 
tendencies,  even  though  maintaining  opposition  to  other 
anthropomorphic  beliefs.  The  controversy  went  through 
various  attempts  at  reconciliation  between  human  con- 
sciousness and  sovereign  foreknowledge  and  decree,  which 
of  course  proved  vain,  and  ended  in  the  triumph  of  abso- 
lutism. The  reasons  for  this  issue  were  partly  political ; 
but  the  invincible  recurrence  to  Fatalism  claimed  its  own 
at  last  from  every  true  Mussulman. 

But  the  absolutism  of  which  we  speak  is  not  to  be  con- 
ceived as  unaffected  by  the  struggle  with  the  opposite 
principle  of  liberty.  Fate,  in  the  Mussulman  mind,  as  the 
Koran  itself  fully  shows,  is  as  far  as  possible  from  sup- 
pressing the  spontaneity  of  instinct  or  will.  No  Scriptures 
are  more   intensely  moral,  no  history  more  replete  with 

1  Salisbury,  p.  164.  2  ibid.,  p.  170. 


MAHOMET.  633 

heroism,  personal  independence,  enthusiastic  zeal,  than 
those  of  Islam.  For  the  sense  of  necessity  has,  besides 
the  outward,  also  an  inward  side ;  it  attaches  not  to  the 
edicts  of  a  Divine  Will  alone,  but  to  the  moral  impulses  and 
convictions,  the  patriotic  and  humane  instincts.  In  pro- 
portion as  its  forces  are  absorbed  on  the  Iminan  side,  they 
become  an  unconscious  antidote  to  the  logic  of  absolute 
religious  monarchism.  They  back  the  calls  of  duty,  valor, 
love,  with  an  infinite  pressure.  They  are  not  a  master's 
edict,  but  a  prestige  and  prophecy  beyond  fear.  We 
have  seen  that  fate  is  a  factor  in  the  noble  pantheism 
which,  instead  of  subjecting  man  to  Nature,^  lifts  man  and 
Nature  at  once  into  godhood,  and  makes  him  capable  of 
the  most  sublime  virtues.  It  is  equally  true  that  the  most 
effective  force  in  moral  and  intellectual  culture  is  that  kind 
of  necessity  which  consists  in  the  invariable  sequence  of 
cause  and  effect,  —  at  once  the  guarantee  of  scientific 
truth  and  the  knell  of  all  dire  chimeras  of  supernatural 
volition.  Necessarian  freedom,  if  not  in  its  scientific  yet 
in  its  moral  forms,  has  certainly  proved  a  mighty  counter- 
action for  Islam  to  the  predestinating  Will  in  which  the 
personal  worship  of  Allah  has  been  most  strongly  in- 
trenched. It  is  a  foregleam  of  the  religion  of  inviolable 
law. 

It  was  after  ^  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  this  Motazelite 
strife  that  orthodoxy  succeeded,  by  its  control  of  the 
phraseology  of  religious  tradition,  in  condensing  into  sys- 
tematic form  that  modified  anthropomorphism,  resting  on 
the  revelations  of  a  creative  Will  and  their  reception  with 
blind  faith,  which  the  Koranic  logic  required.  At  the 
close  of  the  ninth  century  of  Christianity  (883-935  A.  D.) 
Ashari  of  Basra  gave  Islam  its  great  Confession,  or  cate- 
chism.^    He  defined  the  crucial  point  of  God's  relation  to 

*  See  the  Author's  India,  chapter  on  "  Pantheism." 

*  See  Kremer  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch,  Morgenl.  GeseUsch.,  xxxi.  166-169). 


634  ISLAM. 

His  attributes  in  a  purely  homoousian  manner,  and  denied 
the  Motazelite  idea  of  his  amenability  to  the  moral  law, 

"  God  must  not  be  held  to  be  the  absolute  goodness,  but  rather  the 
absolute  king.  The  Koran,  as  His  word,  is  uncreated,  though  the 
Prophet  and  his  language  are  created.  Creation  is  from  nothing,  by 
His  will,  without  change  in  His  consciousness.  Even  his  predictive 
knowledge,  out  of  which  predestination  proceeds,  is  without  effect  on 
his  experience." 

Two  centuries  before  Ashari,  however,  substantially  the 
same  system  was  evolved  from  the  idea  of  the  Koranic  God, 
and  its  rehabilitation  after  ages  of  controversy  showed  that 
its  very  early  origin  was  entirely  legitimate.^ 

But  Ashari's  Confession  pointed  forward  to  a  greater. 
Every  positive  religious  system  finds  the  representative  of 
its  logical  results,  from  whom  its  permanent  creeds  pro- 
ceed, by  whom  its  historic  values  are  made  effective.  He 
is  one  who,  having  passed  through  the  contending  phases 
of  protest  which  it  involved,  rests  at  last  in  the  natural  con- 
sequences of  its  central  principle,  and  adopts  them  in  pure, 
unquestioning  faith.  This  is  Buddha's  relation  to  Brah- 
manism ;  it  is  Augustine's  to  Christianity;  it  is  Luther's  to 
Protestant  bibliolatry;  it  is  Ghazzali's  to  Islam.  The  most 
famous  Moslem  teacher  of  his  time,  contemporary  of  Fir- 
dusl,  a  leader  in  the  schools  of  Bagdad,  Damascus,  and 
Nishapur,  Ghazzali  passed  in  his  experience"  from  the  spirit 
of  Descartes  to  the  spirit  of  Bossuet,  from  intellectual 
scepticism  to  supernaturalistic  faith,  from  the  appeal  to 
consciousness  to  the  appeal  to  revelation.  Yet  the  very 
name  of  his  great  work  indicates  that  by  his  time  ortho- 
doxy had  absorbed  what  it  could  not  ignore  in  the  lib- 
eralism of  two  centuries,  and  was  attempting  to  recon- 
cile the  natural  and  supernatural,  as  modern  Christian 
philosophy  has  tried  to  do,  as  not  inconsistent  parts  of 
one  great  system  of  divine  Will.     His  "  Revival  of  Re- 

*  Kremer,  p.  40. 


MAHOMET.  635 

Hgious  Science  "  is  in  many  respects  a  resort  to  the  mysti- 
cism which  readily  covers  any  desired  interpretation  of 
rcHgious  phraseology.  He  praises  wisdom  as  far  higher 
than  mere  belief,  and  opposes  the  fanatical  dogmatism 
which  rejects  all  rational  inquiry;  while  he  supplements 
the  limitations  and  uncertainties  of  reason  by  a  prophetic 
intuitive  faculty  above  experience,  by  which  the  absolute 
trust  of  the  Sufi  is  to  be  reached.  At  the  same  time  he 
protests  against  that  excessive  and  final  form  of  absorp- 
tion in  God  which  most  of  the  Sufis  pursued.-^ 

It  might  seem  from  this  that  Ghazzali  had  some  glimmer 
of  those  transcendental  necessities  of  thought  which  con- 
dition experience  instead  of  proceeding  from  it,  and  are 
the  foundation  of  all  scientific  processes  whatever.  Yet 
his  faith  is  based,  after  all,  on  the  failure  of  the  human 
element  and  the  externality  of  the  Divine.  "  God  made 
reason,  and  said,  '  Go  forward,'  and  it  went  forward ;  '  Go 
backward,'  and  it  went  backward."^  Metaphysics  were 
nothing  but  the  handmaid  of  revelation ;  the  analytic 
philosophies  of  his  day  were  the  bane  of  truth ;  he  scouts 
mental  certitude  and  denies  the  principle  of  causality,  for 
which  he  substitutes  a  direct  action  of  Deity.^  God  has 
human  faculties,  without  human  limitations  or  organs ;  and 
creates  by  pure  will  all  good  and  evil,  works  and  ways 
and  issues  of  man,  all  in  a  perfect  justice  and  wisdom, 
which  are  in  fact  definable  by  his  will  alone.  He  adores 
the  Koran,  and  insists  strictly  on  its  rites ;  thinks  the  Kaaba 
will  one  day  wake  and  bear  witness  with  eyes  and  tongue.* 
So  necessary  is  response  to  the  reading  of  the  prophets, 
that  a  hearer  should  force  himself  to  seem  moved  when  he 
is  not  so,  and  cultivate  the  gestures  that  his  heart  does  not 

^  See  E dmburgh  Review  for  April,  1S47,  p.  183. 

^  Ihja,  analyzed  by  Hitzig  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhch.,  vii.  177). 
^  Renan  :   A  verroes,  pp.  gS,  gg. 

*  Hitzig  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deulsck.  Morgenl-  Geselhch.,  vii.  172-1S0).  Franck :  Did.  d. 
Science  Philos.,  —  "  Alzazel,"  p.  608.     Kremer,  pp.  45,  46. 


636  ISLAM. 

prompt,  in  hope  that  they  will  at  last  come  of  themselves.^ 
Nevertheless,  his  ethics,  when  they  do  not  touch  theology, 
are  pure  and  noble. 

"  Knowledge  is  a  joy  for  its  own  sake,  and  will  ever  receive  rever- 
ence from  men." 

"  Where  is  the  equal  of  a  true  friend  ?  While  thy  relations  wait  to 
divide  thy  goods  after  thou  art  gone,  the  friend  will  be  mourning  for 
thee,  meditating  on  what  thou  hast  been  to  him,  and  praying  for  thee 
in  the  night,  while  thou  sleepest  in  the  ground." 

Mahomet  said,  "  When  a  man  dies,  people  say,  '  What  has  he  left 
behind  ? '  but  the  angels  say,  '  What  has  he  sent  before  ? '  "  2 

"  No  wild  horse  needs  a  firm  rein  more  than  thy  soul ;  the  wise 
agree  that  heavenly  joy  can  come  only  by  the  renunciation  of  earthly." 

"  For  the  spirit,  sorrow  is  better  than  joy.''  ^ 

Ghazzali's  precepts  on  personal  independence,  on  moral 
discipline,  on  self-purification,  on  practical  kindness,  and 
on  the  culture  of  the  young,  are  creditable  to  his  mind  and 
heart.  He  denounced  the  immoral  and  useless  lives  of 
the  Kadis  of  his  line.  The  history  of  his  solitary  strug- 
gles, his  dumbness,  his  wanderings  and  gropings  for  ten 
years,  ends,  as  with  many  thoughtful  natures  on  whom 
a  positive  religion  has  a  constitutional  hold,  in  his  finally 
casting  himself  absolutely  into  its  arms.  In  him,  as  in 
most,  the  grip  of  such  a  religion  is  usually  most  effective  by 
its  terrors  concerning  death  and  a  future,  which  are  seen 
in  the  fearful  light  of  a  sovereign  Will.  Ghazzali  devel- 
oped the  warnings  of  the  Koran  on  this  subject,  long  be- 
fore him  rejected  by  the  Morgites  and  others,  into  a  dread 
picture  of  the  agonies  of  dying  sinners,  which  has  left  its 
doleful  echoes  in  all  true  Moslem  souls.^ 

With  the  triumph  of  orthodoxy,  signalized  by  the  work 
of  Ghazzali,  —  of  which  the  modern  orthodox  say  that 
"  were  all  other  works  lost,  Islam  could  be  restored  from 

1  Kremer,  p.  130. 

^  Hitzig  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgetd.  Geselhch.,  p.  182.) 

^  Ibid.,  pp.  185,  1S6.  *  Ihja,  quoted  in  Kremer,  p.  271. 


MAHOMET.  Qt^'j 

it  alone,"  —  began  the  age  of  persecution.  Creation  by- 
Will,  predestination,  eternity  of  Scripture,  reason  sunk  in 
revelation,  were  the  shibboleths  by  which  every  man  should 
live  or  die.^  Motazelites  and  all  other  heretics  were  put  to 
the  fiery  trial.  Kadir  and  Motawikkil  in  Bagdad  (1017- 
1018),  and  Mahmud  in  Ghazni,  proved  their  God  supreme, 
above  mental  freedom  or  morality,  by  bloody  reaction- 
ary edicts  against  both,  —  true  counterparts  of  their  own 
political  despotism. 

In  Spain,  the  same  logical  necessities  were  developed 
more  rapidly  than  in  the  speculative  East.  The  com- 
promise between  Islam  and  Christianity,  inevitable  in  that 
country,  did  not  render  either  party  less  intolerant  within 
its  own  sphere.  But  in  spite  of  the  burning  of  books 
and  the  banishment  of  philosophers,  a  rationalistic  reac- 
tion occurred  even  in  Spain.  There  were  sects  in  the 
eleventh  century  that  taught  religious  impartiality,  and 
even  a  kind  of  agnosticism.  Others  reduced  all  religions 
to  efforts  of  man's  ethical  nature  to  reach  truth,  and  made 
its  laws  the  sole  bases  of  knowledge.^  They  had  large 
glimpses  of  universal  religion.  Great  writers,  like  Ibn 
Badja,  Ibn  Tofail,  Ibn  Roshd,  flourished  in  those  palmy 
days  of  liberty,  and  felt  the  terrors  of  their  departure.  But 
the  intolerant  clergy  of  Christianity  had  their  counterpart 
in  the  orthodox  Mollahs,  who  ruled  thought  with  the  iron 
hand  of  their  canon  law,  committed  the  free  philosophical 
works  of  Eastern  thinkers  to  the  flames,  and  denounced 
even  the  orthodoxy  of  the  Eastern  world  with  holy  horror. 
Al  Ghazzali  himself  was  excommunicated,  and  his  book 
burned  for  its  attacks  on  the  theological  hair-splitting  of 
the  canon  law.^  A  puritanic  reformer,  whose  followers 
came  to  Spain  from  the  Berber  tribes  of  Africa  in  the 
twelfth  century,  had  proclaimed  himself  a  Mahdi  in  the 
usual    manner,  beginning  with    miracle    and    ending  with 

1  Kremer,  p.  43.  -  Dozy,  p.  356.  ^    Ibid.,  367. 


638  ISLAM. 

persecution.  These  sectarians  founded  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury the  dynasty  of  the  Almohades,  whose  bigotry  quenched 
the  splendors  of  the  great  times  of  the  Omeyyades  and 
Almoravides  of  Cordova.  For  thinkers  like  Averroes  and 
Maimonides,  orthodox  Islam  had  no  more  toleration  than 
orthodox  Christianity;  and  both  alike  made  of  Spain  a 
vast  inquisition  for  extirpating  freedom  of  thought.-^ 

The  Motazelite  controversies  in  Persia  are  easily  ex- 
plained by  the  continuities  of  religious  history.  In  the 
collision  and  intermixture  of  Oriental  beliefs  in  that  coun- 
try at  the  time  of  the  Mussulman  conquest,  this  great  pro- 
test of  rational  thought  against  the  orthodoxy  of  Koranic 
revelation  was  inevitable.  It  was  by  no  means  of  Semitic 
origin.  The  Semitic  mind  of  itself  had  little  tendency 
to  philosophy  or  logic ;  and  its  immense  services  in  this 
direction  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  were  due  to  its 
focalizing  and  kindling  effect  upon  the  Greek,  Syrian,  Per- 
sian, and  Latin,  —  in  other  words,  the  Aryan  elements  with 
which  it  came  into  contact.  Rationalism  could  hardly  find 
root  in  the  personal  monarchism  of  the  Koran ;  but  it 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  provoked  and  intensified  by  such 
despotic  constraints.  Islam,  on  its  part,  was  surrounded 
by  a  crowd  of  separatist  sects,  breaking  forth  everywhere 
out  of  the  free  speculative  spirit  of  Iran,  representing 
every  shade  of  doubt,  disbelief,  indifference,  and  fanati- 
cism, as  well  as  of  rational  inquiry  and  mystical  faith. 
These  were  the  issues  of  that  spiritual  ferment  which  had 
followed  the  blending  of  heretical  Christianity  with  hereti- 
cal Parsism,  of  the  Gnostic  and  the  Zendik,  the  Manichaean 
and  the  Mazdakite,  sometimes  expanding  into  universality 
and  sometimes  sinking  into  communism  and  immorality. 
Into  this  strife  of  elements  Islam  infused  the  passion  of 
monotheistic  Will  and  personal  revelation.  Yet  through 
all  these  later  products  the  most  conspicuous  force  was 

1  Dozy,  p.  380. 


MAHOMET.  639 

reaction  against  that  central  autocratic  dogma  which  stood 
armed  ahke  with  the  zeal  and  the  sword  of  Islam,  —  Sem- 
itic self-abnegation  before  a  supreme  master  of  body  and 
mind.  The  Motazelites  soon  found  themselves  substitut- 
ing definitions  of  revelation,  Koranic  inspiration,  creation, 
as  results  of  natural  laws,  for  such  as  were  required  by 
the  orthodox  theory  of  Divine  free  volitions ;  in  other 
words,  they  proceeded  to  put  universal  reason  in  place  of 
personal  caprice.  It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  world 
has  never  seen  fuller  liberty  of  discussion  on  speculative 
themes  than  has  over  and  over  again  signalized  Mahom- 
etan rule  in  the  East.  It  seems  as  if  the  confidence  of  the 
great  Mussulman  emperors  —  like  Akbar,  Al  Mamun,  Al 
Rashid  —  in  their  own  doctrine  of  the  one  God  led  them 
at  first  to  imagine  that  bringing  together  the  varieties  of 
human  belief  must  result  in  a  spiritual  unity  analogous  to 
that  which  they  had  eff"ected  in  the  political  sphere.  It 
proved  equally  impracticable  in  both  spheres  to  establish 
permanent  unity  so  long  as  the  autocratic  basis  stood. 
Both  were  incessantly  rent  by  discord.  However  liberal 
the  spirit  of  the  ruler,  it  was  inevitable,  not  only  that  every 
question  of  belief  should  become  absorbed  into  that  of  the 
supreme  rights  of  Divine  Will  over  human  reason,  but 
that  orthodox  Arabic  theology  should  back  down  upon 
the  freedom  it  had  forced  into  life,  in  its  best  disciples. 
Even  Hindu  reformers,  inspired  largely  by  older  Aryan 
philosophy,  —  such  as  the  Moslem  prophets  Nanak,  Ba- 
ber,  and  others,  —  all  insisted  on  the  need  of  an  inspired 
teacher,  who  should  stand  to  the  pupil  in  place  of  God. 
In  fact,  orthodox  Islam  has  striven  for  a  thousand  years 
to  escape  anthropomorphism  by  logical  subtleties  and 
large  interpretations  of  the  monarchical  absolute ;  yet, 
after  all,  the  old  unlimited  and  unconditioned  Will  that 
dictated  the  Koran  stands  fast,  as  root  and  master  of  the 
moral  law,  and   God  is  really  an   Oriental  despot.     Yet 


640  ISLAM. 

even  here  the  quahfications  of  arbitrary  power  are  great, 
as  we  have  already  seen  in  our  previous  studies  of  Oriental 
civilizations. 

Nothing  can  show  more  conclusively  the  necessity  of 
these  results  than  the  fact  that  the  Kaldin,  or  Mussul- 
man Reason  {Logos),  after  being  the  inspiration  of  a  wide- 
spread liberalism  and  free  discussion  in  the  great  schools 
of  Islam,  was,  even  after  the  infusion  of  Greek  thought 
into  Persian,  turned,  in  the  Moticallemin  schools,  into  the 
chief  organ  of  orthodoxy  in  defending  Semitic  ortho- 
doxy against  the  assaults  of  science,. —  the  very  soul  of 
persecuting  fires.^  In  the  sixteenth  century  Sharani,  the 
modern  apostle  of  theological  concihation  in  Islam,  still 
adhered  to  the  old  conceptions  of  God  as  seated  on  a 
throne,  of  a  predestinating  Will,  of  miraculous  evidence  of 
Divine  commission,  of  revelation  as  higher  than  reason, 
with  all  the  mythic  accessories  of  Koranic  eschatology.^ 
Until  very  recently,  as  was  true  of  the  Christian  treatment 
of  the  Bible  for  a  thousand  years  and  more,  no  translation 
of  the  Koran  was  made  into  popular  tongues.  To  put  it 
to  press  was  forbidden  as  impious  by  the  four  great  ortho- 
dox sects.  Nevertheless,  the  cry  of  the  mind  for  freedom 
has  never  been  silenced,  as  our  immediate  purpose  is  to 
show. 

The  force  of  those  inherent  qualities  which  necessitated 
the  triumph  of  monarchism  in  Islam  (as  they  must,  if  not 
neutralized  from  without,  in  every  other  religion  of  the 
same  class)  cannot  be  appreciated  without  the  careful 
study  of  an  immense  accession  to  the  resources  of  free 
thought,  which,  though  associating  Islam  with  the  great 
world-movement  of  future  ages  by  direct  consequences,  yet 
proved  Avholly  unable  to  overcome  the  logic  of  autocratic 

*  Renan  :  A  verroeSs  pp.  105,  106. 

2  Analyzed  by  Fliigel  (Z«zV.s<:/«r.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xx.  1-48).  Kremer, 
p.  252. 


MAHOMET.  641 

Will.  I  refer  to  the  early  introduction  of  the  Aristotelian 
writings  through  the  schools  of  eastern  Iran,  whence  they 
spread  to  Spain,  France,  Germany,  and  Italy  before  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  To  expel  this  mighty 
master  of  those  who  trust  in  Nature  and  law  from  the  whole 
field  of  study,  was  the  great  aim  of  Mussulman  orthodoxy, 
as  it  was  for  a  long  while  of  Christian,  and  for  similar 
reasons.  The  free-thinking  Greek  was  understood  to  teach 
eternal  immanent  law  as  the  secret  of  divine  and  human, 
of  soul  and  sense  alike,  in  place  of  voluntary  creation  of 
the  finite  in  time ;  to  remove  predestinating  Will  from  the 
notion  of  divine  perfection ;  to  undermine  the  recognized 
grounds  of  that  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments 
on  which  the  Koran  rested,  by  uniting  matter  and  spirit 
in  one  conception,  and  as  sides  of  one  process  on  which 
individual  existence  was  dependent;  and,  finally,  to  con- 
ceive Nature  and  man,  as  well  as  God,  to  be  objects  of  free 
and  independent  inquiry.^  It  was  seen  that  here  was  a  foe 
more  dangerous  than  the  Motazelite,  because  far  more  sys- 
tematic, scientific,  and  learned.  The  God  of  Aristotle,  as 
prime  mover  of  the  universe,  immaterial  and  unchangeable, 
was  associated  with  it,  not  as  a  pre-forming  Will,  but  by 
the  law  of  his  being  as  the  realized  perfection  of  that  very 
process  from  potentiality  {dynamis)  to  fulfilment  {entele- 
cheia)  by  which  each  being  and  thing  became  an  individual ; 
thus,  and  thus  only,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  universals. 
While,  therefore,  as  the  sole  absolute  entelecheia,  God  is 
in  one  sense  completely  apart  from  all  these  finite  and 
imperfect  ones.  He  is,  as  that  which  they  all  pursue,  the 
inspiration  and  end  of  all  being.  The  idea,  the  universal, 
the  abstract  divine,  is  for  Aristotle  not  like  the  Platonic 
Ideas, —  archetypes  existing  before  the  individual;  nor  yet 
is  it  found  by  abstraction  or  combination  of  the  individuals. 
It  is  only  in  the  individual,  in  the  concrete ;   it  exists  only 

'  See  Aristotle  :  Metaphysics,  xi.  7. 
41 


642  ISLAM. 

as  positive  energy,  a  transformation  of  Matter,  which  is 
its  empty  possibiHty,  into  Form,  which  is  its  essence. 
These  postulates,  however  unfamihar  their  phraseology, 
are  as  far  as  possible  from  materialistic  in  our  sense.  They 
are  no  more  so  than  the  Platonic  philosophy  to  which 
they  are  in  some  respects  strongly  opposed.  God,  with 
Aristotle,  is  strictly  immaterial  as  perfected  Form, —  the 
absolute  Energy  of  principles.  Knowledge  is  no  accumu- 
lation of  detailed  sensations  under  the  name  of  experience. 
It  has  its  "  origin  and  end  in  necessary  principles,  beyond 
demonstration  ;  apprehended  by  the  nous  without  reason- 
ing," as  the  condition  of  its  own  energy.  This  perception, 
constantly  recurred  to  by  Aristotle,  is  properly  translated 
intuition}  It  is  in  the  light  of  these  transcendental  pos- 
tulates —  the  foundations  of  all  genuine  thinking  since 
the  world  was  made  —  that  the  subtile  duality  of  the  soul 
in  Aristotle's  system,  on  which  there  has  always  been  so 
much  dispute,  must  be  interpreted.  He  conceives  the  soul 
as  on  the  one  hand  a  passive  possibility  or  finite  material, 
and  on  the  other  as  partaking  of  the  "  active,  universal 
intellect,"  which  realizes  itself  in  the  same ;  and,  though 
inseparable  from  its  concrete  form,  is  itself  supremely  real, 
and  the  true  end  of  all  knowledge  of  particular  beings  and 
things.^ 

The  practical  meaning  of  this  system  for  Islam  was  in 
various  ways  a  revolution.  Thus,  as  the  Divine  Life  can 
be  no  creative  and  controlling  Will,  but  is  evermore  simply 
the  pure  perfection  of  all  energies,  so  the  human  mind 
can  be  no  mere  creature  of  such  a  higher  Will,  but  is  itself 
an  active  energy,  free  to  shape  the  matter  of  its  inherent 
powers  into  their  highest  individual  form.  As  a  religio- 
philosophical   ideal,  the   God  of  Aristotle,   although    not 


^  Ethics,  vi.  vi.  2  ;  xii.  6. 

-  See  Bohn's  edition  of  the  Metaphysics  and  Logic-     Also  Ueberweg  :   History  of  Phi- 
/w(7/)/S_)/ (Eng.))  i.  160.     Renan  :  Averroes. 


MAHOMET.  643 

altogether  beyond  the  confines  of  a  self-conscious  indi- 
vidual Will,  was  yet  an  open  door  out  of  the  monarchical 
logic  of  a  revealed  religion.  As  the  one  substratum  of 
the  universal  and  individual,  He  satisfied  the  theistic  in- 
stinct of  the  freer  Mussulman  mind,  at  the  same  time  thor- 
oughly supplanting  the  autocratic  motive  by  the  scientific. 
His  cosmos  was  an  evolutional  whole,  a  harmony  of  pro- 
gressive ascents  from  the  inorganic  to  the  organic,  plant 
to  animal,  thence  to  rationality  in  man  and  his  unity  with 
God,  each  grade  pursuing  its  own  natural  purpose,  its 
highest  possibility  by  the  law  of  its  own  being.  I  am 
tempted  to  picture  the  manifold  stimulus  which  the  study 
of  Aristotle  was  suited  to  give  to  the  finer  elements  of  Is- 
lam. The  reality  of  this  world,  the  necessity  of  progress 
in  the  study  and  use  of  it,  neutralized  those  hopes  and  fears 
concerning  a  future  world  by  which  revealed  religions  have 
absorbed  the  interest  of  mankind  in  the  distant  and  un- 
known. Men  could  not  think  of  essence  as  inseparable 
from  matter,  of  phenomena  as  containing  the  noitmeiia ; 
they  could  not  conceive  of  the  universe  itself  as  eternal 
(that  is,  forever  involved  in  the  motive  energy  of  the  prime 
mover),  without  escaping  the  purely  passive  attitude  of 
the  Koranic  faith  towards  a  supernatural  world.  Through 
the  subtile  mazes  of  Aristotelian  psychology,  the  one  clear 
clew  is  the  impulse  to  incessant  mental  achievement,  to 
self-conscious  study  and  experience,  as  the  end  of  Nature 
and  man.  It  was  the  function  of  Aristotle  to  awaken  this 
aspiration  in  a  scientific  form,  to  give  the  keys  of  the  uni- 
verse to  the  free  reason  of  man.  He  turned  the  full  force 
of  it  on  concrete  individualities,  while  making  their  whole 
value  consist  in  the  universal  which  they  enshrined.  What 
could  be  nobler  than  to  teach  men  to  regard  the  form,  the 
end,  the  cause  of  being  as  the  ultimate  of  truth,  and  to 
regard  the  soul  as  the  purpose  of  the  body's  existence,  not 
as  its  creation ;   as  the  light  from  Deity,  not  derived  from 


644  ISLAM. 

it,  but  found  in  it;  as  the  activity  by  which  its  phenomenal 
Hfe,  as  passive  and  receptive,  became  real,  and  the  indi- 
vidual a  force  of  universal  law? 

His  searching  analyses  of  concepts  and  objects,  so  abso- 
lutely different  from  the  operations  of  faith,  enforced  exact 
thinking,  and  summoned  to  a  Socratic  self-study,  which 
became  the  light  of  ages,  and  has  not  yet  ceased  to  inspire 
philosophic  thought.  His  encyclopedic  survey  of  physical 
science,  terrestrial  and  cosmical,  through  spheres  of  con- 
tinuous ascent,  however  imperfect  and  erroneous,  pursued 
the  ideal  of  systematic  coherence  and  universal  unity,  with 
an  interest  in  every  minutest  fragment  of  truth,  never  sur- 
passed in  the  history  of  thought.  It  announced  that  the 
world  rests  on  the  authority  and  invariability  of  law,  and 
that  every  law  has  inherent,  commanding  relation  to  the 
mind  of  man. 

The  Organon  of  Aristotle,  as  it  was  afterwards  called, 
taught  the  ages  to  think ;  his  physics,  to  observe.^  Here 
is  indeed  the  true  father  of  science,  who  defines  it  as 
"  the  knowledge  of  things  by  their  causes,"  and  describes 
doubt  as  the  only  condition  of  knowledge,  and  knowledge 
itself  as  "  the  solution  of  doubts ;  "  w'hile  they  who  fail 
to  "  hear  all  adversaries,"  '-^  and  entertain  all  rational  sus- 
pense of  belief,  are  "  like  persons  who  know  not  whither 
they  go."^  What  a  reveille  for  every  human  faculty  to 
its  utmost  assertion  and  endeavor  was  that  insistence  on 
the   entelecheia,   or  realization  of   its  own  possibilities  by 

1  Lange,  a  thorough  materiahst,  if  I  understand  him,  who  hates  all  systems  that  start  from 
self-consciousness  {History  of  Materialism,  i.  90),  opposes  (not  fairly,  as  it  seems  to  me) 
Aristotle's  "anthropomorphic  teleology  "  (i-  83).  Yet  even  Lange  admits  that  his  system  is 
"  the  most  perfect  example  in  history  of  a  theory  of  the  universe  as  a  united  and  self-included 
whole  "  (i.  96).  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  Aristotelian  identity  of  matter  and 
form,  the  universality  of  the  latter  being  the  final  purpose  of  the  former,  in  distinction  from 
the  Platonic  separation  and  even  opposition  of  the  two,  as  an  anticipation  of  the  modern  sci- 
entific conception  of  matter  and  spirit,  of  subject  and  object.  With  this  direct  attachment  of 
thought  to  Nature  came  initiation  into  the  physical  sciences  by  the  hand  o£  a  master.  See 
also  Dieterici  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Jiforgenl.  Geselhck.,  xxxi.  118). 

2  Aristotle;  Metaphysics,  v.  i.     Ethics  vi.  7.  ^  ibid.,  ii.  i. 


MAHOMET. 

every  being  and  force !  What  stimulus  to  the  fine  arts 
was  his  close  analysis  of  their  mutual  relations  and  finest 
functions,  as  expansions  of  finite  experience  into  universal 
thought  and  feeling ! 

We  cannot  wonder  at  the  instinctive  rejection  by  tra- 
ditional supernaturalism  of  such  a  foe  to  the  authority  of 
the  Koran.  No  peril  could  be  more  subtle  arfd  incisive. 
The  self-conscious  God  of  Aristotle  was  still  sufficiently 
anthropomorphic  to  oft"er  an  easy  and  attractive  transition 
for  the  Mussulman  thinker  from  the  bonds  of  revelation, 
and  to  prompt  a  natural  reaction  to  the  free  inquiry  of 
which  he  stood  in  such  absolute  need.  To  these  attrac- 
tions must  be  added  the  fine  sense  of  natural  limitation, 
which  led  Aristotle  to  avoid  ontological  speculations,  and 
fasten  the  mind  on  fruitful  positive  research.  Still  further, 
there  was  a  vast  and  instant  interest  awakened  in  the  Mus- 
sulman world  by  the  science  of  the  Greeks,  through  the 
fatalistic  element,  which  might  seem  to  forbid  such  inter- 
est, but  which  has  always  played  so  essential  a  part  in  all 
human  progress  and  power.  Stripped  of  personal  caprice, 
it  is,  in  some  form,  absolutely  requisite  to  the  ideas  of  or- 
der, of  science,  of  philosophy,  and  must  have  prepared  the 
way  in  Islam  for  a  sense  of  necessary  relation,  and  so  of 
unity  and  law. 

The  Ethics  of  Aristotle  had  even  greater  dignity  and  fas- 
cination than  his  physical  and  intellectual  system.  They 
rest  on  free  reason,  on  a  natural  power  of  obedience  and 
conformity  thereto,  and  on  the  constant  energizing  of  be- 
lief in  the  form  of  conduct.  In  this  only  are  happiness 
and  power. ^  Here,  too,  his  method  is  transcendental, 
based  on  the  perception  of  necessary  truths  beyond  dem- 
onstration, by  the  intuitive  reason,  as  the  beginning  and 
end  of  knowledge.  The  origin  and  culture  of  morality 
are  thus  planted  in  thoroughly  human  and  independent 

1  Ethics,  ii.  vi.  lo ;  i.  vii.  lo  ;  x.  viii. 


646  ISLAM. 

grounds.^  No  moral  action  in  a  human  sense  is  ascribed 
to  God,  since  the  necessity  of  choice  or  suspense  would 
degrade  his  perfection.  Neither  do  the  sanctions  of  virtue 
come  from  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments. 
That  sublime  principle  of  the  "end  in  itself"  as  the  mo- 
tive of  endeavor  swept  away  every  obstacle  to  the  disin- 
terestedn^s  of  moral  struggle.  Man  is  naturally  designed 
for  moral  relations.  His  function  is  to  fulfil  the  law  of  his 
being;  and  this  function  is  conceived  as  his  being's  final 
cause,  yet  not  a  result  of  conscious  divine  intent.  To  what, 
then,  does  character  appeal?  To  a  universal  ideal  con- 
science superior  to  the  mere  individual  desire, being  reached 
by  the  fulfilment  of  ethical  conditions  by  human  experi- 
ence. Thus  substantially  the  good  man  is  the  measure  and 
rule  of  goodness.^  At  the  same  time  this  moral  standard 
tends  to  coincide  with  the  grand  principle  of  an  objectively 
"active  intellect,"  or  truth,  in  God,  —  the  really  everlasting 
life  amidst  the  transiency  of  individualities.^  Has  a  freer  or 
nobler  basis  of  ethics  ever  been  devised? 

Reason  is  the  sanction  of  morals ;  and  balance,  or  the 
mean  between  extremes,  determines  the  specific  forms  of 
virtue,  —  to  modern  thought  a  questionable  rule,  as  it  is 
apparently  quantitative  rather  than  qualitative,  and  so  not 
sufficiently  absolute  for  the  antagonism  of  right  and  wrong, 
in  the  view  of  Kant  and  others.^  Yet  nothing  could  be 
nobler  than  the  practical  ideals  to  which  it  led. 

"  Not  a  man,  but  reason,  should  rule  ;  since  by  ruling  for  self,  man 
becomes  a  tyrant."  ° 

"  Friendship  is  in  loving  rather  than  in  being  loved.  ...  It  is  in 
equality,  especially  between  the  good.  ...  A  friend  is  another  self.  .  .  . 
When  men  are  friends,  they  do  not  need  justice  ;  but  when  they  are 
just,  they  still  need  friendship."  ^ 

1  Ethics,  vi.  i.  ;  vi.  vi. ;  vi.  x.     Mag.  Moralia,  i.  35.     See  also  an  admirable  article  in 
Westminster  Review,  January,  1867.     And  Grant's  Ethics  of  Aristotle,  i.,  Essay  v. 
^  Ethics,  iii.  iv.  5  ;  x.  v.  14.  ^  Metaphysics,  xi.  vii.  5. 

*  Grant :  Ethics  of  A  ristotle,  i. ,  Essay  v. 
^  Ethics,  V.  vi.  5.  ^  Ibid.,  viii.  viii.  4,  5  ;  viii.  i.  5. 


MAHOMET.  647 

"  A  good  man  bears  the  accidents  of  fortune  most  nobly  and  always 
suitably,  as  faultless  as  the  cube."  "  He  is  brave  who  bears  death 
or  wounds  because  it  is  honorable  to  do  so."  ^ 

*'  There  are  cases  in  which  pardon  is  granted,  when  one  does  what 
he  ought  not,  owing  to  causes  too  strong  for  human  nature.  But  there 
are  things  which  it  is  wrong  to  do  even  on  compulsion,  which  a  man 
should  undergo  most  dreadful  sufferings  and  even  death  rather  than 
do."  ^  "Suicide  is  cowardly,  for  it  does  not  seek  death  because  it  is 
honorable,  but  to  avoid  evil."  ^ 

"  The  magnanimous  man,  in  the  greatness  of  his  merits,  is  in  the 
highest  place  ;  but  in  his  proper  estimation  ot  himself  he  is  in  the  true 
mean." 

"  Men  are  most  apt  to  be  deceived  by  pleasure,  choosmg  it  as  the 
good,  though  it  is  not  so."  * 

When  Aristotle  says  that  "  deliberate  preference,"  that 
is,  real  moral  choice,  "  can  only  be  desire  of  things 
that  are  within  our  power,"  ^  he  shows  that  his  rule  of 
"  balance  "  (or  the  mean)  was  simply  the  noble  sense  of 
liberty  as  the  fruit  of  right  limit.  It  is  pure  spontaneity. 
"  What  is  done  virtuously,  is  done  without  annoy ;  honor- 
able actions  are  for  the  sake  of  the  honorable,  and  the 
right  act  is  the  pleasant  act."  ^  Finally,  to  sum  all,  is  this 
noblest  of  moral  affirmations :  "  We  exist  by  energy,  by 
living  and  acting.  He  who  has  produced  a  (real)  work 
loves  it  because  he  loves  his  existence." '  Surely  Semitic 
passion,  at  its  Moslem  fever  heat,  may  well  have  sought 
the  discipHnes  of  an  ethical  "  balance  "  so  commanding,  so 
wise,  and  so  brave.^ 

But  what  could  be  a  more  welcome  relief  from  that 
political  absolutism  in  which  Moslem  orthodoxy  centred, 
than  Aristotle's  firm  demand  for  entire  mental  freedom, 
his  recognition  of  reason  as  the  rightful  ruler?  What  so 
acceptable  to  the  early  Arab  instincts,  or  to  the  individ- 

^  Ethics,  i.  X.  7.  2  Ibid.,  iii.  i.  8,  9.  *  Ibid.,  iii.  vii.  11. 

*  Ibid.,  iv.  iii.  5  ;  iv.  6.  s  Ibid.,  iii.  iii.  12. 

*  Ibid.,  iv.  i.  6.  '  Ibid.,  ix.  vii.  5. 

8  For  many  fine  illustrations  of  Aristotle's  ethical  philosophy,  see  Mayor's  Ancient 
Philosophy. 


648  ISLAM. 

uality  of  the  Iranian  genius,  as  those  bold  political  specu- 
lations in  which  tyranny,  oligarchy,  and  unbridled  crude 
democracy  are  shown  to  be  the  worst  forms  of  government, 
and  the  end  of  the  State  is  pronounced  to  be  the  good  of 
the  whole  !  ^  With  what  force  must  it  not  have  appealed  to 
the  thoughtful  scholar  of  Bagdad  or  Basra,  in  Irak  or  in 
Khorassan,  to  read  in  his  Greek  master  that  "  authority  in 
Persia,  especially  parental,  is  founded  on  tyranny;"  that 
"  justice  is  the  most  excellent  of  virtues,  and  is  more 
admirable  than  the  morning  or  the  evening  star;  "  that 
nevertheless  "  equity  is  nobler  even  than  justice,"  ^  be- 
cause it  supplements  the  inequality  of  general  laws ;  above 
all,  that  equity  is  the  corrector  of  edicts,  and  higher  than 
the  written  law !  Even  those  doctrines  which  appear  most 
contrary  to  modern  humanity,  such  as  the  righteousness 
of  slavery  under  certain  conditions,  the  depreciation  of 
woman,  and  the  inferiority  of  mechanical  labor,  could  have 
found  no  serious  protest  in  the  Islam  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, as  they  certainly  did  not  either  in  Greece  in  Aristotle's 
own  time  or  during  many  ages  of  Christianity.  Their 
seeming  harshness  will  be  much  modified  by  the  study  of 
his  meaning.  Thus  he  justified  slavery  only  among  "those 
whom  Nature  had  fitted  to  be  happier  in  that  state  than 
out  of  it;  "  only  for  "  those  who  have  just  reason  enough 
to  know  that  there  is  such  a  faculty  as  reason,  without 
being  endued  with  the  use  of  it."^  But  even  here  "the 
interests  of  master  and  slave  are  one ;  and  to  govern  ill  is 
evil  to  both  the  governor  and  the  governed  ;  "  so  that  "  a 
mutual  utility  and  friendship  is  proper  between  them."  ^ 
"  A  slave  should  be  trained  by  his  master  to  such  virtue  as 
he  is  capable  of,  not  as  mere  servile  drudgery!'  ^  "  And 
if  it  is  necessary  that  both  sides  should  have  some  noble 
qualities,  why  should  one  always  govern   and   the  other 

*  Politics,  vii.  xiii.  ;  v.  vii.  ix. ;  vii.  ii.  =  Ethics,  viii.  x.  7 ;  v.  i.  12  ;  v.  x.  4  ;  v.  x. 

^  Politics,  i.  V.  *  Ibid.,  i.  vi.  ^  ibj^.j  1.  xiii. 


MAHOMET.  649 

always  be  governed?"^  "Therefore  they  are  wrong  who 
would  deprive  slaves  of  reason,  and  say  that  they  are  only 
to  follow  their  orders ;  for  slaves  want  education  more  than 
children."  ^ 

From  all  which  it  is  evident,  to  say  the  least,  that  the 
Aristotelian  ethics  could  have  added  nothing  to  the  com- 
paratively light  and  loose  burdens  of  slavery  as  it  has 
always  existed  in  the  Oriental  world.  As  healthful  inspir- 
ations for  that  age  and  for  all  ages,  may  be  added  Aris- 
totle's opposition  to  Platonic  communism,  and  honor  to 
the  family  relations ;  his  strong  tendency  to  suffrage  for 
all  citizens,  and  to  making  all  men  citizens  who  have  a  fair 
measure  of  character  and  wisdom ;  and  his  liberal  view  of 
right  governmental  forms  as  variable  with  the  genius  and 
qualities  of  States. 

The  dreaded  influences  of  Aristotelianism  were  summed 
up  in  the  last  and  greatest  of  his  followers,  the  famous 
Ibn  Roshd  (Averroes)  of  Cordova,  whose  numerous  writ- 
ings, circulated  throughout  the  Oriental  world,  repre- 
sented for  centuries  that  sceptical,  anti-supernatural,  scien- 
tific spirit,  out  of  which  grew  the  freedom  of  the  modern 
Renaissance,  after  the  bitter  war  against  him  in  Islam  and 
Christianity  had  proved  vain.  Against  the  "  renegade  " 
Ghazzali,  the  prime  minister  of  Moslem  orthodoxy,  Aver- 
roes expends  his  entire  strength,  answering  his  work 
against  the  philosophers  triumphantly  in  detail.^  To  the 
theology  of  personal  revelation  and  divine  autocracy 
nothing  could  be  more  destructive  than  the  calm,  syste- 
matic tone  of  Averroes,  and  his  clear  conclusions,  far 
more  decided  on  these  subjects  than  the  writings  of  his 
master.  He  reversed  the  dogma  that  good  was  good 
because  God  willed  it,  as  destroying  the  foundations  of 
morality. 

'  Politics,  i.  xiii.  ^  Ibid.,  i.  xiii. 

'  See  Renan :  Averroes,  p.  167. 


650  ISLAM. 

His  philosophy  of  emanation,  drawn  from  Neoplatonism, 
verged  towards  pantheism,  especially  as  providing  a  con- 
tinuous chain  of  being  between  God  and  man,  which  it 
was  for  man  to  span,  not  by  asceticism,  but  by  moral  dis- 
cipline and  by  science.  His  psychology  struck  at  indi- 
vidual immortality.  His  exegesis  overthrew  Scriptural 
religion  in  the  traditional  sense.  His  free  dealing  left 
nothing  inviolable  by  science,  philosophy,  and  free  belief; 
and  he  affirmed  that  Nature  is  moved  by  principles.  His 
large  and  encyclopedic  thought  nevertheless  went  further 
towards  recognizing  the  permanent  good  in  traditional  be- 
liefs than  that  of  other  writers  of  his  school.  For  example, 
he  allegorized  in  the  interest  of  adaptation ;  he  claimed 
to  respect  the  Koran,  and  to  be  a  good  Mussulman.  He 
admitted  Fatalism  in  a  certain  sense,  though  not  in  the 
full  predestinarian  sense;  recognized  the  control  of  con- 
duct by  natural  laws  and  their  continuity  from  the  whole 
past,  which  he  was  willing  to  include  in  the  Divine  om- 
niscience. He  did  not  even  deny  the  possibility  of  revela- 
tion, yet  interpreted  it  as  a  part  of  the  education  of  mind 
on  lower  stages,  but  wholly  needless  to  the  philosophic 
mind, —  and  he  might  have  added,  in  the  ordinary  sense 
impossible.  His  political  theories  were  Platonic,  and 
amidst  many  fantastic  ideas  contained  protests  against 
militaiy  despotism  in  all  forms,  and  in  fact  against  all 
forms  of  tyranny,  especially  that  of  priests.  Above  all, 
he  claimed  for  woman  equal  breadth  of  capacity  with  man 
in  all  spheres,  and  considered  the  narrow  sphere  to  which 
she  had  been  confined  as  the  real  reason  for  her  actual 
inferiority,  even  moral.^ 

Arabic  thought  has  never  reached  beyond  the  mind  of 
Averroes.  He  summed  up  one  of  the  largest  and  freest 
movements  of  speculative  and  moral  progress  in  all  his- 
tory.    Yet  in  the  very  moment  of  its   culmination  there 

^  See  citations  in  Kenan's  Averroes,  pp.  161,  162. 


MAHOMET.  651 

set  in  the  reaction  which  indicated  that  Mussulman  the- 
ology could  not  contain,  or  tolerate  it,  and  live.  And  the 
war  upon  pure  rationalism  fully  organized  against  it  in 
the  twelfth  century,  no  revival  has  followed.  Everywhere 
the  Asharite  and  Ghazzalite  reaction  took  possession  of 
the  powers  of  Islam,  and  their  watchword  was  the  name  of 
Ghazzah's  great  work,  "  Destruction  to  the  Philosophers." 
From  Bagdad  to  Spain  raged  the  fires  of  Mussulman  in- 
quisition. The  great  physicians,  scientists,  and  metaphy- 
sicians, to  whom  the  world  owes  a  debt  that  can  never  be 
cancelled,  were  exiled,  imprisoned,  silenced,  executed,  and 
their  writings  destroyed,  by  barbarians  like  the  Almohades 
in  Spain  and  the  later  Abbasides  in  Iran.  They  deserve 
a  closer  recognition  on  our  part,  especially  as  the  most 
of  them  were  Persians,  born  and  taught  in  the  various 
provinces  of  Iran. 

Averroes  was  but  the  last  in  that  line  of  Mussulman 
philosophers  whose  writings,  inspired  and  directed  by  the 
genius  of  Aristotle  and  Plato,  exerted  a  profound  influ- 
ence on  Persian,  and  afterwards  on  Jewish  and  Christian, 
thought.!  We  do  not  speak  of  such  influence  on  the 
Arab  mind,  because  such  speculations  were  never  suited 
to  Its  Semitic  nature;  what  the  Arabs  supplied  was  the 
language,  which,  as  the  result  of  the  Mussulman  conquests, 
became  the  current  medium  of  thought  in  that  age.  The 
Aristotelians  contributed  very  largely  to  this  extension  of 
Arabic  to  the  higher  uses  of  language,  if  they  may  not 
even  be  said  to  have  produced  it.^  They  were  earnest 
ethical  preachers,  men  of  encyclopedic  science,  inspired  by 
the  intense  emphasis  laid  by  Mahometan  tradition  on  the 
Will,  either  as  God  or  man,  to  a  profound  study  of  its  con- 
ditions, and  upon  the  basis  of  human  freedom.  It  is  won- 
derful to  note  the  scope  of  their  inquiries,  their  aspirations 
to  the   highest  subjects   of  speculation  and   the  broadest 

1  Ueberweg:  Hist,  of  Phil,  i.  402,  403.    Renan  :  Averroes,  p.  184.  *  Ibid.,  p.  174. 


652  ISLAM. 

fields  of  application,  their  conscientious  exploration  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  past,  and  transmission  of  its  best  fruits  to 
future  study,  and  their  laborious  lives,  distributing  original 
and  free  methods  of  thought  over  the  whole  East.  They 
were  not  Greek  scholars ;  they  used  translations  made  by 
Syro-Christians  of  the  Nestorian  and  Monophysite  sects, 
who  contributed  the  raw  materials  of  Aristotle  and  Plato, 
but  wholly  failed  to  add  any  original  use  of  them.  For 
the  most  part,  these  Nestorian-Christian  translators  were 
in  small  sympathy  with  Greek  thought,  being  driven  to  it 
as  a  refuge  when  their  sect  was  expelled  from  the  Christian 
Church  for  heresy  as  to  the  Trinity,  —  seeking  in  Pagan 
wisdom  the  light  refused  them  by  the  Church  of  Christ. 
They  had  found  employment  at  the  courts  of  the  Abbaside 
caliphs  as  physicians  or  literary  scribes,  fitted  to  gratify 
the  taste  and  pride  of  the  Mussulman  renaissance.  The 
beginning  of  translations  from  Greek  into  Oriental  tongues, 
however,  began  far  back  in  the  Sassanian  times,  in  earlier 
outbreaks  of  Christian  intolerance,  when  Justinian  expelled 
the  Greek  philosophers  of  Athens  to  find  hospitality  at  the 
Persian  court. ^  The  schools  of  Nisibis,  Chalcis,  and  Re- 
saina,  and  the  Monophysite  studies,  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Greek  renaissance. 

The  accumulation  of  materials  had  therefore  gone  on 
for  several  centuries,  and  had  become  adequate  for  the 
inspiration  of  scholars  like  Alfarabi,  Alkindi,  Avicenna 
(Ibn  Sina),  and  Averroes  (Ibn  Roshd)  ;  while  every  suc- 
cessive generation  revised  and  multiplied  the  versions.^ 
These  men  were  not  blind  worshippers  of  Aristotle,  how- 
ever profound  their  admiration  for  the  great  master.^ 
They  analyzed  for  themselves  the  ideas  of  Revelation 
and  Philosophy  in  the  peculiar  forms  in  which  Islam  pre- 

^  Uebenveg,  i.  403. 

2  For  these  Arabic  philosophers,  consult  their  lives  in  Franck's  Dktionnaire  des  Sciences 
Philosofihigiies,  —  "  Arabes,"  p.  83. 

2  See,  especially,  in  Franck,  passages  from  Averroes  in  praise  of  him. 


MAHOMET.  653 

sented  them.^  They  sought  to  fill  the  void  in  Aristotle's 
fragmentary  psychology  between  man  and  God  by  Platonic 
emanations,  conceived  after  a  scientific  method,  and  by  the 
doctrine  of  the  intelligence  of  the  spheres ;  and  so  to  com- 
plete the  unity  of  the  cosmos,  not  for  the  mind  only,  but  for 
the  religious  sense,  —  showing  in  this  the  natural  instinct 
of  the  Mussulman  for  simplicity  and  unity .^  They  endeav- 
ored to  explain  what  he  had  left  vague,  and  to  reconcile 
the  ethical  and  spiritual  with  the  philosophical  side  of  sci- 
ence. This  was  especially  manifest  in  their  development  of 
the  Aristotelian  theory  of  the  two  intellects,  —  the  passive 
Reason,  conversant  with  material  forms  and  subject  to 
change  and  death  through  them ;  and  the  active  Reason, 
superior  to  the  individual  and  conversant  with  the  Immu- 
table, and  so  remaining  unchanged  in  itself.  This  higher 
Reason  man  can  appropriate  and  come  into  conjunction 
with  by  patient  disciplines,  —  moral,  spiritual,  and  intel- 
lectual.^ Thus  they  resisted  the  Islamic  separation  of  God 
and  the  soul,  and  counteracted  Aristotle's  notion  of  a  sep- 
arate prime  Mover,  the  inconsistent  point  in  his  principles 
of  evolution.  We  shall  see  how  naturally  this  passed  over 
into  the  pantheism  of  the  Sufis. 

Moreover,  they  refused  to  accept  immortality  as  a  pos- 
tulate ;  some  of  them  denied  its  reality,  preferring,  as  more 
consistent  with  their  psychological  data,  the  absorption  of 
individual  mind  into  the  active  Reason,  which  represented 
the  connecting  bond  between  God  and  man,  and  which  was 
likened  to  the  light,  without  which  seeing  —  the  passive 
reason — was  impossible.  Alfarabi,  who  died  A.  D,  950, 
denied  this  as  an  old  wives'  tale,  and  asserted  annihila- 
tion.* Averroes  accepted  it,  as  did  also  Avicenna.^  For 
ethical  earnestness,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  anything  more 

1  Alfarabi.  ^  Espe'cially  Averroes  (Franck,  p.  749),  Avicenna  (Franck,  p.  734). 

■"  Especially  Ibn-Badja  (Franck,  p.  744). 

♦  Franck,  p.  522.  6  ibid.,  pp.  750-752. 


654  ISLAM. 

impressive  than  the  teaching  of  Avicenna.-^  For  encyclo- 
pedic scope,  nothing  could  exceed  the  works  of  Alfarabt, 
the  Transoxanian  scholar,  of  whom  it  has  been  said  that 
"  what  Faust  desired  to  know,  Alfarabi  believed  himself  to 
have  already  learned."  '^  One  thing  is  sure  :  the  Arab  phi- 
losophers, whatever  their  individual  views  respecting  im- 
mortality, denied  without  exception  the  Christian  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection,^  and  the  curious  orthodox  Mahometan 
conception  of  the  renewed  life  beyond  death,  as  a  result, 
not  of  actual  continuance  in  any  form,  but  of  a  new  creation 
by  Divine  Will,  restoring  to  life  a  body  already  reduced  to 
dust.^  Ghazzali's  chief  reproach  of  the  ethics  of  the  phi- 
losophers was  that  they  looked  for  no  reward  of  virtue  but 
that  which  comes  here  on  earth  in  excellence  itself^ 

What  made  them  most  obnoxious  to  the  orthodox 
worshippers  of  the  Kalam,  or  Word^  (Motekallemin,  As- 
harites,  and  others,  scholastic  philosophers  of  Islam),  was 
their  incessant  intermeddling  with  the  prescriptive  Islamic 
dogma  of  the  fore-ordaining  will  of  God.  "  The  doctrine 
of  the  philosophers,"  says  Makrizi,  the  historian,  "  has 
caused  the  most  fatal  evils  to  religion  that  can  be  con- 
ceived, not  only  increasing  error,  but  adding  an  excessive 
growth  of  impiety." ''  They  went  very  far  in  their  criticism 
of  creation  by  Divine  Will.  They  raised  the  subtile  but 
valid  and  effective  objection,  that  creation  at  a  definite 
time  would  imply  imperfect  fulfilment  of  Divine  Will  pre- 
vious to  that  time,  while  active  manifestation  is  always 
essential  to  perfect  being.  Maimonides,  the  greatest  of 
Jewish  teachers,  as  well  as  of  the  earlier  Motekallemin,  fol- 
lowed in  the  track  of  Christian  theology,  in  an  excessive 
zeal  to  establish  against  these  philosophies  the  fundamen- 
tal or  root  doctrine  of  a  monarchical  Deity, — that  of  crea- 

*  Franck,  p.  755.  Dukes  (Philos.  d.  Zehnt.  jfark.,  p.  84)  has  given  an  account  of  his 
famous  treatise  on  the  "  origin  of  things."  -  Dukes,  p.  83. 

3  Renan  :  AverroeSyXi-  157.  *  Ibid.,  p.  158.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  159. 

6  Ibid.,  pp.  104,  105  ;  Franck :  Arabes.  '  De  Sacy,  quoted  by  Franck,  p.  84. 


MAHOMET.  655 

tion  out  of  nothing;  and  to  make  this  easier,  this  school 
adopted  the  expedient  of  atoms,  as  substances  susceptible 
of  being  increased  by  a  direct  Divine  act,  at  need,  and  as 
convenient  units  for  measuring  the  quality  of  all  objects. 
Not  only  did  the  Aristotelian  ferment  in  Islam  bring  out 
in  this  way  philosophical  devices  and  theological  refuges 
in  immense  variety,  but  it  is  hardly  possible  to  find  a  phase 
of  philosophical  opinion  which  did  not  come  up  in  some 
one  of  those  peripatetic  schools  of  the  East  in  the  course 
of  their  development. 

When  the  orthodoxy  of  Ashari  and  Ghazzali  triumphed, 
the  freer  philosophical  writings  passed  over  to  the  Jewish 
schools,  where  their  thought  was  preserved,^  and  formed 
the  basis  of  scholastic  philosophy  in  mediaeval  Europe,  the 
formative  force  of  Christian  dialectics,  and  the  initiation  of 
the  great  struggle  of  reason  with  blind  belief.  The  Jews 
were  the  rationalists  of  the  Middle  Ages,^  especially  of  the 
latter  half  of  them.  Bearers-on  of  the  torch  kindled  by 
Arabic  and  Persian  Aristotelians,  they  bore  the  brunt  of  a 
very  natural  Christian  hostility  to  the  anti-supernatural 
tendencies  of  that  scientific  school.  Averroes,  their  chief 
philosophical  master,  was  the  chief  of  infidels,  and  so  his 
name  was  especially  connected  with  the  imaginary  book  of 
the  "  Three  Impostors,"  the  bugbear  of  Christian  ortho- 
doxy, held  infamous  as  assaulting  the  three  great  positive 
religions,  but  which  really  represented  the  opening  move- 
ment of  free  thought  in  the  thirteenth  century  in  Germany, 
in  which  the  modern  idea  of  comparative  religious  science 
took  its  origin.^  It  is  not,  however,  our  purpose  to  trace  their 
influence  on  modern  freedom,  and,  through  them,  of  the 
Mussulman  schools  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries, 

^  See  their  influence  on  Saadja,  and  Isak  al  Israeli,  earliest  Jewish  scientists  (Dukes,  p.  84). 
See,  for  Jewish  translation  from  the  Arabic  writers,  Jost,  Gesch.  d.  Jtid.  26  ;  also  for  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Arab  language  as  the  medium  of  trade  on  the  Jews  who  visited  Bagdad,  Jost,  ii. 
273,  and  for  the  stimulus  imported  by  the  Arabs,  p.  273. 

2  Renan  :  Averroes,  p.  183.  s  Ibid.,  pp.  280,  292,  and  pt.  ii.  chap,  i.,  xiii.-xv. 


656  ISLAM. 

which  were  in  fact  the  representatives  of  the  boldest  ration- 
alism down  to  the  seventeenth.^  It  is  enough  to  say,  that 
from  the  thirteenth  to  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries 
their  impulse  within  the  life  of  Judaism  alone  was  pro- 
foundly felt,  and  sufficiently  to  transmit  the  scientific  spirit 
into  the  very  core  and  fibre  of  civilization.  But  in  the 
fifteenth  century  set  in  the  natural  reaction  inevitable  for 
Hebrew  monotheism ;  and  the  war  of  rabbinical  orthodoxy 
upon  natural  law  and  rationalistic  science  merely  repeated 
that  of  the  Motekallemin  of  Islam  on  scientific  thought. 
This  result,  however,  was  foreshadowed  even  in  the  best 
periods  and  freest  persons  of  Jewish  speculative  history. 

The  first  effect  of  the  Arabic  revival  on  Jewish  thought 
was  simply  stimulative ;  the  Motazelites  of  Bagdad  in  the 
eighth  century  awakened  the  Karaite  sect  to  split  away 
from  the  Talmudic  Rabbins;  but  it  was  mainly  on  the 
question  of  the  supposed  necessity  of  tradition  to  supple- 
ment the  written  law.^  In  the  tenth  century  we  find 
Saadja  busy  in  reconciling  human  freedom  with  Divine 
predestination,  against  Karaites  and  Aristotelians.^  And 
even  in  the  persons  of  its  greatest  Aristotelian  representa- 
tives, Judaism  did  not  and  could  not  break  from  its  start- 
ing-point in  Divine  Will,  and  so  not,  in  the  main,  from  the 
expression  of  that  Will  in  a  complete  and  written  law. 
Their  conclusions  were  always  in  the  interest  of  Scripture 
and  Jahveh.  They  endeavored  to  resume  the  whole  past 
of  human  thought,  and  bring  its  scientific  results  to  illus- 
trate, explain,  and  justify  the  doctrines  of  Creation,  Provi- 
dence, Revelation.  Their  offence  to  orthodoxy  was  that 
they  made  Nature  and  science  the  ground  of  these  doc- 
trines, instead  of  a  direct  and  arbitrary  supernatural  Power. 
Thus  the  constructive  philosophy  of  Avicebron*  sought 

*  See  Renan's  thorough  account  of  this  {Aver roes). 

*  Jost,  ii.  294-301.  3  Ibid. 

*  A  Spanish  Jew  of  the  eleventh  century ;  author  of  the  Fans  Vttce,  a  most  influential 
work  in  forming  the  minds  of  the  great  Christian  scholastics.    Uotil  the  recent  researches  of 


MAHOMET.  657 

to  combine  Aristotelian  psychology  with  the  doctrines  of 
Platonic  emanation  and  Alexandrian  mysticism  into  one 
conception  of  the  universe  as  the  unity  of  a  supreme  Sub- 
stance and  a  supreme  Form,  of  which  all  special  substances 
and  forms  were  but  transient  expressions.  But  even  he 
saved  himself  from  pantheism  by  introducing,  somewhat 
mechanically,  into  his  system  the  Jewish  conception  of  a 
supreme  Will,  who,  as  Creator  and  Mover,  mediates  be- 
tween the  unity  and  the  diversity,  God  and  the  world ;  ^ 
a  conception  which  cannot  be  reconciled  with  emanation, 
yet  was  indispensable  to  his  Jahvistic  instinct.  Yet  with 
all  his  endeavors  to  reconcile  the  necessary  movement  of 
universal  laws  with  a  personal  Will,  this  pupil  of  the  Ara- 
bic and  Greek  schools  was  recognized  under  every  disguise 
as  an  enemy  of  the  Bible  and  its  revealed  God.'-^ 

Another  great  disciple  of  Averroes,  Maimonides,^  —  the 
encyclopedic  master  of  Jewish  learning  and  thought,  and 
to  the  present  day  its  most  honored  secular  head,  —  repre- 
sented the  like  conciliatory  tendencies,  and  his  freedom 
received  similar  treatment,  if  not  in  his  day,  yet  as  soon 
as  it  was  understood.  In  his  immortal  work,  the  "  Guide 
of  the  Lost,"  it  was  his  purpose  to  save  those  whom 
rationalistic  negations  and  mystic  abstractions  had  left 
floating  without  anchorage,  by  reconciling  apparent  con- 
tradictions in  a  higher  synthesis,  —  reason  with  faith,  sci- 
ence with  religion,  the  God  of  the  philosopher  with  the 
God  of  the  Hebrew  believer.  This  he  attempted  to  do  by 
allegorical  and  ideal  interpretations  of  the  Bible ;  by  natu- 
ralistic views  of  its  miracles,  and  spiritualization  of  its  Jah- 
vistic Will ;  ^  by  combining  an  Alexandrian  dialectic  of 
the  Infinite,  reaching  up  into  pure  impersonality,  with  full 

Munk,  identifying  him  wth  Ibn  Gebirol,  a  well-knovvn  writer  of  that  time  in  various  depart- 
ments, nothing  was  known  of  him,  save  his  great  authority  and  his  reputation  as  a  pagan 
rationalist.     Franck  :  Dictionary,  ■p'f.  127-131. 

'  Franck:  Etudes  Orient.,  pp.  375;  376.  2  ibid.,  p.  380. 

'  Cordova,  twelfth  centurj'.  *  Franck  :  Etudes  Orientales,  p.  329. 

42 


658  ISLAM. 

acceptance  of  a  personal  Prov^idence  and  a  self-conscious 
creative  God.^  He  takes  up  into  his  broad  current  the 
manifold  streams  that  descended  through  his  Arabian  and 
Persian  masters ;  and  all  the  wealth  of  learning  and  prac- 
tical wisdom  inherited  by  his  century  is  laid  by  him  at  the 
feet  of  Jewish  monotheism.  Of  course  the  prodigious 
task  was  in  many  respects  a  failure ;  in  others,  it  asserted 
a  philosophical  science  far  beyond  anything  of  which 
Jewish  monarchism  was  capable.  But  there  is  something 
sublime  in  the  loyalty  of  the  ill-sustained  scholar  to  his 
idea,  through  every  discouragement  and  distraction, 
through  exile  and  disappointment  and  the  wild  caprices 
of  despotic  power,  which  makes  him  a  noble  type  of  the 
heroic  endurance  and  faith  of  his  race.  The  freedom  and 
sense  with  which  he  develops  the  elements  of  Aristotelian 
and  Hebrew  ethics  into  far  clearer  and  more  humane 
principles  of  practical  conduct  than  either  of  his  earlier 
masters,^  is  equally  remarkable.  He  teaches  that  sacri- 
fices, especially  of  animals,  are  idolatry,  and  only  permitted 
as  a  transition  to  higher  methods  of  worship.  He  defines 
prophecy  itself  by  natural  laws,  and  as  a  genius  for  self- 
sacrifice  and  truth.^  He  dissipates  the  theological  super- 
stitions that  grew  from  a  physical  theory  of  the  future  life, 
and  does  not  dogmatize  upon  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
or  those  details  that  made  the  immortality  of  the  soul  a 
reality  to  his  people.  * 

Maimonides  is,  in  fact,  the  extreme  point  in  pure  science 
to  which  the  purely  Hebrew  conception  of  Jahveh  and  his 
revealed  Will  has  ever  been  stretched.  He  turns  the 
searching  probe  of  natural  light  upon  the  literature  and 
faith  of  his  people,  to  bring  order  and  form  and  recon- 
ciliation into  its  vast  and  formless  mass  of  mingled  wisdom 


*  Franck  :  Etudes  Orientales.  p.  349.     Renan  :  Averroes,  p.  179. 

*  Franck  :  Etudes  Orientales,  pp.  335-337.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  356. 

*  See  Geiger:  Gesch.  d.  Jud,,  iii.  3. 


MAHOMET.  659 

and  superstition,  of  Scripture  tradition  and  reason.  In 
many  respects,  though  not  in  consistency  or  in  pure  con- 
centration upon  ideas,  he  is  a  true  predecessor  of  Spinoza, 
following  in  large  degree  the  same  ideal  guidance  of  unity 
and  deity  which  personal  monotheism  alone,  as  a  crude 
preliminary,  rendered  possible,  but  to  which  it  also  sought 
in  both  cases  to  set  limits,  thus  revealing  its  own  logical 
imperfections.  Monotheism  was  more  or  less  successful 
in  imposing  upon  Maimonides  these  bounds ;  and  its  auto- 
cratic element  waged  as  bitter  a  war  upon  the  naturalism 
which  it  detected  as  penetrating  his  whole  system,  as  was 
that  which  afterwards  drove  Spinoza  from  the  synagogue 
with  the  ravings  of  barbarian  hate.  His  authority,  at  first 
carrying  all  before  it,^  by  reason  of  his  conciliatory  attitude 
towards  the  Jewish  scriptures  and  the  substance  of  their 
theology,  soon  struck  against  their  supernaturalism  and 
the  pride  of  Hebrew  religious  monopoly;^  and  the  strife 
divided  the  Jewish  world.  The  works  of  the  great  free- 
thinker were  burned  by  the  joint  intolerance  of  Christian 
monks  and  Jewish  rabbins  in  France,  though  with  the 
effect  of  rousing  a  reaction  by  the  more  liberal  schools, 
which  went  nearly  to  similar  excesses ;  and  when  the 
combatants  rested,  though  Maimonides  had  not  been  sup- 
pressed, the  great  dogmas  of  Creation,  Bible  revelation,  and 
miracle,  —  all  that  was  logically  deducible  from  the  rights 
of  Jahvistic  Will,  that  indispensable  centre  of  Judaism, — 
remained  in  substantial  possession  of  the  field.  Only  by 
the  progress  of  secular  thought  has  the  greatness  of 
Maimonides  been  fully  recognized ;  and  Judaism  has  found 
its  chief  glory  in  this  its  noblest  mediator  with  scientific 
freedom  and  natural  religion.^ 

Even  the    mystical  Cabala,  originating   in   the   twelfth 
century  in  the  longing   of  the   more    emotional  class  of 

*  Jost,  iii.  23-25. 

*  See,  especially,  the  language  of  Juda  Alfachar,  Geiger,  iii.  47.  ^  Geiger,  iii.  48. 


66o  ISLAM. 

minds  to  escape  the  cold  processes  of  the  philosophers, 
and  to  follow  the  imagination  through  ascending  spheres 
into  the  vast  abyss  of  pure  impersonal  being,  without  will, 
desire,  or  action, —  using  for  that  purpose  all  Biblical, 
Talmudic,  and  rationalistic  writings,  —  never  threw  off  the 
main  doctrines  that  flow  from  the  personality  of  the  He- 
brew God,  but  invested  it  with  the  mystery  of  numbers 
and  names,  permutations  of  letters,  and  divisions  of  being ; 
so  that  indirectly  and  in  successive  impulses  it  produces 
every  effect  possibly  falling  within  the  sphere  of  perfect 
Will,  through  not  one  intelligence,  but  ten  ScpJitroth,  un- 
til in  its  later  form  we  find  it  in  the  hands  of  Pico  della 
Mirandola  in  the  sixteenth  century,  claimed  as  a  great 
organon  of  Christian  faith,  and  proving  the  Trinity,  the 
Incarnation,  the  divinity  of  Christ,  the  Atonement,  and  the 
whole  creed  of  the  orthodox  fathers.-^ 

From  the  later  forms  of  Graeco-Semitic  philosophy,  we 
turn  back  to  an  earlier  phenomenon  of  equal  interest  in 
illustrating  the  warfare  of  theological  monarchism  against 
scientific  freedom.  After  the  sharp  Motazelite  controver- 
sies on  predestination,  the  eternity  of  the  Koran,  and  the 
Divine  attributes,  came  a  more  constructive  protest,  eclec- 
tic, interpretative,  devotional,  humane.  In  the  tenth  cen- 
tury the  "  Brothers  of  Purity,"  a  mystico-scientific  and 
eclectic  school,  arose  at  that  old  intellectual  centre,  Basra 
on  the  Euphrates,  the  gymnasium  of  Greek  and  Buddhist 
and  Hindu,  where  the  Motazelites  had  originated,  in  the 
school  of  Hasan,  at  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  the 
Hegira,  two  hundred  years  before.  It  was  the  fruit  of  an 
intermixture  of  Aristotelian  with  free  Mussulman  and  per- 
haps Christian  speculation,  on  the  Perso-Aryan  basis  of 
independent  science.  It  was  two  centuries  earlier  than 
Averroes,  and  probably  owed  less  to  the  disciples  of  Aris- 
totle than  it  lent  them.     The  Moslem  regards  it  as  wholly 

1  See  Ginsburg  :   Tlie  Kabbalah,  p.  124.] 


MAHOMET.  66 1 

extra-Islam.  As  Sprenger  well  suggests,  it  is  hardly  proper 
to  call  it  Arabian,^  —  the  leading  writers  to  whom  it  appeals 
being  almost  all  of  them  of  Persian  extraction,  though  of 
Mussulman  training;  and  its  nature  being  so  purely  scien- 
tific as  to  lift  it  out  of  the  sphere  of  the  Arabian  mind. 
The  names  of  its  members,  with  very  few  exceptions,  have 
perished ;  as  if  history  was  in  sympathy  with  their  abso- 
lutely disinterested  spirit,  the  true  spirit  of  science.  It  was 
one  of  the  noblest  efforts  in  Universal  Religion  or  Free 
Science  ever  made  in  human  history.  Its  practical  ear- 
nestness and  devotion  issued  in  the  production  of  an 
encyclopjedia  in  fifty-one  chapters,  "  Ikhwan  al-Cafa,"  an 
earlier  Baconian  "  De  Augmentis  Scientiarum,"  covering 
all  the  science  known  to  the  time  and  indicating  its  needs, 
under  direction  of  Neoplatonic  theology  and  Aristotelian 
cosmology.  The  whole  past  struggle  of  orthodoxy  with 
free  inquiry  was  its  preparatory  school.  Its  method  is  the 
most  thoroughly  scientific  known  to  the  time,  wholly  in- 
dependent of  the  Koran,  and  often  contradictory  of  it; 
reaching  indeed  into  regions  where  only  mystical  abstrac- 
tions and  theosophic  subtleties  were  attainable.  Concilia- 
tory and  catholic  to  the  last  degree,  these  writers  never 
shrank  from  maintaining  the  rights  of  reason  in  every  pos- 
sible branch  of  human  inquiry.  In  none  did  they  fall  back 
upon  a  point  of  departure  in  the  dogmas  of  Islam.  In 
their  own  language  they  were  "  opposed  to  no  form  of 
science,  avoided  no  book,  cherished  no  partisan  prejudice 
towards  any  doctrinal  system ;  but  embraced  in  one 
scheme  all  without  exception,  visible  and  invisible,  unit- 
ing the  whole  body  of  sciences."  ^  There  is  preserved, 
in  the  Talmud,  one  of  their  sentences :   "  Whoever  with- 

1  Zeitsckr.  d.  Deutsck.  Morgenl.  Geselisck.,  xxx.  333,  334. 

^  See  Flugel  (Zeitsc/ir.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgeiil.  GeseUsch.,  xiii.  29),  who  has  fully  ana- 
lyzed this  little  known  but  most  significant  encyclopedia  ;  while  a  full  exposition  of  its 
philosophy  has  been  given  by  Dieterici  {Zeiischr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  GeseUsch., 
XV.  577). 


662  ISLAM. 

holds    science   from   those   who   are  worthy  of   it,    robs 
them."  1 

They  combined  the  Platonic  and  Aristotelian  methods 
of  tracing  all  things  up  to  Deity,  and  evolving  all  things 
from  Deity,  —  the  deductive  and  inductive,  mystical  and 
scientific.^  Minutely  analyzing  every  law,  process,  and 
form,  under  four  main  divisions,  —  mathematico-philo- 
sophical,  physical,  spiritual,  divine,  —  they  led  back  the 
cosmos  to  primal  unity  (to  eV),  whence  emanations  de- 
scend, according  to  curious  numerical  laws,  in  graded 
harmony,  after  the  Pythagorean  example,  but  on  an  origi- 
nal plan.  In  this  evolution  the  classes  of  substances  in- 
crease in  numerical  complexity  of  elements  up  to  the 
number  nine.  In  a  psychological  point  of  view,  from  the 
absolute  Being,  the  primal  ground  of  things,  flows  Reason ; 
from  Reason,  the  all-penetrating  and  all-moving  Soul  of 
things ;  from  this,  the  abstract  material  of  forms,  not,  as 
with  the  Gnostics  or  Platonists,  matter  as  negation  and  evil, 
but  as  the  lowest  emanation, —  so  far  a  pretty  consistent 
Pantheism,  fertile  in  subsequent  special  schools  of  this 
nature.  Their  ingenious  and  fantastic  system  of  cosmol- 
ogy was  at  least  so  far  reasonable  as  to  rest  on  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  orbed  or  rounded  form.  Their  idea  of  an  inner 
substance  for  mind  and  matter  saved  their  science  from 
becoming,  as  modern  science  is  becoming,  a  mere  watch- 
ing and  scoring  of  flowing  phenomenal  details.^  The 
emotional  Arab  found  this  speculative  penetration  and  ex- 
altation apart  from  the  purpose  of  life,  and,  however  stim- 
ulating, thoroughly  tiresome  and  unproductive.  "  They 
weave  a  thin  robe,"  he  said ;  "  hover  over  but  do  not 
grasp  things,  reach  out  after  the  impossible."  *     Such  were 

1  Dukes  :  Philos.  d.  Zehni.  Jahrh.,  p.  12. 

2  Ueberweg,  i.  412.     Dieterici  (Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xxxi.  120). 

*  Dieterici  gives  a  passage  from  The  Theology  0/  Aristotle  to  the  same  effect  (Zeitschr. 
d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch., xxxi.  12). 

*  Flugel  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xiii.  26). 


i 


MAHOMET.  663 

the  conceptions  of  that  desert  people  who,  in  spite  of 
themselves,  were  made  to  prepare  the  highways  of  science, 
and  to  impart  to  spheres  of  thought  which  they  could  not 
understand  that  ardor  and  courage  which  they  had  brought 
to  bear  on  conquest  and  on  faith.  They  did  here  great  in- 
justice to  the  Brothers,  who  differed  from  the  other  syste- 
matizers  of  their  time  in  making  scientific  knowledge,  with 
a  view  to  practical  helpfulness,  the  foundation  of  their  work, 
not  mere  theosophy  or  contemplation  ;  and  they  began  with 
what  is  nearest,  not  with  the  remote  and  unknown. 

The  anthropology  of  the  Brothers  was  based  on  the 
Socratic  principle  of  self-study ;  ^  and  then  the  human 
world  was  seen  as  an  inseparable  part  of  the  infinite  sys- 
tem of  Nature.  "  It  would  be  a  shame  to  pretend  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  being  of  things,  but  to  know  nothing  of 
our  own."  .Man  was  a  microcosm  ;  a  fact  which  they  sym- 
bolized by  a  tree,  with  its  boughs,  trunk,  and  roots ;  by  a 
race,  with  its  tribes,  families,  and  houses;  by  a  law,  with 
its  articles,  clauses,  forms  of  obedience  and  faith ;  by  the 
workshop,  with  its  tools  and  processes ;  by  a  castle,  with 
its  chambers,  halls,  and  furniture ;  by  a  city,  with  its  mani- 
fold life ;  by  a  king,  with  his  complicated  state.^  Of  evil 
they  perhaps  wisely  forbore  to  attempt  a  philosophic  so- 
lution ;  deriving  it  neither  from  matter  nor  from  mind, 
but  recognizing  its  actual  partition  of  animals,  souls,  and 
spirits  with  good ;  while  the  body  is  discerned  to  be  for 
some  a  prison,  for  others  a  pathway  of  light.  Yet  in  this 
world  of  finiteness,  of  birth  and  death,  every  soul  is  under 
severe  limits ;  which,  however,  do  not  forbid  it  to  find  its 
way  to  bliss,  especially  as  aided  by  prophetic  men  and  by 
messages  from  higher  spheres.  The  future  has  its  heaven 
and  hell,  and  its  judgment-day,  after  seven  millennial 
periods,  when  the  All-Soul  shall  weigh  all  conduct  in  real 

1  Thirty-second  Treatise. 

2  Dieterici  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deuisck.  Morsenl.  Gesellsch-,  xv.  607). 


664  ISLAM. 

and  impartial  scales.^  In  all  this  partially  traditional  be- 
lief the  main  and  distinctive  point  is,  that  it  is  conceived 
as  under  strict  laws  of  order  and  development,  the  theory 
of  which  is  of  the  most  inclusive  character.  In  their 
personal  and  literary  sources  of  knowledge  they  include 
philosophers, —  especially  Greek, —  prophets,  and  religious 
teachers,'^  writers  on  natural  science,  and  sacred  books. 
Ibn  Rafia,  their  chief  writer,  when  asked  to  what  school  he 
belonged,  replied,  "  To  none."  ^  The  breadth  and  geniality 
of  their  interest  in  the  relation  of  the  brute  to  the  human 
world  is  shown  in  the  beautiful  romance  of  "  The  Strife 
of  Men  and  Beasts"  as  to  superior  uses,  before  a  judge. 
This  constituted  the  fifty-first  treatise. 

But  no  source  is  equal  to  that  of  the  soul  itself,  when  in 
harmony  with  that  which  it  seeks,  "  If  one  knows  not 
what  is  godlike,  he  cannot  know  God."  ^  "  The  soul  with- 
drawn from  sense,  and  calm,  rises  into  the  highest  sphere 
and  finds  its  rich  reward."^  Sentences  like  these  show 
mystic,  perhaps  Buddhistic,  relations.  Others  seem  taken 
from  the  golden  verses  of  Pythagoras.  Some  of  a  mystic 
tendency  are  ascribed  to  Aristotle  and  quoted  as  his  '"'The- 
ology," —  probably  a  spurious  work,  yet  familiar  to  Jewish 
and  Persian  students ;  *"  said  to  have  been  translated  for  Al- 
kindi  out  of  Greek  by  a  Christian,  one  hundred  years  be- 
fore the  "Brothers  of  Purity;"  the  Brothers  themselves 
cherished  a  profound  veneration  for  Aristotle  as  penetfat- 
ing  in  bodiless  form  the  whole  invisible  world.  In  Mai- 
monides  in  the  twelfth  century  we  find  the  same  principles; 
so  that,  as  Dieterici  says,  we  stand,  as  it  were,  at  the  first 
morning  glow  on  a  great  comb  of  oceanic  waves. '^    A  pro- 


*  Dieterici  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xv.  614.) 

*  According  to  Sprenger,  with  especial  cordiality  towards  Jesus.     Zeitschr.  d.  DeutscJt 
Morgenl.  Gesellsch..  xxx.  332. 

3  Flugel  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xiii.  26). 

*  Dukes,  p.  14.    This  is  taken  from  Aristotle.  6  Ibid.,  p.  15.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  17. 
'  Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xxxi,  122. 


MAHOMET.  665 

found  conception  of  the  unity  and  harmony  of  the  universe 
thus  runs  through  the  thought  of  the  ages  in  a  definite 
series.  Out  of  this  came  the  impulse  to  Scholasticism ;  in 
it  is  the  battle  of  Nominalism  and  Realism  fought  out 
before  it  came  up  in  the  Christian  world  ;^  in  it  is  the 
opening  of  modern  science,  —  all  mediated  by  the  Ara- 
bian schools. 

That  which  gives  the  Brothers  the  most  interest  for  us, 
however,  is  the  supreme  place  which  they  accorded  to 
the  ethical  element.  Men  have  diverse  powers  and  limita- 
tions, both  in  their  faculties  for  reaching  truth  and  in  their 
outward  means  of  cultivating  what  they  have ;  but  there 
was  no  difference  as  to  the  claim  of  brotherhood  among 
them :  one  heart  and  one  aim  was  the  motto  of  the  whole 
movement,  while  envy  and  ill-will  were  absolutely  re- 
nounced. Moral  gifts  were  esteemed  higher  than  intel- 
lectual ;  and  religious  insight  and  trust,  strength  of  soul 
through  the  disciplines  of  sacrifice  and  mastery  of  the 
senses,  were  highest  of  all.  Faith  without  works,  knowing 
without  doing,  were  vain.  In  short,  their  earnest  recog- 
nition, amidst  the  war  of  sects  and  creeds,  of  the  demands 
of  thoughtful,  intelligent,  and  right-minded  persons  for 
personal  sympathy,  and  their  desire  to  put  foundations 
for  clear,  free  thinking,  for  trustful,  helpful  living,  under 
the  feet  of  mankind,  is  a  crown  of  universal  religion, 
which  only  waits  to  be  seen  by  our  age,  to  receive  its 
highest  homage. 

Of  course  in  such  a  semi-barbarous  epoch,  political  and 
social,  and  in  an  Oriental  monarchy,  their  movement  was 
more  or  less  esoteric  and  secret,  though  by  no  means 
wholly  so.  Probably  more  for  the  purpose  of  strengthen- 
ing the  bonds  of  friendship  and  securing  practical  fur- 
therance than  from  anything  exclusive  in  their  spirit,  they 
pursued  the  method  of  propagating  the  society  by  branches 

1  Dieterici  {Zeitschr.  d.  Detetsck.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch-,  xxxi.  p.  126). 


666  ISLAM. 

in  every  city  of  the  empire  which  could  supply  a  nucleus 
of  thoughtful  persons,  wherein  scientific  and  social  prob- 
lems were  discussed,  and  literary  work  done.^  At  Bagdad 
especially  they  were  much  talked  of.  Their  pledge,  as 
given  by  Al  Mukadassi,was  to  complete  and  perfect  friend- 
ship in  the  cause  of  truth ;  to  make  the  end  of  their  in- 
quiries consist  in  the  purification  of  their  thoughts  and 
lives  through  philosophy  and  mutual  help. 

But  with  all  its  tendencies  to  mystical  and  even  panthe- 
istic science,  this  great  school  of  Grseco-Aryan  philosophy 
remains  within  the  charmed  circle  of  Semitic  monotheistic 
Will.  At  the  root  of  all  the  emanations  is  a  personal 
Creator,  whose  volition  is  the  ground  of  the  mystic  num- 
bers and  of  the  immanent  soul.^  In  this  they  are  distin- 
guished from  the  later  Sufis.  The  all-conscious  Will  creates 
all,  though  unlike  all,^  out  of  his  positive  purpose.  To 
meet  this  demand  of  absolutist  Will,  they  modified  the 
pantheistic  tendencies  which  we  have  described.  But 
their  pursuit  of  pure  science,  with  ardent  faith  in  univer- 
sal law  in  place  of  arbitrary  will,  was  sufficient.  Their 
encyclopaedia  was  burned  at  Bagdad  in  the  twelfth  century 
by  order  of  the  caliph  Mostanjid.^  The  reaction  prepared 
by  Ghazzali  and  Ashari  led  to  the  persecution  of  philos- 
ophy in  all  parts  of  Islam. 

Yet  this  orthodox  revival  itself  could  not  escape  the 
pov/erful  influence  of  the  Aryan  science,  whose  full  light 
it  could  not  bear.  It  shows  a  stamp  of  mystical  and  even 
pantheistic  freedom,  which  does  not  belong  to  Koranic 
theism,  and  was  necessitated  by  the  goads  of  science. 
The  "  Akhlak-i-Jalaly,"  a  "  compend  of  the  practical  phi- 
losophy of  the  Mahometan  people,"  ^  representing  the  tra- 

1  Flugel,  p.  28. 

*  Dieterici  {Zeitschr.  d-  Detitsch.  Morgenl.  Geselhck.,  xv.  585,  597). 
'  Ibid.,  XV.  603. 

*  See  Mohl :    Vingt-sept  Ans  d'' Etudes  Orient.,  ii.  338. 

"  Published  originally  at  time  of  taking  Constantinople.  Translated  by  W.  F.  Thompson, 
Esq.,  Oriental  Fund  Series. 


MAHOMET.  ^'j 

ditional  opinions  of  the  orthodox  schools  of  Islam,  shows 
everywhere  the  deepest  traces  of  the  influence  in  question ; 
and  not  the  least  by  claiming  that  the  very  philosophy 
which  had  caused  the  free-thinking  Graeco-Persian  schools 
to  be  cast  out  as  heretics  was  derived  from  Semitic 
sources. 

"  The  gard'ner's  beauty  is  not  of  himself; 
His  hue  the  rose's,  and  his  form  the  palm's." 

On  this  account,  it  pretends  that  the  later  Moslem  philo- 
sophers had  withdrawn  all  respect  from  the  dogmas  and 
books  of  the  pagans.^  It  rises  to  an  exalted  praise  of  con- 
templation in  a  truly  Platonic  spirit,  —  the  worship  of  per- 
fect truth,  beauty,  and  eternal  mystery.^  This  spirit  is  not 
only  put  into  the  mouth  of  Aristotle  himself,  without  the 
slightest  reason,  but  made  the  ground  of  a  parallel  between 
the  Greek  free-thinkers  and  the  teachings  of  the  Koran, 
and  even  the  Sunna.^  "  The  greatest  fathers  of  mysticism 
and  investigation "  are  alike  adduced  to  prove  that  the 
supreme  intelligence,  "  called  the  Mahometan  spirit,"  com- 
prehends in  itself  all  that  is,  "  as  the  seed  contains  the 
branches,  leaves,  and  fruit."*  Even  Ghazzali's  stringent 
orthodoxy  was  far  from  the  bald  will-worship  of  the  Koran, 
and,  bitter  as  he  was  towards  the  free-thinkers,  was  itself  so 
heretical  to  the  Spanish  schools  that  his  great  work  against 
philosophy  was  burned  with  those  of  his  opponents.  Both 
of  the  great  representatives  of  triumphant  orthodoxy  are 
found  to  have  given  up  the  old  idea  of  the  eternity  of  the 
letters  and  sounds  of  Scripture,  replacing  that  idea  by  a 
symbolizing  and  idealizing  process,  in  order  to  reach  the 
inmost  idea  of  the  Koran,  as  its  eternal  part,  thus  practi- 
cally giving  up  the  historical  field.^  By  means  of  such 
partial  accommodations  to  the  free  thought  of  the  Per- 

1  Akklak-i-Jcdaly,  p.  139.  2  ibid.    p.  355.  3  Ibid.,  p.  357. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  359.  6  See  Kremer :  Herrsch.  Ideen,  p.  249. 


668  ISLAM. 

sian  mind,  the  orthodox  schools  won  sufficient  hold  on 
the  popular  instincts  of  Islam  to  second  the  acquisition 
of  political  and  military  force  in  support  of  their  war  on 
free  scientific  thought.  Their  theology  was  the  precise 
spiritual  analogue  of  the  political  absolutism  of  the  Abba- 
side  caliphate,  from  which  it  proved  at  last  inseparable. 
It  is  true  that  for  the  most  part  the  earlier  Abbasides  were 
indifferent  in  religion,  and,  being  the  product  of  the  Per- 
sian Shiite  against  the  old  Arab  party,  disposed  to  favor 
the  philosophic  schools.  Al  Mamun  (a.d.  813  to  833)  was 
a  decided  free-thinker,  most  friendly  to  Greek  philosophy, 
and  opposed  to  orthodox  views  of  the  Koran.  Under  the 
eye  of  Al  Rashid,  sects  of  free-thinkers  spread  through 
Islam.  Nevertheless,  none  of  these  princes  was  an  intel- 
ligent promoter  of  broad  and  scientific  thought.  They 
were  without  exception  prone  to  persecution  in  some 
form;  yet  Al  Mamun  said,  "If  it  were  known  how  I 
delight  in  pardoning,  all  who  have  offended  me  would 
come  and  confess  their  crimes."  ^  The  glory  that  shone 
around  the  brows  of  the  legendary  caliph,  Hariin  Al  Ra- 
shid, has  sadly  faded ;  and  he  stands  the  convicted  type  of 
a  cruel,  unprincipled  tyrant.  History  has  nothing  to  show 
more  atrocious  than  his  massacre  of  the  great  official  fam- 
ily of  the  Barmecides,  to  whose  virtues  his  reign  is  really 
indebted  for  all  that  has  made  it  immortal.^  Ibn  Khaldun, 
in  his  "Prolegomena,"  defended  Al  Rashid,  saying  that  the 
Barmecides  were  taking  all  his  power  from  him.  During 
the  reigns  of  these  monarchs  the  four  great  orthodox  sects 
were  founded  and  flourishing.  Patronage  of  free  thought 
was  really  due  to  their  viziers,  men  for  the  most  part  of 
Persian   birth   and   of   remarkable  ability.^     In  truth,  so 

1  Dozy :  VHistoire  de  VIslamtsme,  chap.  viii.  See  also  Al  Monsater's  plea  for  mercy 
to  the  fallen. 

-  See  Palmer's Z.^/!'  of  Haroun  Al Raschid {iZio);  and  Wiel :  Gesch.  d.  Chalifen,\\.  139; 
Braun,  p.  218. 

3  Dozy:  VHUtoire,  etc 


MAHOMET.  669 

prodigious  was  the  impulse  given  to  intellectual  activity 
by  the  commingling  of  Persian  freedom  with  Islamic  zeal 
and  passion,  that  from  the  eighth  to  the  tenth  century 
the  spectacle  it  presented  in  the  East  was  perhaps  un- 
exampled in  history.  Orthodoxy  was  §tung  into  prodi- 
gious efforts  for  collecting  the  Mussulman  traditions  and 
disseminating  the  true  faith  among  the  multitudes,  with 
the  aid  of  colleges,  Ulemas,  and  public  sessions.  Ibn 
Abdallah  Mohammed,  surnamed  from  his  birthplace  Bok- 
hari,  —  who  spent  as  much  labor  in  collecting  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  Mahometan  faith  as  Firdusi  spent  in  gath- 
ering the  legends  of  the  old  Iranian,  till  they  amounted 
to  600,000,  restoring  from  his  memory  the  text  of  all 
compilers,  and  carefully  separating  the  chaff  from  the 
wheat  till  he  had  reduced  them  to  7,275,  which  he  set 
forth  as  the  genuine  body  of  the  oldest  truth,  the  fruit  of 
thirty-two  years  of  toil  and  of  travel  over  the  whole  domain 
of  Islam,  —  found  a  host  of  eager  hearers  wherever  he  ap- 
peared. He  had  lectured  at  Bagdad  and  Basra  when  a 
beardless  youth  to  20,000  scholars,  and  at  a  period  "  when 
in  Christian  Europe  most  people  could  not  write  their  own 
names."  ^  Everywhere  schools  and  colleges  for  instruction 
in  the  faith  were  established ;  poor  students  were  sup- 
ported, libraries  endowed  and  filled  with  books.  His  work 
on  Mahometanism  was  encyclopedic ;  covered  every  pos- 
sible division  of  faith,  conduct,  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law, 
religious  rites,  and  secular  occupations,  —  the  origins,  the 
exegetics,  the  dogmatics  of  Islam.  Devoutly  orthodox  as 
he  was,  in  that  age  of  polemics  he  did  not  escape  the 
charge  of  heresy,  and  was  driven  at  last  out  of  Bokhara, 
his  native  city,  to  die  at  Samarkand  in  the  year  256  of 
the  Hegira.2  It  must  have  been  fearfully  fascinating  for 
the  people  to  hear  from  his  stores  of  tradition  how  the 

1  Kremer:  Herrsch.  Ideen,  p.  433. 

-  Hammer-Purgstall  has  an  abstract  of  his  works. 


6/0  ISLAM. 

believers,  passing  into  the  prison  of  final  judgment  to  learn 
their  need  of  an  intercessor,  try  all  the  prophets  in  vain  till 
they  come  to  Mahomet,  who  alone  has  power  with  the 
Almighty  to  save  his  elect,  while  the  rest  must  burn  for- 
ever. 

Again,  there  was  comfort  in  being  told,  on  the  same  au- 
thority, that  God  would  save  all  who  had  faith  equal  to  a 
dinar's  weight,  or  even  to  a  grain  of  dust;  and  of  his  draw- 
ing out  of  hell  those  whose  skins  had  been  scorched,  to 
cool  them  in  the  streams  of  Paradise,  so  that  they  bloom 
like  sweet  wild  plants,  and  without  merit  of  their  own  are 
called  the  ransomed  of  the  All-Merciful.^  So  similar  in 
all  ages  and  faiths  is  the  capricious  theology  of  a  divine 
monarchical  Will.  Bokhari  was  as  much  of  an  enthusi- 
ast for  orthodox  culture  and  for  a  faith  whose  idea  was 
mighty  within  him  from  the  whole  impulse  of  his  age  to 
religious  study,  as  Firdusi's  faith  in  himself  was  mighty 
from  the  pure  Iranian  genius  of  a  much  more  human  and 
heroic  Will.  These  two  contemporaries  of  eastern  Iran 
represent  admirably  the  contending  elements  of  that  grand 
ferment  of  the  free  human  and  the  monarchic  divine  which 
covered  Iran  with  wonderful  intellectual  productivity  in 
all  classes  of  the  people  in  that  age.  A  class  of  lawyers 
and  exegetists  then  arose  whose  subtile  hair-splitting  and 
casuistry  resemble  the  doings  of  Hebrew  Talmudists  and 
Christian  Scholastics,  and  run  down  into  the  writing  of  vol- 
umes on  the  Prophet's  slipper.^  True,  too,  is  it  that  the 
Mongol  Turkish  literature  of  Transoxania,  of  Samarkand, 
Bokhara,  and  Merv,  was  almost  exclusively  of  a  theologi- 
cal and  scholastic  character,  while  the  free  south-Persian 
mind  expanded  in  more  secular  and  scientific  fields.  The 
command  of  the  traditional  theology  over  the  ignorant 
multitude,  and  its  natural  affinity  with  the  political  system 

1  Krehl  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deuiscli.  Morgenl.  GeseUsch..,  iv.  1-32). 
*  Kremer,  p.  179. 


MAHOMET.  671 

of  Islam,  gave  immense  advantage  to  the  orthodox  schol- 
ars and  their  supporters,   the   Ulemas.      The  consequent 
sway  and  swing  of  blind  faith  and  prescriptive  creed  pro- 
duced  their  usual   effect,  —  a   mixture   of   hypocrisy  and 
devotion.      The  writings  of  the  best  teachers   abound  in 
denunciations  of  the  Pharisaical  pretences  of  humility,  and 
of  the  ostentatious  patronage  of  religion,  which  corrupted 
the  church  of  the  Prophet,  —  the  faUing  away  of  the  rulers 
from  that  democracy   and  that  self-surrender  which  ren- 
dered the  earlier  caliphs  indistinguishable  from  the  mean- 
est of  their  subjects.^     Still,  it  remains  true  that  the  history 
of  the  great  controversies  of  which  Iran  was  the  theatre 
down  to  the  twelfth  century,  prove  a  productivity  and  an 
ardor  in  the  Mussulman  mind  as  wonderful  as  those  in  the 
mind  of  any  other  race  which  has  been  swayed  by  a  posi- 
tive religion  in  the  history  of  mankind.     Islam  has  made 
good  its  faith  in  its  own  Prophet's  maxim,  "  The   ink  of 
the  wise  is  more  precious  than  the  blood  of  the  martyrs." 
It  has   echoed   through  centuries   his  cry  for  the  Koran, 
"  Blessed  be  God,  who  hath  taught  mankind   the   use  of 
the  pen !  "     It  has  followed  his  example  in  placing  men 
of  science  second  only  to  prophets.     Narrow  as  its  reli- 
gious  creed   was,   especially  during  the   Mongol  period, 
it  could  not  shut  out  the  Greek  scientist  or  the  Persian 
free-thinker   from  southern   Iran.      No  religion  has   ever 
shown  such  a  multitude  of  sects ;   it  even  serves  to  make 
up  for  the  baldness  of  its  own  monotheism  by  an  instinc- 
tive yearning  to  include  within  its  unity  the  thoughts  of  all 
thinkers  and  the  faiths  of  all  believers.     It  has  the  same 
drift  in  later  times.     Akbar  Shah,  Ismail,  and  Nadir  Shah, 
all  sought  to  found  a  universal  religion  by  mingling  Chris- 
tianity, Judaism,  Islam,  and  Buddhism.    Driven  up  into  the 
speculative  height  of  theological  discussion,  three  quarters 
of  its  immense  literature  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  thousand 

'  Kremer,  p.  434-437,  especially  Ghazzali. 


6/2  ISLAM. 

works ^  were  of  scholastic  import;  and  its  contributions 
to  natural  philosophy  have,  in  comparison  with  what  has 
followed  since  the  revival  of  science  and  letters  in  modern 
times,  a  meagre  interest.  Yet  for  the  positive  sciences 
these  Mussulman  debaters  were  far  more  effective  fore- 
runners than  their  Christian  contemporaries;^  far  readier 
also,  and  earlier  to  accept  the  stimulus  of  Greek  studies 
of  Nature.  How  it  happened  that  after  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury this  ardor  for  mixed  speculation  ceased,  and  Islam's 
intellectual  work  seemed  to  be  done,  is  a  question  that  is 
not  more  naturally  asked  than  it  is  easily  answered. 

1  Sprenger  {Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgenl.  Gesellsch.,  xxxii.  2). 

2  The  greatest  Arabian  philosophers  wrote  encyclopedic  works,  —  Masddi,  Bokhari, 
Ghazzali ;  Masildi,  a  great  and  philosophic  writer  on  jurisprudence  in  the  ninth  cen- 
tury; Vicut,  prince  of  geographers,  twelfth  century  {Zeilschr.  d.  Deiitsdi.  Morgenl. 
Gesellsch.,  xviii.  397);  Sharastani,  historian  of  the  sects,  thirteenth  century;  Ibn  Khaldan, 
fourteenth  centur>',  most  liberal  and  truly  scientific  of  all  the  writers  of  his  race,  a  true  his- 
torical thinker,  who  has  been  called  by  Mohl  the  Montesquieu  of  Islam  (Mohl,  ii.  629); 
Ibn  Batuta,  fourteenth  century,  traveller,  envoy  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  for  twenty-five  years; 
Al  Makkari,  author  of  an  excellent  history  of  the  Moorish  dynasties  of  Spain,  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. These  are  but  a  few  of  the  most  important  names.  The  first  academy  of  science  in  the 
Middle  Ages  was  that  of  the  Saracens  at  Toledo,  in  Spain  (see  Hammer-Purgstall :  Lileraiur- 
geschichte,  i.  Ixii).  The  free  university  at  Cairo,  the  House  of  Wisdom,  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, anticipated  Bacon's  ideal  with  a  fact.  The  "Brothers  of  Purity"  established  the  most 
remarkable  institution  for  the  cultivation  of  science  previous  to  modem  times.  See,  for  full 
account  of  Mussulman  literature  and  progress  in  outline,  Hammer-Purgstall,  i.  Ixi.  Never 
were  there  more  diligent  collectors  of  books  than  the  Mahometan  scholars  and  sultans.  (See 
summary  in  Hammer-Purgstall,  i,  Ixxi,  and  Ixxii.)  The  library  of  Al  WSkidi,  ninth  century, 
required  one  hundred  and  twenty  camels,  with  six  hundred  chests,  to  carry  it  from  Bagdad  to 
beyond  the  Tigris  (Purgstall,  i.  Ixvi).  Purgstall's  immense  plan  for  the  history  of  Mahometan 
science  is  little  known  to  scholars.  It  was  to  be  preceded  by  twelve  quarto  volumes  of  the 
literature  of  the  Arabs,  biographical  and  selective,  with  translations  into  German  blank  verse. 
Unfortunately  it  was  not  begun  till  his  seventy-sixth  year.  This  great  series  was  printed  for 
seven  years  at  the  rate  of  one  volume  a  year,  ending  only  with  his  death  (Mohl  :  Vingt-sepi 
A  MS,  etc.).  He  enumerates  five  thousand  two  hundred  and  eighteen  writers  down  to  the 
eleventh  century  (Ibid.,  139),  before  western  Europe  had  accomplished  anything  approxi- 
mately equivalent  to  their  work.  The  Saracens  taught  the  pendulum  as  a  measure  of  time, 
and  a  crude  form  of  the  telegraph  also;  introduced  the  manufacture  of  silk  and  of  cotton  into 
Spain,  camels  and  carrier-pigeons  into  Sicily,  the  art  of  enamelling  steel,  national  police,  tax- 
ation and  public  libraries,  paper  and  gunpowder ;  and  everywhere  laid  the  foundation  of 
popular  education  in  schools,  academies,  and  colleges  (Crichton  :  Arabia,  xiii).  They  taught 
agriculture  as  a  Koranic  duty. 

Two  of  the  marvels  of  literature  inspired  by  universality  of  sympathy  were  the  Ayin  Akbery, 
or  Institutes  of  Akbar,  and  the  Dabistan,  written  half  a  century  afterwards  by  Mohsin-Fani 
to  follow  up  its  noble  conception,  and  whose  wide  demonstration  of  the  religions  of  the  world 
stands  under  the  immortal  maxims,  "  The  leaves  of  God's  book  are  the  religious  persuasions," 
and  "  The  time  of  a  prophet  is  a  universal  time,  and  hath  neither  before  nor  after,  as  the  Lord 
had  neither  mom  nor  eve"  (chap.  xii.). 


MAHOMET.  673 

The  first  reason  was  the  triumph  of  orthodoxy  over  free 
thought,  in  the  twelfth  century,  which  we  have  already 
seen  to  have  been  involved  in  the  cardinal  principle  of 
Mussulman  theology,  —  the  ultimate  sovereignty  of  pure 
Will.  To  that  sovereignty  morality,  reason,  law,  inquiry, 
were  all  subordinate;  and  it  finally  subjugated  them  all, 
and  there  has  been  no  revival.  Islam  has  had  no  priestly 
hierarchy  to  silence  thought,  so  that  there  has  always  been 
a  comparative  license  in  teaching,  which  the  natural  scep- 
ticism of  the  Arab,  the  subtile  intellect  of  the  Persian,  and 
the  practical  secularism  of  the  Greek  have  kept  alive,  till 
they  leavened  with  doubt  or  indifference,  or  stimulated  to 
incessant  self-assertion,  the  numerous  commingled  races 
of  Iran.  Doubtless  this  disintegrating  work  would  have 
gone  on  towards  a  successful  demand  for  unity  on  the 
large  ground  of  positive  studies,  but  for  the  constant  re- 
pressive force  of  a  supernaturalistic  theology  of  Will,  — 
especially  with  the  Mongol  races  when  they  swept  over 
Iran,  —  which  diverted  the  thinker  into  the  line  of  dog- 
matic subtleties,  just  as  the  same  thing  had  been  done 
by  Christianity,  centuries  before,  from  similar  causes,  and 
by  Judaism  in  Rabbinical  days. 

The  second  reason  was  the  despotic  politics  of  Islam, 
which  were  moulded  on  the  theology  of  Islam,  and  in- 
sensibly became  its  practical  servant  or  instrument.  Kera- 
mat  Ah,  in  a  letter  to  Sprenger,  wrote :  "  The  scholars  of 
Islam  have  followed  the  rod  of  despots,  and  spent  all  their 
time  in  developing  new  subtleties."  ^  Thinkers  who  must 
exhaust  themselves  on  abstractions,  and  cannot  put  their 
thought  into  institutions  on  the  solid  earth,  cannot  accom- 
plish progress.  The  confusion  of  the  theological  with  the 
political  law  was  the  great  obstacle  to  reform,  and  continues 


1  See  the  formularies  of  caliphs  prescribing  the  absolute  submission  of  them  to  their 
officials,  and  giving  the  authority  of  a  Christian  Nestorian  bishop.  Kremer  (_Zeitschr.  d. 
Deutsch.  Morgenl  Gesellsch.,  xxxii.  i8). 

43 


6/4  ISLAM. 

to  be  so ;  the  power  of  the  Ulemas  to  resist  it  has  ahvays 
supported  itself  on  the  authority  of  the  State,  and  wrought 
by  influencing  and  governing  it.  In  Iran,  despotic  Ma- 
hometan opposition  to  this  embodiment  of  thought  in 
action,  this  nerve-energy  that  flashes  from  brain  to  hand, 
was  so  contrary  to  the  whole  stress  of  intellectual  organiza- 
tion, that  it  demoralized  the  whole  national  mind,  and  for 
a  time,  at  least,  reduced  its  fires  to  smouldering  ashes. 

To  understand  the  relations  of  Mussulman  royalty  to 
religious  and  intellectual  freedom,  we  must  note  the  influ- 
ence of  the  conquest  of  Persia  on  the  Arab  mind.  When 
the  invaders  took  the  capital  city  of  Khosru,  they  did  not 
know  the  value  of  the  booty.  Some  offered  to  exchange 
gold  for  silver,  and  others  mistook  camphor  for  sulphur. 
They  came  like  swarms  of  half-starved  locusts  to  devour 
the  land.  They  were  banditti  of  the  desert,  with  no  culture 
but  the  inspiration  of  the  clan,  and  the  thirst  for  individual 
glory  and  reward.  Their  conquests  were  of  the  nature  of 
an  emigration  of  clans.  The  only  idea  of  government  in 
these  tribes  was  the  leadership  of  age  and  valor,  as  repre- 
sented in  the  sheikh,  with  a  natural  mixture  of  hereditary 
respect.  On  the  death  of  Mahomet  they  broke  into  re- 
bellion.^ Islam  really  came  on  the  world  like  a  fierce 
descent  of  desert  clans  on  their  foes.  Khaled  was  a  thun- 
derbolt of  destruction  upon  it;  yet  he  it  was  that  made 
Islam  conqueror,  and  saved  it  from  disintegrating.  Ma- 
homet's ideal  of  government  was  just  to  send  his  gov- 
ernors through  Arabia  to  establish  Islam,  and  then  to 
collect  tributes  from  the  poor,  in  camels  and  sheep,  also 
as  plunder  to  meet  the  expenses  of  his  campaign.^ 
Wrought  to  fanatical  passion  by  the  feeling  that  the  eye 
of  Allah  was  on  every  one  of  his  chosen  warriors,  and 
that  "  Paradise  was  under  the  shadow  of  swords,"  they 
were  ill  suited  to  reconstruct  and  administer  the  affairs  of 

'  Ockley  :  History  of  tlie  Saraceits,  p.  215.  -  Kremer,  p.  313. 


MAHOMET.  675 

a  grand  and  ancient  empire,  for  hundreds  of  years  the 
centre  of  Eastern  religions  and  the  field  of  innumerable 
sects,  where  two  forces  were  at  least  greater  than  the 
traditional  absolutism  of  rulers,  —  namely,  the  pride  of 
local  freedom  and  the  license  of  individual  thought.^ 
Neither  intellectually  nor  politically  was  Islam  capable  of 
gaining  the  respect  of  an  empire  which  domestic  disunity 
alone '"^  had  forced  to  submit  to  Bedouin  hordes  perma- 
nently settling  on  lands  mastered  by  nomadic  raids.  Yet 
such  was  the  need  of  unity,  —  so  hopeless  were  the  divisions 
of  Zendik  free-thinkers  and  Avestan  scripturalists,  of  Mani- 
chseans  and  Mazdakites,  of  Christians,  Magi,  and  Jews ;  so 
bottomless  the  gulf  of  sceptical,  abstract,  and  unchartered 
speculations  which  had  opened  under  the  feet  of  thinkers; 
so  balked  had  been  the  longings  of  really  free  spirits  to 
found  schools  of  universal  religion  on  an  ethical  and  spirit- 
ual basis,  —  that  all  Iran  was  disposed  to  welcome  the  new 
dispensation,  whose  first  decrees  invited  free  thought  and 
promised  a  form  of  impartial  unity,  in  a  spirit  that,  so  far 
at  least  as  the  believers  themselves  were  concerned,  had 
many  elements  of  democratic  equality.^  The  earliest  caliphs 
were  men  of  great  power,  and  on  the  whole  of  extraordi- 
nary integrity,  as  well  as  determined  will.  The  firm  hand 
of  Ahxi  Bekr  repressed  revolt;  the  supreme  wisdom  and 
valor  of  Omar,  the  constructive  spirit  of  Othman,  ennobled 
mere  barbarian  conquest  into  empire ;  the  terrible  sword 
of  Khaled  at  the  siege  of  Damascus  had  its  antidote  on  the 
spot,  in  the  merciful  heart  of  Abu  Obeydah.  Like  the 
Prophet,  the  first  caliphs  went  in  humblest  attire  like  reli- 
gious devotees,  and  lived  like  the  poorest  of  their  subjects. 
Abu  Bekr  took  his  part  of  the  public  revenue  with  the 
rest;  had  no  civil  list;   had  one  slave;  chose  Omar  for  his 


*  For  political  influence  of  heretical  sects,  see  Kremer,  pp.  362-371. 
2  It  had  no  system  of  administration  of  its  own.     Kremer. 

*  See  Dozy,  pp.  191-195. 


6']6  ISLAM. 

virtues,  took  pains  to  question  the  best  men  respecting  him, 
and  then  proposed  him  for  confirmation  to  the  people ;  and 
died  praying  for  his  subjects.^  These  men  were  of  the 
serious,  sad  type  of  Arabic  sheikh,  earnest  fanatics,  single- 
hearted,  passionate  for  personal  rule  and  religious  sway. 
Omar  was,  as  we  have  said,  the  Paul  of  Islam  ;  but  for  him, 
it  would  have  perished.  He  was  greater  than  Mahomet. 
He  founded  the  unity  of  the  Moslem  Church,  made  Ara- 
bic the  official  language  of  the  empire,  while  Otliman  gave 
unity  to  the  Scriptural  canon  by  destroying  all  copies  of 
the  Koran  but  that  traced  to  the  Prophet's  wife.^  Ali, 
—  who,  partly  from  political  causes,  had  first  the  good- 
will and  then  the  adoration  of  the  Persians,  —  though 
accused  of  crimes  unproven,  possessed  many  noble  traits. 
He  made  the  caliphate  itself,  from  which  he  had  been 
wrongfully  excluded,  an  object  of  homage  by  his  magna- 
nimity, forbearance,  and  humanity,  in  the  emergencies  that 
grew  out  of  his  misfortunes,^  and  finally,  by  his  martyrdom, 
raised  its  despotic  claims  to  a  divine  right.  Even  in  the 
beginning  the  Arab  leaders  were  possessed  with  a  full 
sense  of  their  claim  to  be  a  nation  chosen  to  rule  by  right 
of  Divine  appointment.  While  their  system  was  almost 
communistic,  at  least  socialistic,  dividing  revenue  per  head 
among  the  soldiers,  and  opening  paths  to  position  to  the 
worthiest  without  distinction  of  wealth,  of  course  political 
life  reflected  this  supernatural  authority  that  they  claimed. 
They  formed  military  camps  in  Irak,  lived  on  the  con- 
quered people,  and  were  kept  separate  from  the  conquered 
by  Othman's  prohibition  of  a  Moslem  from  owning  land  in 
the  country  which  they  came  to  rule.*  The  aristocratic 
and  democratic  Arab  was  in  fact  transported  into  the  con- 
quered States  as  a  high  privileged  caste,  under  what  pur- 


^  Sprenger,  i.  409-411.  ^  Hammer-Purgstall ;  Preface,  p.  xxxix. 

*  See  Crichton,  Ockley,  etc. 

*  For  Othman's  regulations,  see  Kremer  :  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam,  pp.  326-333. 


MAHOMET.  ^'J'J 

ported  to  be  a  theocratic  government,  with  a  successor  to 
the  Prophet  as  the  representative  of  Divine  Will.  In  such 
a  despotism  the  doctrine  of  supernatural  revelation  by  a 
personal  Will  must  inevitably  end.  This  submission,  how- 
ever thoroughly  consistent  with  the  Koran,  as  well  as  with 
the  character  of  these  Semitic  tribes,  —  who  were  as  ex- 
clusive and  aristocratic  as  they  were  contemptuous  towards 
all  human  laws, — was  nevertheless  in  full  logical  accord 
with  the  worship  of  absolute  Will  and  the  religious  ideal 
of  personal  unity.  These  caliphs  were  the  natural  succes- 
sors of  the  old  Assyrian  kings.  Of  course  nothing  could 
be  more  obnoxious  to  the  Persian  tribes  and  their  Turanic 
intermixture  than  to  be  so  governed  in  eastern  Iran  by 
successive  gods  set  over  them.  It  was  more  oppressive 
than  Rome,  since  there  was  no  protection  against  extor- 
tion by  a  horde  of  invading  fanatics.  From  one  end  of 
Iran  to  the  other,  and  especially  in  the  eastern  States,  the 
spirit  of  revolt  was  constantly  alive.  At  no  moment  had 
the  caliphate  a  recognized  sway  over  the  whole  country. 
The  opposition  of  Persian  and  Arab  gives  its  coloring  to 
the  whole  history  of  the  two  great  dynasties,  and  determines 
their  destinies.  By  keeping  down  with  a  strong  hand  the 
numerous  elements  of  discord  in  Arabia,  by  clearing  that 
country  of  all  manner  of  unbelievers,  who  took  refuge  in 
the  larger  liberty  of  Iran,  and  by  the  large  overflow  of  en- 
thusiastic soldiers  from  the  vast  depths  of  the  original  hive, 
the  earliest  caliphs,  especially  Omar,  sought,  with  partial 
success,  to  maintain  the  strength  and  purity  of  the  ruling 
caste  in  Asia.  The  demoralized  condition  of  the  Sassanian 
and  Byzantine  empires  did  much  to  advance  this  purpose. 
But  the  civil  wars  descending  from  old  Arabian  feuds  of 
Hashemites  and  Omeyyads,  of  Moawiyah  and  the  Aliites, 
were  irrepressible.  The  old  rage  of  the  desert  clans  lived 
on,  the  old  hate  revived,  and  the  wild  Arab  was  Arab 
still,  when  all  Asia  lay  at  his  feet.     The  caliphs  themselves 


6/8  ISLAM. 

for  the  most  part  shared  the  passionate,  unbridled  frenzy 
which  belongs  to  irresponsible  power,  and  were  ill  fitted  to 
hold  the  empire  together.  Nevertheless,  the  sceptre  of  Is- 
lam held  sway  for  seven  centuries ;  and  the  incessant  revo- 
lutions of  sects  and  provinces  and  petty  principalities,  and 
even  States,  in  East  and  West,  down  to  this  present  mo- 
ment, have  failed  to  destroy  its  prestige  or  its  power.  The 
reason  is  that  the  worship  of  a  supreme  personal  Will  not 
only  amalgamated  with  the  traditions  of  the  various  races 
of  Iran,  but  by  its  very  simplicity  and  barrenness  of  dog- 
matic contents  gave  room  for  such  play  of  subordinate 
systems  and  creeds  as  the  more  positive  and  formalized 
theism  of  Christianity  never  allowed.  It  is  therefore  the 
typical  religion  of  personal  Will,  so  far  as  concerns  capa- 
bilities of  comprehensiveness,  and  inclusive  power.  This 
advantage  in  their  central  principle  the  earlier  caliphs 
knew  how  to  make  more  effective  by  accepting  and  appro- 
priating an  amount  of  foreign  influence  which  alone  could 
account  for  the  establishment  of  an  enduring  empire  by  a 
horde  of  rude  predaceous  tribes.  Not  only  were  Persians 
the  creators  and  developers  of  Moslem  theology,  the 
founders  of  its  sects,  the  teachers  of  its  schools,  the  col- 
lectors and  preservers  of  its  traditions,^  but  the  whole  Arab 
race  underwent  a  transforming  education  by  Iranian  ex- 
perience and  culture,  —  which  is  one  of  the  most  marvel- 
lous instances  in  history  of  the  continuity  and  persistence 
of  national  forces. 

It  was  an  absolute  necessity  for  the  founders  of  the  Mus- 
sulman empire  in  the  East  to  adopt,  in  the  main,  the  finan- 
cial and  administrative  experience  of  their  more  cultured 
subjects.  These  native  races  were  at  first  remanded  to  a 
political  and  social  condition  of  clientship  imitated  from 
desert  relations ;  they  became  freedmen  bound  to  their 
patrons   by   certain   feudal  ties  and  very  limited  rights.^ 

*  Dozy,  pp.  194,  195.  2  Kremer :  Herrsch.  Ideen  d.  Islam,  p.  348. 


MAHOMET.  679 

The  conquered  were  called  red-haired,  the  masters  black- 
haired.  But  this  attempt  to  engraft  on  the  splendid  empire 
of  the  Sassanians  an  institution  based  on  the  tribal  laws 
and  customs  of  the  desert  was  successful  only  so  long  as 
it  aided  the  armies  of  Omar  in  obtaining  a  strong  foothold 
in  Iran  through  a  systematic  subordination  and  use  of  the 
human  material  at  hand.^  The  necessities  of  the  situation 
overpowered  all  appliances  of  this  kind.  Arabic  names, 
customs,  language,  rites,  penetrated  the  empire ;  but  under 
their  external  forms  appeared  the  native  ideas  and  methods. 
Omar  adopted  the  old  taxation  system  of  Nushirvan.  The 
native  Dikhans,  who  had  always  held  the  civil  and  po- 
litical management  of  Iran,  retained  it  till  the  Turkish 
/vasions.^ 
Omar's  prohibition  of  an  Arab's  owning  land  outside 
of  Arabia  disappeared  very  speedily,  and  with  it  the  possi- 
bility of  making  the  Arabs  a  separate  ruling  clan,  a  mere 
camp  of  military  masters  in  the  land.  They  became  rich, 
and  thence  came  the  hiring  of  mercenary  troops  and  mili- 
tary colonies,  and  the  fall  of  the  empire.  Persians,  Jews, 
and  Christians  intermarried  with  their  masters,  and  the 
pure  blood  of  the  desert  became  a  myth.  A  strong  party, 
which  set  character  above  descent,  was  formed  against  it, 
and  even  filled  the  ranks  of  a  puritan  rebellion.  The  only 
permanent  effect  of  clientage  was  to  develop  a  class  of 
scholars  and  statesmen  of  the  various  races,  who  by 
sheer  necessity  acquired  possession  of  the  offices  of  State 
and  education ;  and  they  were  to  a  very  great  extent  Per- 
sians. Persians  were  the  leaders  and  shapers  of  Islamic 
culture.  The  simple  Arabs  learned  of  these  larger  brains 
and  more  sensuous  imaginations  music,  architecture,  sculp- 
ture, politics,  philosophy,  wine,  and  fine  apparel.  Persians 
were  the  real  founders  and  teachers  of  the  great  academic 
clubs  and   schools.     The   Persians,   not   the  Arabs,    gave 

*  Dozy,  pp  34S,  349.  *  Kremer:  Culturgeschichte,  i.  158. 


680  ISLAM. 

firmness  and  force  to  Islam,  and  from  them  have  issued 
the  most  remarkable  sects.  They  were  the  grand  viziers 
who  gave  immortality  to  frivolous  and  barbarian  kings. 
They  were  the  great  free-thinkers,  the  great  physicians, 
the  great  travellers,  the  great  historians  and  jurisprudents, 
who  have  given  a  finer  immortality  to  the  faith  of  the 
Prophet.  These  masters  in  Islam,  if  you  trace  them  back 
to  their  cradles,  are  natives  of  Bokhara  and  Khorassan  and 
Bactria,  and  from  the  old  native  schools  of  Basra  and 
Nishapur,  and  Samarkand  and  Herat,  —  some  of  Turkish, 
but  mainly  of  Persian  origin.  The  great  impulse  from  the 
Greek  schools  came  largely  through  the  Christian  heretics 
of  Nisibis  and  Edessa.  That  these  statements  arc  not  too 
strong,  is  plain  from  the  fact  that  most  of  the  great  writers 
were  frcednicn,  as  well  as  from  such  confessions  as  that 
wrung  from  the  caliph  Abd  al  Malik,  "Alas!  freedmen  are 
masters  of  the  free  Arab." 

Under  the  force  of  assimilation  the  Arab  families  were 
transformed  into  large  land-owners,  merged  in  the  general 
population,  and  ceased  to  be  available  by  the  caliphs  for 
purposes  of  government  or  Avar.  Resort  was  therefore  had 
to  military  colonies  and  mercenary  troops  raised  from  the 
numerous  petty  States  of  the  empire.  Endless  revolutions, 
weakness  at  the  centre,  general  demoralization  of  the  caliph- 
ate, introduction  of  Turkish  mercenaries  from  Mongolia, 
and  finally  disintegration  and  the  formation  of  new  dynas- 
ties in  all  parts  of  the  empire,  were  the  natural  result.  This 
rapid  downfall  was  aided  by  the  bitter  strife  between  the 
two  court  parties,  Arab  and  Persian,  in  which  the  former 
naturally  had  to  yield  its  prestige  to  superior  power  of 
intrigue,  and  especially  by  the  larger  controversy  on  the 
question  of  legitimacy  in  the  succession,  —  the  Arabs  in- 
sisting on  the  old  tribal  rights  of  the  people  to  take  part  in 
the  choice  of  a  representative  of  the  Prophet,  the  Persians, 
more  successfully,  on  their  traditional  principle  of  heredi- 


MAHOMET.  68 1 

tary  government.  The  efifect  of  this  was  not  to  strengthen 
the  central  authority,  but  to  weaken  and  ultimately  destroy 
it;  there  being  no  check  left  upon  incompetency  and  no 
right  of  revolutions  against  a  pernicious  line  of  rulers  in 
the  caliphate  itself;  while  in  the  several  provinces,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  was  no  check  on  the  power  of  a  rebel- 
lious governor  to  seize  a  subordinate  throne,  and  compel 
or  bribe  the  weak  spiritual  head  at  Bagdad  to  grant  him 
the  investiture  required.  By  the  time  that  Europe  poured 
herself  out  on  Asia,  in  the  Crusades,  Turkish  and  Mongol 
and  Berber  dynasties  had  risen  to  the  side  of  the  gorgeous 
and  feeble  Abbasides  on  the  Euphrates,  each  with  its  rival 
court,  its  retinue  of  statesmen,  scholars,  poets,  its  broad 
schemes  of  ambition,  reaching  sometimes,  as  in  Mahmud 
of  Ghazni  and  the  western  Almoravides,  at  the  subjugation 
of  all  neighboring  States. 

Iran,  meanwhile,  had  become  the  theatre  of  anarchical 
wars  and  dynastic  revolutions,  of  devastation  and  preda- 
tory raids.  Heavy  taxes  for  the  support  of  petty  courts, 
heavy  duties  on  travel  and  trade,  drove  multitudes  into  ex- 
ile or  open  plunder.  To  these  influences  were  added  dread- 
ful pestilences,  of  which  forty  were  enumerated  as  falling 
within  four  hundred  years,  due  largely  to  wars.  Never 
probably  did  a  race  possess  so  little  capacity  for  orderly, 
constructive  government  as  the  Semitic  Arab.  At  the 
touch  of  the  great  Mongol  invasions  his  splendid  struc- 
ture, that  had  arisen  by  the  genius  and  wealth  of  Persia 
upon  the  great  homestead  of  autocratic  empires,  —  Assy- 
rian, Babylonian,  Persian,  Greek,  —  vanished  like  a  mirage 
of  the  desert  whence  it  was  born. 

But  these  political  incapacities  did  not  weaken  the  pres- 
tige of  Islam  as  a  faith  or  a  name.  That  all-conquering 
name  covered  the  multitude  of  races,  of  sects,  of  strifes,  of 
sovereignties,  all  alike,  and  took  no  heed  of  their  rise  and 
fall.     Nothing  so  simple,  nothing  so  inclusive,  nothing  so 


682  ISLAM. 

susceptible  of  ever-fresh  interpretation  was  ever  known,  so 
long  as  the  mind  of  man  was  content  to  stay  within  the 
limits  of  the  worship  of  personal  Will.  And  this  is  equiva- 
lent to  saying,  as  long  as  Iran  was  Iran;  and  so  the 
Semitic  Arab,  planted  in  that  cradle  of  the  Will,  must 
expand  his  petty  national  prejudices  to  accept  the  life 
and  thought  of  a  mighty  Aryan  empire. 

This  principle  of  a  central  Will  amidst  all  the  antago- 
nisms of  Persian  and  Arab,  and  in  the  miserable  subjec- 
tion of  the  spiritual  to  the  temporal  arm,  essential  to  that 
unity  of  the  two  which  Islam  established,  was  the  com- 
mon ground,  the  universal  appeal,  and,  so  far  as  its  limits 
allowed,  the  reconciling  power.  Here  is  another  witness, 
in  addition  to  Buddhism,  that  other  religions  besides  Chris- 
tianity can  adapt  themselves,  by  force  of  their  central  prin- 
ciples, to  immense  varieties  of  human  experience,  treating 
them  as  waves  that  rise  and  sink  in  mid-ocean ;  or  as  days 
in  the  march  of  centuries. 

That  again  and  again  in  his  sublime  evolution  man  has 
laid  hold  upon  supposed  transcendent  relations  with  what 
is  above  him ;  that  he  has  surrendered  one  system  only  to 
find  and  adhere  to  another,  till,  its  day  ended,  still  another 
has  serenely  and  irresistibly  risen  on  him  like  a  new  dawn, 
after  whatsoever  night-shadows  lighted  by  unchanging 
stars,  —  is  the  inexhaustible  word  of  history,  of  which  a 
new  syllable  is  preparing  to-day. 

Intolerance  towards  rival  positive  religions  obviously  lay 
in  the  very  nature  and  necessity  of  Islam.  Its  God,  and 
its  God  only,  had  for  it  an  objective  reality;  and  for  it 
alone  the  subjective  limits  and  conditions  of  all  theologi- 
cal conceptions  were  supposed  to  be  miraculously  set  aside. 
The  temporal  arm  was  master  of  thought  in  the  name  of 
religion  ;  and  the  Church,  leaning  on  the  power  of  that 
arm  which  has  increased  down  to  the  present  day,  is  fully 
in  the  hands  of  the  State.    The  form  of  pure  personal  Will, 


MAHOMET.  683 

under  which  this  unconditioned  Being  was  conceived, 
made  Him  precisely  analogous  to  a  political  and  military- 
autocrat. 

It  was  the  positive  prohibition  of  idolatry  by  this  Divine 
Will  which  created  the  persecutions  of  Christians  in  the 
first  century  of  the  caliphate.  P'or  example,  Walid  the 
great  unifier  of  Islam  cut  down  Christian  images  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  shut  out  Christians  from  worshipping  with  the 
Mahometans  in  the  city,  but  at  the  same  time  gave  them 
three  churches  for  themselves.  The  later  Abbaside  caliphs 
destroyed  Christian  basilicas,  or  turned  them  into  mosques ; 
and  Motawakkil  cut  in  two  the  consecrated  cypress  of 
Zoroaster.  Many  of  the  monsters  of  cruelty,  however,  who 
have  overrun  Persia  in  later  times,  —  like  Tamerlane,  Nadir 
Shah,  MahmCid  the  Afghan,  and  Agha  Mohammed,^ — were 
mere  barbarian  conquerors,  who  were  seeking,  not  the  glory 
of  Islam,  but  their  own.  For  the  cruelties  attending  the 
wars  of  Islam  with  Christianity  in  the  Middle  Ages,  neither 
side  can  claim  superiority  in  respect  to  its  fanatical  mad- 
ness. Certainly  the  Crusaders  were  a  set  of  savages  driven 
on  by  crazy  priests ;  while  some  of  the  Mahometan  princes 
of  that  period  were  noble  and  tolerant,  until  goaded  into 
rage  by  the  Christian  invaders.^ 

The  sanguinary  outbreaks  of  cruelty  and  fanaticism 
which  have  made  the  name  of  Islam  a  terror  in  all  ages, 
are  doubtless  due  in  part  to  the  impulse  given  to  brutal 
passions  by  a  religion  of  autocratic  Will.  But  we  must 
not  mistake  the  effects  of  individual  and  tribal  passions,  in 
which  religion  had  little  concern,  for  the  fanatical  hatred 
of  rival  gods;  against  these  gods  the  confessors  of  Islam 
were  bound  to  war.  Still,  this  fanaticism  has  not  prevented 
an  astonishing  freedom  of  mind  under  its  name.^ 

1  Braun  :  GemaJde  d.  Moliam.  IVelt.,  pp.  246-253.  2  gge  Braun,  p.  214. 

For  Mahmud  of  Ghazni's  destruction  of  books, — forty  thousand  ass-loads  of  heresy, — 
Hammer-Piirgstall,  i.  Ixvii.     Omar  probably  did  not  burn  the  Alexandrian  library.     For 
.jzid's  horrible  sack  of  Medina,  see  Ockley  p.  426. 


684  ISLAM. 

Of  course  the  sense  of  such  direct  personal  relations,  held 
firm  by  a  written  revelation,  while  for  centuries  it  was  edu- 
cating races,  grew  more  and  more  into  one  form  of  reli- 
gious fanaticism  whose  cruel  outbursts  are  as  frequent  as 
they  are  frightful.  This  proverbial  barbarity  of  the  Moslem 
is  the  natural  result,  not  of  a  specially  savage  temperament, 
nor  of  unbridled  passions,  but  of  the  direct  reference  of 
conduct  to  an  exclusive  personal  Will.  It  was  true  of  all 
Semitic  races  whose  religion  was  intensely  personal,  except 
where,  as  in  later  forms  of  Christianity,  the  secular  forces 
of  commercial,  scientific,  and  oecumenical  life  have  con- 
trolled its  operation. 

Moslem  orthodoxy  was  simply  the  legitimate  evolution 
of  that  central  principle  which  w^e  have  defined,  applied  to 
cosmical,  psychological,  and  all  morally  and  spiritually  vital 
questions ;  and  in  all  religions,  orthodoxy  much  more 
justly  claims  this  logical  legitimacy  than  is  commonly  ad- 
mitted by  those  who  wish  to  retain  the  prestige  of  the 
religious  name  while  they  follow  tracks  that  properly  be- 
long outside  of  it.  For  orthodoxy  really  represents  the 
long  experience  of  ages  seeking  faithfully  to  adjust  and 
evolve  the  primal  principles  of  its  founder;  and  what  it 
calls  heresy  is  wont  to  show  a  greater  divergence  from 
these  primal  principles  than  from  its  own,  whether  ad- 
mitted to  do  so  or  not;  and  herein  consists  its  progress. 
But  as  in  human  character  personal  will  takes  by  its  very 
freedom  a  vast  variety  of  shapes  equally  justified  by  the 
conscience,  so  in  Islam,  where  such  will  is  the  highest 
religious  principle,  even  the  Koran  and  its  Ulemas,  with 
the  schools  of  Koranic  jurisprudence  and  government, 
have  never  been  able  to  suppress  the  tendency  to  admit  a 
vast  range  of  discussion,  inquiry,  and  opinion,  more  or  less 
inconsistent  with  its  own  exclusiveness  as  a  revelation. 

No  religion,  not  even  Christianity,  has  equalled  Islam  in 
the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  stretched  and  strained  by 


MAHOMET.  685 

the  push  of  free-thought  from  within  its  name  and  pro- 
fessed communion.  Great  princes  in  every  Hne  and  land 
have  continually  sought  to  crown  their  conquests  and  glory 
by  uniting  sects  and  faiths  upon  liberal  thought.  And  even 
where  the  impulse  has  pressed  through  all  bounds  to  a 
point  so  far  distant  as  the  higher  pantheism  of  the  Sufis 
is  from  the  definite  externality  of  the  Koranic  Allah, —  the 
name  of  Islam  has  seldom  been  either  dropped  or  refused. 
Internal  persecution  has,  as  we  have  seen,  been  not  so 
much  in  the  name  of  Islam  or  its  Prophet  as  from  personal 
political,  dialectic,  or  interpretative  considerations.  The 
finest  thing  about  this  religion  is  the  expansiveness  of  its 
name.  It  is  not  labelled  for  any  individual,  it  is  not  called 
from  Mahomet,  as  Christianity  from  Christ;  it  is  Islam,  or 
Obedience.  Its  unity  of  God  is  not  marred  by  duality  or 
trinity  of  persons,  each  with  his  own  absolute  claim ;  and 
for  this  very  reason  the  multiplicity  of  incarnations,  which 
we  have  already  noted  as  resulting  from  the  worship  of 
personal  Will,  can  stand  side  by  side  under  its  common 
name,  with  equal  recognition  as  portions  of  Islam,  however 
unorthodox  or  mutually  repugnant.  The  immeasurable 
conception  of  Divine  Unity  and  Universality  absorbs  these 
separated  will-forms,  as  stars  are  lost  in  the  infinity  of  the 
common  heavens.  And  as  the  mystical  capabilities  of  this 
conception  came  into  play,  even  the  limits  natural  to  the 
religion  of  personal  sovereignty  themselves  melted  away, 
and  the  path  opened  to  a  still  freer  spiritual  aspiration. 
Such  is  the  meaning  of  Mussulman  Sufism  ;  it  is  traceable 
to  the  ideal  significance  of  Unity,  naturally  evolved  to  a 
point  beyond  that  identification  of  it  with  definite  monothe- 
istic personality  which  constituted  Islam,  as  it  did  Chris- 
tianity and  Judaism,  a  positive  religion. 

Two  elements  in  the  ethnic  constitution  of  Islam  made 
the  play  of  free  thought  inevitable.  The  first  was  the  in- 
tellectual scepticism  and  spiritual  indifference  of  the  Arab, 


686  ISLAM. 

noticeable  alike  in  his  desert  epoch  and  in  his  openness  to 
those  Persian  and  Greek  influences  which  undermined  the 
Semitic  semi-barbarism  of  his  days  of  fire  and  sword.  The 
other  was  that  nervous,  subtle  individuality  and  that  per- 
ceptive keenness  which  underlie  the  extreme  apparent 
respect  for  political  legitimacy  in  the  Persian  mind.  It  is 
easy  to  see  that  this  combination  of  qualities,  when  brought 
under  the  motive  force  of  an  all-pervading  religious  law, 
would  produce  a  great  number  of  independent  and  tenta- 
tive minds.  It  is  not  strange  that  every  postulate  of  the 
faith  was  probed  to  its  foundations,  or  reconciled  with 
reason  by  a  scholastic  process.  Equally  natural  were  the 
theological  subtleties  and  verbal  artifices  by  which  these 
lawless  investigations  were  made  to  appear  consistent  with 
an  authoritative  faith.  The  spirit  of  compromise  in  the 
reconciliation  of  opposites  was  never  more  freely  used. 
The  art  of  manipulating  Og's  bedstead  belongs  to  every 
positive  religion,  though  the  instrumentalities  are  not 
always  so  convenient  as  is  this  singular  union  of  the  Arab 
and  Persian. 

Other  influences  of  a  nature  favorable  to  religious  and 
philosophical  freedom  proceeded  from  the  ease  with  which 
Islam  was  propagated  among  a  great  variety  of  races,  all 
of  whom  brought  their  special  gifts  and  demands  to  the 
common  sovereignty.  Did  our  space  admit,  it  would  be 
interesting  to  trace  the  multifarious  achievements  of  the 
great  Turkish  dynasties  which  arose  in  eastern  Iran,  the 
marvellous  life  that  seemed  to  spring  up  in  those  barbarian 
hordes  of  the  North  at  the  touch  of  the  old  soil  of  Avestan 
heroes,  of  Achaemenide  and  Sassanian  kings,  and  the  seats 
of  an  immemorial  culture  which  had  never  known  inter- 
ruption or  decay,  —  dynasties  that  associate  the  discredited 
name  of  Turk  with  such  world-famous  lines  as  the  Ghazne- 
vide,  the  Seljurk,  the  Kadjar;  dynasties  some  of  which 
have  proved  more  capable  than  the  Arabs  of  maintaining 


MAHOMET.  687 

splendid  empires,  cultivating  art  and  letters,  and  advancing 
scientific  discovery;  ^  dynasties  to  which,  in  fact,  the  Arabs 
owe  much  of  their  historic  fame.  The  range  of  differing 
qualities  which  we  are  now  enumerating  must  cover  the 
destructive  instincts  of  the  Afghan  and  Mongol  conquer- 
ors, which  at  least  show  what  inclusive  powers  have  resided 
in  the  name  of  Islam.  In  Africa,  the  Berbers,  a  native  race, 
supplied  unexpected  access  of  free  energy,  and  down  to  the 
eleventh  century  were  the  source  of  Mussulman  culture  on 
that  continent.^ 

Besides  the  hosts  of  native  Persian  scholars,  statesmen, 
moralists,  devotees,  who  were  absorbed  into  the  com- 
munion of  Islam,  we  must  take  into  our  view  the  external 
impulse  given  to  it  by  Zoroastrian  traditions,  whether  of 
the  orthodox  or  heretical  (Zendik)  sort,  prevailing  among 
the  Parsi  fire-worshippers,  whom  the  Arabs  superseded, 
but  for  a  long  while  did  not  wholly  eradicate.  To  these 
we  must  add  the  subtle  yet  unextinguished  influence  of 
old  eclectic  schools  of  pure  heretics,  seeking  to  build  a 
universal  faith  out  of  the  fragments  of  floating  creeds,  such 
as  those  of  Mani  and  of  Mazdak  in  the  west  of  Iran,  es- 
pecially in  Babylon,  and  the  Vedantic  and  Buddhist  mys- 
tics spread  w^idely  over  the  east.  From  India  to  Greece, 
the  choicest  literature  of  the  Oriental  world  poured  into 
the  courts  of  the  Moslem  kings  from  Ghazni  to  Bagdad, 
from  Euphrates  to  the  Himalaya,  and  were  wrought  up  by 
poets  and  scholars,  —  too  many  of  them  paid  hirelings  and 
adulators  of  power,  but  great  numbers,  on  the  other  hand, 
bold  unflinching  servants  of  genius,  and  martyrs  in  its 
cause.  It  was  a  passionate  rivalry  in  poetic,  philosophic, 
and  literary  culture,  such  as  can  only  be  explained  by  the 
prodigious  confluence  of  tribes  and  traditions  under  a  com- 

1  Gibbon  :  Roman  Empire,  li.,  Ivii.  Braun  :  Gemiilde,  etc.  Gobineau  :  Histoire  des 
Perses,  ii.  4S2.     Malcolm  :  History  of  Persia. 

2  Hellwald :  CidUirgeschichte,  p.  50S.     Vamb^ry :  Bokhara. 


688  ISLAM. 

mon  ideal,  —  an  ideal  whose  properly  illimitable  central 
principle  of  the  unity  of  God  was  forever  struggling  to 
expand  beyond  the  limits  of  personal  sovereignty  which 
constituted  it  a  positive  religion. 

We  must  not  conceal  the  inevitable  tendency  of  all  these 
circumstances  —  the  natural  qualities  of  the  conquering  and 
the  conquered  races,  the  rapidity  and  superficiality  of  the 
conversion  of  the  Persians,  their  sense  of  oppression  and 
wrong,  their  consciousness  of  a  broader  culture  subjected 
to  authoritative  faith,  the  intermixture  of  revolutionary  and 
political  aims  with  all  speculative  or  religious  discussion, 
the  temptations  and  terrors  of  arbitrary  power  —  to  produce 
a  very  great  amount  of  intellectual'  as  well  as  practical  dis- 
honesty, and  to  prepare  the  Avay  for  that  unhappy  gift  of 
insincerity  which  is  generally  ascribed  to  the  modern  in- 
habitants of  Iran.  Such  effects  were  often  aggravated  by 
the  very  elasticity  with  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  name 
of  Islam  could  be  stretched  to  cover  a  freedom  of  thought 
inconsistent  with  its  principles,  requiring  continual  half- 
sincerities  of  adjustment  and  interpretation.  This,  in  every 
religion,  is  the  beginning  —  or  it  is  rather  the  open  track 
—  of  degeneracy  and  decay.  It  is  the  negative  sign  that  a 
new  day  is  dawning  for  the  mind  and  soul,  which  should 
not  be  restrained  from  seeking  to  escape  the  clouds  of 
yesterday ;  that  the  new  wine  is  fermenting,  and  that  those 
who  guard  the  old  bottles  succeed  in  holding  it  only  so  far 
as  they  can  suppress  its  nobler  qualities.  In  Islam  this 
was  done  more  by  political  and  military  power  than  by 
the  superior  consistency  of  orthodoxy.  Yet  here  also  we 
must  not  go  too  far.  There  was  a  sense  in  which  what  has 
just  been  said  of  the  excellence  of  Islam  by  reason  of  the 
expansive  quality  of  its  name  is  grandly  true.  Not  all 
the  noble  thought  which  its  wide  reach  of  possible  mean- 
ing permitted  it  to  cover  beyond  the  stiffness  of  definite 
creeds  was  unworthily  held  or  compromised.     And  it  is  as 


MAHOMET.  689 

creditable  to  a  positive  religion  to  possess  a  reach  of  in- 
clusive capacity  as  it  is  discreditable  to  it  to  maintain  its 
failing  prestige  by  the  two-faced  worship  of  a  name  on 
the  part  of  confessors  who  have  long  outgrown  its  possi- 
ble meaning. 

The  Mongol  hordes  which  swept  dow^n  upon  the  emas- 
culated caliphate  in  the  thirteenth  century  were  descended, 
according  to  their  own  myths,  from  four  male  and  female 
survivors  of  a  mutual  slaughter  of  tribes,  or  from  a  child 
rescued  thence,  and  suckled  by  a  she-wolf^  To  the  end 
of  their  career  they  tore  one  another  in  pieces  by  domestic 
feuds.  The  Mussulman  historian  says  of  them  that  they 
had  all  the  qualities  of  beasts,  —  "  heart  of  lion,  patience 
of  dog,  caution  of  crane,  cunning  of  fox,  prudence  of  crow, 
rapacity  of  wolf,  vigilance  of  cock,  domestic  carefulness  of 
fowls,  slyness  of  cat,  fury  of  boar."  ^  Their  instinct  was  to 
devastate  the  fruits  of  civilization,  the  results  of  history; 
their  only  constructive  impulse,  to  rally  round  a  human 
God  and  to  conquer  the  world.  They  were  lazy,  filthy, 
intemperate,  treacherous,  lustful.^  They  cut  off  heads, 
piled  them  in  heaps,  standing  a  corpse  head  downwards 
for  every  ten  thousand  victims.*  They  massacred  thou- 
sands of  men  and  women  at  the  graves  of  their  Khans.^ 
They  slew  the  wife  and  buried  her  with  her  husband,  and 
drank  human  blood  with  relish.'^  Of  these  semi-human 
monsters  the  fit  insignia  were  the  "  Lion  and  the  Cat." 
Their  name  was  symbolic  of  the  terror  they  caused.  In 
Persian,  Mongol  is  said  to  mean  "gloomy;  "  in  I\IongoIian, 
"haughty"  and  "terrible."  The  hoofs  of  these  Centaurs 
trod  the  cities  of  the  East  —  old  Bokhara  and  Balkh,  Merv 
and  Bagdad,  Damascus  and  Aleppo  —  into  bloody  dust; 
and  Europe  trembled  at  the  noise  of  their  coming  as  at 

'  Kleproth,  quoted  in  Wiittke,  i.  225.  2  Hammer  :  Gesch.  d.  Hchane,  i.  44  (WassaQ. 

s  Wiittke,  i.  248.  *  Hammer,  i.  48. 

6  Wiittke,  i.  232.    Marco  Polo,  bk.  i.  chap.  xlvi.  *  Hammer,  i.  44. 

44 


690  ISLAM. 

the  judgment  trump.  No  prayer,  nor  prestige,  nor  bribe 
availed  when  the  terrified  cahph  of  Bagdad  offered  his 
treasures  to  the  grandson  of  Genghis  Khan  for  the  safety 
of  his  city.  Hulagu  repHed,  "  My  help  is  in  my  God,  not 
in  gold."  To  Nassir,  king  of  Aleppo,  he  said :  "  Woe, 
woe  to  all  who  fight  not  on  our  side ;  for  we  bring  de- 
struction on  the  earth !  God  has  torn  pity  and  mercy 
from  our  hearts."  ^  Their  theory  was  that  a  vanquished 
enemy  could  never  become  the  victor's  friend,  and  should 
be  exterminated.  Genghis  destroyed  all  his  captives  be- 
fore leaving  Iran.  It  is  estimated  that  eighteen  millions 
of  lives  were  destroyed  by  these  hordes  in  China  and  Tan- 
gut  alone.2 

Yet  these  bestial  human  hordes  were  not  by  any  means 
destitute  of  religion.  They  had  got  so  far  as  to  recognize 
some  Supreme  Life  at  the  root,  or  at  the  head,  of  the  world ; 
and  later  science  gathers  proof  of  such  representatives  of 
a  highest  from  all  parts  of  that  immeasurable  hive  from 
which  they  swarmed,  —  some  Sublime  One,^  to  whom  the 
worshipped  plants,  beasts,  stars,  elements  pointed  on. 
Buddhism  must  already  have  done  something  to  stir  the 
seeds  of  reflection.  Judaism  and  Christianity  had  long 
been  penetrating  these  wilds  in  one  form  or  another. 
The  great  Khans  were  not  ignorant  of  what  the  races  and 
nations  believed.  They  knew  enough  to  count  it  all 
equally  insignificant  beside  the  instinct  of  personal  sway. 
The  immediate  effect  of  Islam  upon  the  converted  descen- 
dants of  Genghis  was  not  unlike  that  of  the  Buddhist  and 
Nestorian  missions  upon  the  original  fetichistic  theism  of 
the  steppes;  it  was  simply  to  expand  their  natural  un- 
impressibility  to  spiritual  influence  into  a  half-sceptical, 
half-believing  impartiality.'*  This  is  a  constant  phenom- 
enon amidst  their  most  barbarous  political  and   military 

^  Hammer,  i.  173.  -  Howorth:  History  cf  the  Mongols,  i.  113. 

8  Marco  Polo,  bk.  i.  chap,  xlviii.  *  Abulfeda:  HUtOTy  o/tlie  Tartars,  passim. 


MAHOMET.  691 

atrocities.  Occasionally,  as  in  Kublai  Khan,  it  rises  into  a 
higher  sense  of  rational  liberty,  preventing  the  Khan  from 
joining  even  the  Christian  communion,  while  he  showed 
deep  respect  to  all  the  great  positive  faiths ;  and  Rubru- 
quis  and  Sir  John  Mandeville  testify  to  his  clear  insight 
into  the  narrowness  and  insincerity  of  Christian  professions 
and  the  moral  force  of  his  rebuke.^  But  these  children  of 
instinct  exhibited  other  hopeful  inconsistencies  with  their 
nomadic  barbarism.  The  same  impartiality  in  many  re- 
spects characterized  their  treatment  of  the  sexes ;  women 
having  an  influence  in  political  and  domestic  affairs,  and 
also  in  trade,  rare  in  the  East.^  The  wives  of  the  Mongol 
princes  gave  away  thrones,  determined  successions,  recon- 
ciled armies,  ruled  States,  sat  on  all  public  occasions  beside 
the  throne;^  and  Hammer-Purgstall  even  ascribes  the 
short  duration  of  the  Mongol  empire  to  the  constant  inter- 
ference of  female  relatives  in  every  act  of  government. 
These  princes  were  chosen  without  regard  to  race  or  reli- 
gion ;  and  their  Christian  wives  and  mothers  have  per- 
haps received  even  too  much  credit  for  the  good  works 
of  their  lords  and  masters.  Of  the  same  nature  were  the 
marks  of  democratic  freedom  in  the  election  of  the  Khan. 
He  was  to  be  the  absolute  lord ;  yet  the  chiefs  had  to  be 
brought  together  and  formally  consulted,  and  signified 
assent  by  casting  their  caps  into  the  air  in  sign  of  free- 
dom, and  their  girdles  over  their  shoulders  in  sign  of  sub- 
mission.^ So  if  the  Khan  had  violated  the  unchangeable 
laws  of  the  tribes,  he  was  deposed  in  presence  of  the  gov- 
ernors, and  of  the  wives  and  nobles  and  officers  generally.^ 
The  last  ceremony  was  the  oath  of  absolute  submission  to 
the  one  God  on  earth,  and  to  the  one  purpose  of  universal 
sway  he  came  to  fulfil. 

1  Rubruquis,  pp.  156-164.  3  Marco  Polo,  bk.  ii.  chap,  xlviii. 

3  Gesch.  d.  Ilchafie,  i.  12,  S4 ',  ii.  25,  271  (Wassaf). 

*  Hammer,  i.  49,  57.  ^  Ibn  Batuta,  xiii. 


692  ISLAM. 

In  these  customs  and  institutions  we  may,  I  think,  easily 
recognize  the  causes  of  that  negative  form  of  impartiality 
in  religion  which  they  so  curiously  resemble.  It  is  a  low 
form  of  universality,  into  which  the  natural  aspiration  for 
unity  is  beaten  or  flattened  out,  like  gold  leaf,  in  a  com- 
mon level  of  subjection  to  one  personal  Will,  beside  which 
all  distinctive  claims  arc  trivial.  Other  negative  prepar- 
ations for  Persian  influence  must  also  be  admitted.  There 
were  wide-open  neutralities  involved  in  the  great  conflux 
of  races  and  beliefs  which  the  early  Khans  had  brought 
to  their  capitals,  —  possibilities  at  least  of  foothold  for  the 
imperishable  wisdom  of  Iran  and  Cathay.  For  the  very 
nature  of  such  treasures  is  to  live  over  changing  civiliza- 
tions, as  the  sun  lives  through  varying  days  and  months 
and  years.  But  these  preparations  were  unconscious. 
There  was  no  constructive  or  preserving  purpose  in  the 
overwhelming  raids ;  no  idea  but  to  supplant  the  insti- 
tutions of  ancient  States  by  the  edicts  of  despotic  Will. 
We  recall  even  Mahmud  of  Ghazni's  enormous  holocaust 
of  books  in  eastern  Iran,  and  Ilulagu's  annihilation  of  the 
libraries  of  Bagdad,  Alamut,  and  Medina  in  the  West.  Ibn 
Batuta  says  a  line  of  witnesses  proved  that  in  the  Tartar 
wars  in  Irak  twenty-four  thousand  literary  micn  perished, 
and  only  two  escaped.^  After  the  sack  of  Bokhara,  the 
same  author  tells  us  it  nearly  disappeared,  and  he  himself 
could  find  no  one  who  knew  anything  of  science  in  this 
ancient  city  whose  name  meant  "  seat  of  learning."  ^  The 
horrible  massacres  perpetrated  by  Timur  in  Aleppo  and 
Damascus,  while  he  was  himself  discussing  theology  with 
doctors  of  the  law,  would  be  perhaps  the  most  barbarous 
in  history,^  but  for  the  more  dreadful  ones  by  Genghis 
Khan  in  Merv  and  Nishapur  and  Bamian,  which  were  de- 
populated   and   turned   to    deserts.*      Of  fourteen  viziers 

1  Ibn  Batuta,  chap.  xiii.  -  Hutton  :   Cetitral  Asia,  p.  115. 

s  Howorth,  i.  S6-90.  *  Hammer  -.  Gesch.  d.  Ilcharie,  ii.  343-347- 


MAHOMET.  693 

during  the  first  century  of  the  Mongol  invasion,  only  one 
died  a  natural  death.  Timur  slaughtered  one  hundred 
thousand  prisoners  in  the  neighborhood  of  Delhi,  in  or- 
der to  get  them  out  of  his  way. 

Such  were  the  "  locust  swarms"  that  lighted  on  Persia 
from  the  Altai  steppes ;  but  the  touch  of  the  soil  trans- 
formed them  into  men,  and  that  intellectual  and  aesthetic 
culture  which  had  been  its  immemorial  harvest  was  unin- 
terrupted. It  will  in  part  account  for  this  mystery  if  we 
recall  in  the  light  of  recent  researches  one  element  in  the 
Mongol  and  Turkish  experience  which  has  been  generally 
overlooked.  During  the  pre-Islamic  period  and  in  Central 
Asia  there  had  gone  on  a  mighty  intermingling  of  tribes 
throughout  that  great  region  beyond  the  Oxus  whence 
the  Mongol  invaders  came.  The  Zoroastrian  temples  had 
spread  from  Bactria  over  Sogdiana  and  Khahrezm,  and  the 
famous  temple  in  Nubehar  was  the  centre  of  the  fire-worship 
borne  by  the  Barmecides  into  the  courts  of  the  Abbaside 
caliphs.^  The  Arabic  authors  point  to  astronomical  and 
other  scientific  attainments  in  these  regions,  in  very  remote 
times,  and  to  inscriptions  which  excited  the  profound  in- 
terest of  the  Islamic  conquerors.  Turkish  names  are  as 
prevalent  as  Aryan  in  the  oldest  records  of  the  Bactrian 
and  neighboring  cities.  Even  the  names  of  Balkh  and 
Bokhara  are  Turkish.  When  to  these  facts  we  add  Budd- 
hist and  Christian  influences  known  to  have  been  at  work, 
the  former  from  the  third  century  before,  the  latter  from  the 
fourth  century  after,  the  Christian  era,  we  cannot  regard  the 
ground  as  wholly  unprepared  for  the  seeds  of  Iranian  and 
Western  civilization.  In  fact,  we  know  that  the  Mahome- 
tans had  to  maintain  long  and  serious  struggles  against  the 
followers  of  Buddha  and  Zoroaster  in  Bokhara ;  and  it 
seemed  necessary  to  allow  the  Koran  to  be  read  in  Persian 
instead  of  Arabic,  contrary  to  the  most  sacred  usage. 

1  Vambery  {Bokliara,  p.  6),  according  to  Masudi.. 


694  ISLAM. 

Nothing,  for  instance,  could  have  been  more  favorable 
to  the  extension  of  civilization  among  the  Mongols  than 
the  century  and  a  half  of  Samanide  rule  in  Central  Asia, 
especially  that  portion  of  the  period  in  which  Bokhara, 
Balkh,  Samarkand,  and  all  the  great  seats  of  antique  cul- 
ture were  under  the  government  of  Ismail,  the  chief  of  the 
dynasty,  whose  reign  is  perhaps  the  one  most  deserving  of 
honor  in  the  whole  Islamic  history  of  Central  Asia.  He 
was  a  prince  of  pure  Iranian  blood,  descendant  of  Saman, 
a  fire-worshipper,  who  became  Islamic  out  of  gratitude  to 
a  neighboring  prince.  His  dynasty  was  the  last  great 
Iranian  rule  in  ancient  Iran,  and  fertile  in  the  highest 
civilization.  Bokhara  became  the  queen  of  cities,  seat  of 
purest  Persian  culture,  as  famous  for  silk  manufactures  as 
for  works  and  men  of  genius.  Ismail  died  at  the  end  of 
the  third  century  of  the  Hegira  (a.d.  907).  His  reign  saw 
the  establishment  of  the  great  theological  schools  of  the 
Sunna,  to  which  flocked  all  the  religious  scholarship  of 
Islam,  while  all  neighboring  tribes  and  kingdoms,  north 
and  south,  paid  eminent  respect  to  this  real  metropolis  of 
Asiatic  culture,^  whose  traditions  went  back  to  the  fire- 
temple  of  Zoroaster.  The  days  of  the  Turkish  and  Mon- 
gol dynasties  were  the  great  days  of  Iranian  poetry  and 
thought.  This  was  not  the  result  of  conversion  to  Islam. 
Most  of  these  princes  were  unbelievers ;  they  had  neither 
the  culture  nor  the  narrowness  of  the  Moslem ;  or  they 
were  like  the  great  Genghis,  —  at  one  moment  listening 
with  respect  to  Mussulman  teachers,  at  another  flinging 
the  Koran  under  his  horse's  feet.  The  Seljurk  dynasty  had 
scarcely  brought  the  feeble  caliphate  under  its  control, 
when  it  began  a  splendid  career.  Togrul  Beg  was  a  legis- 
lator whose  work  endured.  The  literary  laurels  of  the 
Ghaznevides  of  the  East  were  rivalled  in  its  courts,  and 
their  conquests  in  its  campaigns.     Who  has  not  heard  of 

*  Vdmb^ry :  Bokhara-,  pp.  29,  30,  65-87. 


MAHOMET.  695 

the  splendid  reign  of  Alp  Arslan,  the  lover  of  letters  and 
science,  around  whose  throne  stood  twelve  hundred  princes 
and  two  hundred  thousand  soldiers,^  and  whose  magna- 
nimity could  eclipse  the  victory  which  brought  a  Roman 
emperor  captive  to  his  feet?  "You  who  have  seen  the 
story  of  Alp  Arslan  exalted  to  heaven,  come  to  Merv  and 
see  it  buried  in  the  dust,"  was  his  epitaph.  But  a  true 
central  sun  of  this  court  was  the  world-famed  vizier,  Nizam- 
ul-Mulk,  a  Persian,  —  the  oracle  and  patron  of  religion  and 
science,  and  the  defender  of  justice  and  humanity  for  thirty 
years;  ^  whose  beneficence,  it  was  said,  extended  from  Jeru- 
salem to  Samarkand,  so  that  in  that  whole  vast  empire  there 
was  no  scholar,  no  student,  no  devotee,  whom  his  munifi- 
cent care  did  not  reach.^  The  same  rare  genius  directed 
the  illustrious  reign  of  the  next  Seljurk  prince,  Malik,  the 
Charlemagne  of  Asia,  and  fell  a  victim  to  court  intrigues 
at  its  close.  "  The  palace  of  Malik,"  says  Gibbon,  "  re- 
sounded with  the  songs  of  a  hundred  poets."  The  accu- 
mulated errors  of  centuries  were  set  aside  by  a  new 
astronomical  era,  the  crown  of  the  science  of  that  time. 
Order  and  security  prevailed  throughout  Iran ;  and  no  less 
universal  was  the  zeal  of  all  classes  in  matters  intellectual, 
industrial,  and  social. 

The  struggle  of  old  propensities  in  these  Turanic  kings 
with  the  civilizing  power  of  Iran  was  illustrated  in  the  last 
of  the  Seljurks,  who  riding  intoxicated  at  the  head  of  his 
army,  shouting  the  verses  of  Firdusi,  was  hewn  down  and 
slain.  Hulagu  himself,*  who  broke  in  pieces  this  wonder- 
ful Turkish  dynasty  with  his  northern  hordes,  sent  the 
greatest  astronomer,  metaphysician,  and  physician  of  his 
time,  Nassir-ed-Din  of  Tus,  as  his  ambassador,  and  set 
that  scientist,  with  four  others,  to  construct  an  observatory 
at  Damascus.     When  he  destroyed  the  library  of  the  As- 

^  Abul  Ghazi,  pt.  iii.  chaps,  xiv.  xix.  2  Gibbon  :  Roman.  E7npire,  chap.  Ivii. 

s  Kremer :  Hcrrsck.  d.  Gesch.,  p.  438.  *  Braun :  Gemalde,  etc.,  p.  224. 


696  ISLAM. 

sassins  at  Alamut,  he  preserved  the  Koranic  Hterature,  and 
all  works  of  higher  science;  only  burning  up  the  theology 
of  the  sect  without  mercy.  His  son  and  successor  Abaka, 
equally  famous  as  a  ruler  and  as  a  conqueror,  who  so  un- 
learned his  Mongol  habits  that  his  armies  trod  out  no 
grain-field  on  the  march  and  destroyed  no  fruit/  yet  died 
of  his  passion  for  strong  drink,^  owed  the  glory  of  his 
reign  to  his  Persian  ministers ;  one  of  whom,  Ald-ed-Din, 
poet  as  well  as  statesman,  after  long  service,  was  sent  into 
exile  for  his  inability  to  gratify  the  avarice  of  his  master, 
and  for  his  honorable  self-respect.^  The  next  of  the  line 
was  Arghun,  a  Buddhist  relic-worshipper  and  semi-Sha- 
manist, following  sorcerers  to  procure  long  life;  who  never- 
theless knew  that  his  viziers  must  be  men  honored  in  the 
land  and  acquainted  with  its  culture,  and  chose  such  with- 
out regard  to  race  or  religion.  One  of  these  was  Saad,  a 
Persian  Jew,  hailed  by  his  co-religionists  as  Messiah,  and 
lauded  by  the  native  poets ;  famous  for  good  works,  but  a 
target  for  court  conspiracies,  like  the  rest.  In  this  reign 
was  learned  the  financial  lesson  of  the  terrible  results  of 
paper  extension,  and  the  return  to  gold  was  celebrated 
by  sayings  of  wisdom  which  modern  experience  cannot 
surpass.* 

Last  comes  Ghazan,  signalizing  his  conversion  from 
peaceful  Buddhism  or  Mongol  Deism  to  Islam  by  a 
bloody  persecution  of  all  other  religions,"  then  converted 
again  into  the  greatest  of  the  Asiatic  Khans,  mainly 
through  his  minister,  Reshid-ed-Din,  a  Persian  Jew  of 
Hamadan,  whose  name,  "  the  straight  path  of  religion," 
was  fitly  given,  and  partly  through  his  own  universal 
genius, —  at  once  a  mechanician  and  artisan  in  all  kinds,  a 
linguist,  patron  of  all  sciences,  and  centre  of  all  literatures, 
missions,  and  correspondence  with  courts,  from  India  to 

^  Hammer,  i.  272.  -  Ibid.,  p.  313.  s  Ibid.,  307. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  3S4,  385.  ^  Hammer-Purgstall,  ii.  28-30. 


MAHOMET.  697 

Rome,  Germany,  and  France.  This  is  the  testimony  of 
the  historians  of  his  time.^  His  gold  coins  were  the  stan- 
dard of  purity,  even  in  Byzantium.^  His  pubhc  works 
were  innumerable;  his  example  stimulated  historical 
studies  into  their  highest  bloom.  But  his  great  vizier, 
who  had  given  thirteen  sons  to  his  service,  and  directed 
the  State  for  a  longer  period  than  any  other  Persian  min- 
ister, came  at  last,  in  a  later  reign,  to  share  the  fate  of 
such  greatness,  being  put  to  death  with  extreme  cruelty, 
amidst  curses  on  his  head  as  a  Jew.^  Ghazan  even  emu- 
lated his  ancestor,  Genghis,  and  the  great  traditional 
law-giver  of  Persia,  Ardeshir,  and  Nushirvan,  by  the 
compilation  of  a  new  code  of  laws  from  the  old  native 
institutes,  mingled  with  Mongol  rules  and  customs,  under 
the  influence  at  least  of  the  more  cultivated  of  his  sub- 
jects.* By  this  code  were  punished  the  false  weigher,  the 
bribed  judge,  the  lawyer  who  took  pay  from  both  sides, 
the  tradesman  who  sold  the  same  goods  twice  over.  "  One 
hour  of  justice,"  it  announces,  "is  worth  seventy  hours  of 
prayer."  Order  is  secured,  intemperance  punished,  towns 
made  responsible  for  the  robbery  of  travellers ;  debts  out- 
lawed in  thirty  years ;  private  houses  protected  against  the 
trains  of  travelling  officials  of  all  sorts,  who  had  freely 
quartered  themselves  on  the  people  before.  All  firmans 
and  all  contracts  must  be  registered ;  a  Domesday  Book 
carefully  regulates  taxation ;  mail-couriers  are  everywhere 
under  strict  discipline;  army-pay  is  fixed  bylaw;  slaves 
are  converted  into  soldiers,  and  captive  bondsmen  paid 
for  their  labor.  Archives  are  provided  for  records,  copies 
whereof  are  engraved  on  brass  or  stone.  There  are  laws 
against  usury,  which,  being  resisted,  led  to  the  further 
threat  to  abolish  existing  debts  entirely.  Redeemers  of 
wild  land  are  exempted  from  taxation.     And  a  new  calen- 

1  {Reschtd-ed-din  and  IVassqf.)     Hammer-Purgstall,  ii.  14S-160. 

-  Ibid.,  ii.  169.  3  Ibid.jii.  260.  *  Ibid.,  ii.  155-174. 


698  ISLAM. 

dar  is  drawn  up  by  the  astronomers,  dating  from  Gh^zan's 
era  of  1302.  According  to  Abul  Ghazi  Khan,  he  was  the 
first  of  the  Mongol  princes  who  accepted  Islam,  and  com- 
piled, through  his  great  scholars,  a  true  and  full  history  of 
the  Mongols  for  the  benefit  of  posterity ;  from  which  work, 
with  others,  Abul  Ghazi  himself  derived  the  materials  for 
his  own  most  valuable  history.^  All  this  is  creditable  to 
the  follower  of  the  great  Genghis  after  the  interval  of  nearly 
a  century.  But  by  this  time  the  Mongols  are  well  absorbed 
into  the  native  population ;  and  while  Persian  literature 
and  thought  continues  at  its  high-water  mark,  the  energies 
of  the  race  of  Hulagu  are  exhausted.  The  last  of  the  line 
was  himself  a  poet  and  patron  of  poets,  yet  the  weakest 
of  rulers.^ 

The  Mongols  in  Iran  remind  us  of  a  vast  nebulosity, 
susceptible  of  being  moulded  and  condensed  into  transi- 
tional systems  by  the  play  of  forces  that  long  preceded 
and  long  outlived  them.  And  this  was  prefigured  in  the 
really  great  man  by  whom  they  were  originally  set  in  mo- 
tion and  inspired  with  unity,  and  to  whom  every  branch  of 
their  tree  goes  back.  Certainly  their  first  barbarous  cam- 
paigns, and  the  establishment  of  their  thrones  put  an  end 
to  the  intellectual  life  of  Asia,  for  the  moment.  The  great 
cities,  like  Bokhara  and  Samarkand,  though  rising  again 
into  splendor,  became  seats  of  a  narrower  culture,  more 
casuistical,  theological,  and  mystic,  than  before.  The 
Mongolians,  it  is  said,  in  explanation  of  this,  destroyed 
the  Iranian  population  of  the  towns,  and  with  them  the 
really  persistent  and  gifted  classes,  both  in  practical  and 
mental  life.^  But  it  was  not  long  before  the  infusion  of 
more  vital  blood  quickened  much  that  had  lain  dead,  and 
brought  into  play  what  needed  only  a  more  favorable  soil. 
In  fact,  the  Iranian  population  was  effeminate,  compared 

*  See  p.  30  of  translation  (1730).  -  Hammer-Purgstall,  ii.  270,  311,  312. 

^  Vambery  :  Bokhara,  p.  138. 


MAHOMET.  699 

with  these  hardy  nomads.^  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  invasions  were  for  the  most  part  undertaken  as  mihtary 
reprisals,  or  in  that  spirit  of  destruction  which  silenced 
all  higher  aims.  Genghis  was  led  to  invade  Iran  by  the 
assassination  of  four  hundred  spies  whom  he  had  sent  dis- 
guised as  merchants  to  Otrar,  by  Sultan  Mohammed  of 
Khahrezm  (1214).^  His  devastation  of  the  older  cities  was 
horrible  beyond  description ;  but  after  all  he  stands  in  his- 
tory for  much  more  than  a  destroyer.  Genghis  Khan  was 
a  legislator.  His  laws,  indeed,  though  called  unchange- 
able, were  suited  to  concentrate  nomadic  tribes  upon  con- 
quests, not  to  serve  as  statutes  of  a  fixed  empire.  Born 
nearly  six  hundred  years  after  Mahomet,  he  was  the  father 
of  political  changes  almost  as  tremendous,  and  seems  to 
have  held  himself  under  commission  from  a  God  of  gods. 
At  his  coronation,  according  to  the  tradition,  a  Shaman  of 
the  family  of  his  wife,  commonly  called  But  Tangri,  "  the 
Image  of  God,"  and  believed  to  have  relations  with  the 
Divinity,  uttered  a  revelation  bidding  him  change  his  name 
from  Tamuzin  to  Genghis  (or  the  Greatest  One).^  The  great 
Mongol  historian  speaks  of  him  at  death  as  ascending  to 
"Tangri  his  Father,"  after  pronouncing  such  noble  senti- 
ments to  his  wife  and  sons^as  these  :  "  Live  in  unity, — this 
endures  forever ;  the  body  is  born  and  dies.  The  soul  of 
every  deed  is  this :  to  be  fulfilled  when  it  is  undertaken. 
His  soul  is  impregnable  who  holds  firmly  to  his  promise. 
Shape  thyself  in  some  degree  according  to  the  wishes  of 
others,  that  you  may  live  in  harmony  with  many."  His 
life,  as  given  by  the  same  authority,  is  a  strange  mixture 
of  magnanimity  and  treachery,  of  faithfulness  to  his  wife 
and  his  early  friends,  and  violent  passions  prompting  to 
the  murder  of  his  own  brothers.  The  truth  of  his  record  is 
as  horrible  a  page  of  bloodshed  and  destruction  as  history 

^  Vambery :  Bokhara,  p.  140.  2  Ibid.,  p.  117. 

«  Abul  Ghazi,  p.  78. 


700  ISLAM. 

can  3how,^  giving  ample  ground  for  the  symbolic  legend 
that  he  was  born  with  a  piece  of  blood-clot  in  his  hand.^ 
His  laws  or  prohibitions  ^  are  against  liars,  enchanters, 
thieves,  disbelievers  in  nomadic  superstitions,  inhospitality, 
titles,  and  artificial  honors.  He  allows  no  precedence  but 
that  of  merit,  freely  consorts  with  his  chiefs,  and  opens  his 
treasury  to  the  whole  mass  of  his  followers.  His  tolera- 
tion is  complete.  His  armies  are  disciplined  by  the  great 
hunts,  of  immemorial  use  in  Northern  Asia.  Men  are 
punished  for  crime  with  whipping  or  death;  and  one  of 
their  chief  duties  is,  to  be  unwashed.  Blind  obedience  to 
the  Khan  is  the  religion  of  the  State,  and  to  point  with  his 
finger  is  to  confer  an  office.  All  women  are  at  his  dis- 
posal. The  succession  is  hereditary,  though  to  be  ratified 
by  the  assembly  of  chiefs,  Kuriltai.  Ibn  Batuta  speaks  of  a 
law  that  this  assembly  shall  have  the  right  to  depose  the 
Khan  if  he  violate  the  unchangeable  Code  of  Genghis.^ 
"  Be  quiet  among  yourselves,  but  swoop  on  the  foe  like 
a  hungry  hawk."  Nothing  is  more  emphasized  than  the 
need  of  unity  in  families,  probably  because  nothing  was 
more  constantly  violated.  Hence  the  story  of  his  par- 
able to  his  sons  of  the  bundle  of  rods,  which  could  be 
broken  only  by  separating  them-;  and  of  the  two  serpents, 
one  with  many  tails  and  one  head,  and  the  other  with  one 
tail  and  many  heads.  All  religions  are  equally  good  and 
equally  subservient  to  his  will ;  and  all,  whether  Uighur, 
Confucian,  Buddhist,  or  Nestorian,  bent  before  it.  While 
that  strange  master  of  the  world  was  divining  with  the 
shoulder-blade  of  a  ram,  traders  of  tribes  and  priests  of 
all  religions  were  dwelling  at  his  court  in  Kara-Korum, 
amidst  the  art  and  riches  of  all  nations  from  Paris  to 
Cathay.^     Here  was  a  prestige  of  unity  which  promised 

1  Hutton:   Cen/rai  Asia,  ch:ip.  iv.  -  De  Mailla. 

^  Hutton.     Hammer-Purgstall,  i.  22,  23,  36-40. 

*  Ibn  Batuta,  chap.  xiii.  ^  Hutton  :  Central  Asia,  pp.  93-95. 


MAHOMET.  701 

some  enduring  hold  on  the  vast  empire  which  remem- 
bered the  all-embracing  sway  of  Cyrus,  of  Alexander,  of 
Nushirvan,  of  the  first  successors  of  the  Prophet.  The 
Mongol  soon  exchanged  his  free  Deism  for  the  sway  of 
Mahomet.  Ghazan  was  the  first  to  establish  Islam  again 
as  the  religion  of  Persia,  and  the  Mongol  empire,  absorbed 
into  the  intellectual  genius  of  Persia,  was  broken  in  pieces 
by  her  spirit  of  local  independence.  Here  also  the  con- 
queror yielded  to  the  conquered,  and  their  "  one  world, 
one  Khan,"  in  less  than  a  century  had  melted  into  frag- 
ments before  the  Sun  of  Iran.  Like  children  who,  when 
their  passionate  impulses  are  satisfied,  turn  directly  to  the 
very  opposite  extreme  of  good-nature  and  good-will,  or, 
we  may  say,  oscillate  between  destructive  and  constructive 
instincts,  so  the  Mongols  turned  swiftly  from  their  rage  to 
rebuild  the  deserts  they  had  made. 

Ogotai,  the  son  of  Genghis,  took  the  great  astronomer, 
geographer,  and  statesman  of  China,  Yeliu  Chutsai,  —  a 
Tartar  by  origin,  a  Chinese  by  education,  —  to  reorganize 
the  empire.  This  great  man  "  stood  like  a  providence  be- 
tween oppressor  and  oppressed ;  "  taught  the  rude  autocrat 
the  Platonic  rule  to  set  fit  men  to  all  functions,  whether 
of  making  porcelain  or  making  laws ;  and  by  his  medical 
skill  saved  countless  lives.  "  We  are  all  travellers  here : 
let  us  try  to  live  in  the  memory  of  men."  "  We  cannot 
return  from  the  grave :  let  us  lay  up  our  treasures  in  the 
people's  hearts."  In  the  midst  of  these  horrible  days  of 
blood,  the  great  vizier  is  seen  opening  the  treasures  to  the 
poor.  He  declared  that  he  won  his  victories  by  putting 
each  soldier  in  his  proper  place  and  work,  and  sending 
dullards  to  the  rear.^  His  troops  were  really  better  than 
those  of  the  old  empires  they  invaded.  It  was  the  simple 
fare,  the  self-reliance,  the  content  in  barest  necessities  (the 
bottle  of  milk,  the  earthen  pot  and  tent,  the  horse's  blood 

^  Howorth  ;  Hhtory  0/ Mofigois,  i.  loS. 


702  ISLAM. 

in  drought),  that  gave  them  the  advantage  over  luxurious 
mercenaries.  They  had  Greek  fire,  could  mine,  and  wore 
better  armor  than  their  foes.^  Their  obstinacy  in  besieg- 
ing towns  was  invincible.  In  spite  of  his  intense  Islamism, 
Timur  was  a  great  devotee  of  the  code  of  Genghis,  and 
upheld  it  against  the  Mahometan  priesthood,  and  followed 
Genghis  in  his  military  organization  of  the  conquered  na- 
tions.    The  civil  organization  was  not  less  perfect.^ 

Then  followed  a  new  wave  from  the  same  great  chaotic 
ocean.  Genghis  reappeared  in  his  more  terrible  political 
descendant,  Timur  the  "Lame,"  to  reconstruct  the  vanish- 
ing unity  of  the  Mongol  world,  and  sway  with  the  same 
crude  forces  the  sword  of  destruction  and  the  sovereignty 
of  despotic  law.  From  his  throne  in  Samarkand  this  Titan 
of  the  fourteenth  century  called  into  being  the  greatest 
empire  ever  seen  in  Asia,  and  seemed  to  extinguish  in  his 
one  resistless  will  the  immemorial  antagonism  of  Iran  and 
Turan.  Well  might  the  survival  of  the  old  native  mythol- 
ogy of  the  land  give  his  infancy  the  white  hair  of  sovereign 
age,  which  had  miraculouly  marked  the  birth  of  the  father 
of  heroes,  the  mighty  Zal.  Resembling  Genghis  in  his 
barbarian  instincts,  in  cruelty,  self-indulgence,  lust,  and  ab- 
solutely unlimited  ambition,  he  possessed  other  qualities 
which  grew  out  of  a  closer  acquaintance  than  his  ancestors 
haci  with  the  wealth  and  culture  of  Iran.  The  legend  that 
he  vowed  in  his  childhood,  under  prescience  of  greatness, 
to  destroy  no  human  life,  points  to  Buddhistic  influence.^ 
He  had  other  great  instincts  of  justice  and  truth,  and  a 
munificence  past  all  parallel,  doing  nothing  save  on  the 
most  prodigious  scale,  like  an  incarnate  omnipotence.  He 
was  a  patron  of  science  and  poetry,  himself  fond  of  the 
society  of  the  scholars  and  artists  of  his  day,  an  author  as 
well  as  a  legislator  of  no  mean  order.     He  is  believed  to 

*  Howorth,  ii.  62.     Also  Marco  Polo.  2  VamWry,  p.  173. 

8  Markham :  History  of  Persia,  p.  185. 


MAHOMET.  703 

have  improved  or  altered  the  game  of  chess.  His  works 
of  rehgious  art  in  Persia  and  India  were  magnificent,  and 
his  vast  system  of  colonization  filled  the  great  cities  of 
eastern  Asia,  especially  Samarkand,  with  the  splendor  of 
all  arts  and  sciences  known  to  the  West.^  Such  a  specta- 
cle was  never  seen  before  or  since,  —  camps  of  ten  thousand 
tents,  gorgeous  and  sweeping,  surrounded  by  shops,  trades, 
and  all  the  luxuries  of  the  world ;  of  a  splendor  like  that  of 
the  "  Arabian  Nights ;  "  athletics,  jousts,  elephant-games.^ 
Yet  he  is  himself  described  as  plutiged  in  sensual  excesses 
and  savage  caprices,  and  his  court  as  a  scene  of  wild  was- 
sail, in  which  the  ambassadors  of  European  States  were 
expected  to  do  their  part.  He  was  acquainted  with  several 
languages,  and  his  Institutes  (modelled  largely  on  those  of 
Genghis)  were  said  to  have  been  wise  and  strong  enough 
to  secure  such  order  throughout  his  dominions  that  "'a 
child  might  carry  a  purse  of  gold  everywhere  without 
fear."  The  merciless  destroyer  of  cities  and  generations, 
the  petty  tyrant  who  was  said  to  have  governed  his  thirty- 
six  sons  with  the  whip,  was  seen  in  far  other  capacities 
also ;  preserving  the  mosques,  scholars,  and  hospitals  of 
Bagdad  from  injury  by  his  troops ;  discoursing  compHments 
with  the  poet  Hafiz;  building  a  mosque  of  forty-eight 
columns,  with  ninety  trained  elephants  ;  administering  pen- 
alties for  crime  with  perfect  impartiality  towards  rich  and 
poor;  and  in  his  Institutes  commanding  generous  treat- 
ment of  suppliant  or  fallen  foes,  and  following  the  best  of 
the  old  Sassanian  rules  concerning  taxation  and  improve- 
ment of  lands.^ 

Every  great  event  was  by  this  son  of  destruction  per- 
petuated by  some  magnificent  architectural  monument,  to 
construct  which  artists  were  colonized  from  Persia,  Syria, 

^  See  Hutton's  full  account  of  his  court,  from  the  Spanish  ambassadors  in  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century.     Central  Asia,  chap.  vi. 

*  Vambery,  p.  202.  '  Markham:  History  0/  Persia,  p.  201. 


704  ISLAM. 

and  the  furthest  West.  Splendid,  indeed,  they  were,  with 
arabesques  of  blue  and  gold  and  glazed  mosaic  tiles  re- 
flecting back  the  sun.  This  annihilator  of  cities  brought 
the  "  weavers  of  Damascus,  the  cotton-manufacturers  of 
Aleppo,  cloth-workers  of  Angora,  goldsmiths  of  Turkey 
and  Georgia,  —  clever  artisans  of  every  description,  —  to 
make  Samarkand  the  emporium  of  Asiatic  trade."  This 
was  certainly  less  of  the  nature  of  destruction  than  of  that 
redistribution  of  matter  in  which  progress  consists.^ 

Again,  Timur  was  a  Turk,  and  put  down  the  Mongol  to 
lift  up  the  Turk,  —  institutions,  language,  and  all ;  and  his 
Turkish  revival  was  intellectual,  especially  from  a  religious 
and  mystical  point  of  view.  Scholarship  was  patronized. 
Colleges  in  great  numbers  still  excite  the  wonder  of  visitors 
to  Bokhara.  In  fact,  the  rude  Turk  established  "  the  most 
brilliant  empire  known  to  the  history  of  Islam,  except  that 
of  the  Omeyyads  in  Spain  and  that  of  the  first  Abbasides 
in  Arabistan."  Djami,  master  of  sciences ;  Suhaili,  trans- 
lator of  Pilpay ;  Ali  Shir  Amir,  defender  of  Turkish  nation- 
ality against  all  traducers,  and  builder  of  hundreds  of 
benevolent  edifices,  and  above  all  the  writer  of  the  charm- 
ing and  wonderful  picture  of  Oriental  beliefs  and  record 
of  noble  thoughts,  the  Dabistan,  —  were  some  of  the 
personal  glories  of  this  reign. 

Again  the  empire  of  the  nomad,  reared  in  a  day,  dis- 
appears from  the  scene  at  nightfall,  like  the  tents  from 
which  it  came.  With  Timur's  death  begin  division  and 
disintegration,  and  the  Uzbeg  Tartars  and  Turcomans 
sweep  over  the  land.  But  Iran  is  not  dead.  Barber,  a 
child  of  Genghis's  race,  but  of  such  higher  type  as  the 
Mongol  could  not  but  win  from  her  traditions,  the  pupil 
of  the  Shah-Nameh  as  well  as  the  Koran,^  famous  for  many 
noble  traits,  though  of  the  old  race  of  destroying  angels,  — 
begins  the  great  Mogul  empire  in  eastern  Iran  and  northern 

1  Gibbon,  chap.  bcv.  *  Hutton,  chap.  vii. 


MAHOMET.  705 

India;  while  Ismail,  descendant  of  an  Imam  or  Sufi  saint, 
sets  up  a  native  kingdom  in  Persia,  in  the  name  of  All  and 
the  Shtites,  and  expels  the  Uzbegs  from  Khorassan ;  and 
with  this  Soffarian  dynasty  Persia  enters  on  a  new  career. 
In  1600  A.D.,  if  Mainwaring's  account  of  Sir  Anthony 
Sherley's  mission  to  the  court  of  Abbas  the  Great  is  to  be 
relied  on,  notwithstanding  many  of  the  old  barbarities  of 
absolute  power,  the  country  was  still  kept  in  such  order  by 
that  monarch  that  "  a  man  could  travel  through  it  with 
only  a  rod  in  his  hand,  without  any  hurt ;  and  the  people 
were  very  friendly  to  strangers,"  —  a  contrast  to  his  bar- 
barous treatment  of  the  Turks  in  Syria  and  elsewhere. ^ 
The  swift  revival  of  the  Ottoman  power  of  Asia,  under 
Mahomet  I.  and  Amurath,  after  its  utter  overthrow  by 
Tamerlane,  is  evidence  of  the  recuperative  force  of  Mos- 
lem civilization,  if  of  nothing  else. 

So  emerge  the  old  traditions,  the  ineradicable  forces  of 
the  native  genius,  above  the  wastes  of  the  Mongol  deluge. 
One  of  the  strongest  evidences  of  this  is  in  the  admiration 
with  which,  in  spite  of  his  barbarities,  the  life  and  deeds  of 
the  terrible  Timur  have  been  regarded  by  his  Mussulman 
subjects. 

The  work,  which  passes  under  the  name  of  "  Timur's  Life 
and  Institutes,"  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  himself, 
is  not  mentioned  by  his  earliest  biographer,  Sherif-ed-Din, 
who  wrote  at  the  command  of  his  grandson  from  journals 
kept  by  the  great  Khan's  secretaries.  It  was  found  in  man- 
uscript in  a  library  in  Yemen ;  and  the  intense  devotion  to 
Islam  ascribed  in  it  to  the  great  conqueror  points  strongly 
to  a  late  origin.  It  proves,  at  all  events,  the  impression 
left  by  his  career  on  the  Mussulman  nations.  We  should 
be  careful,  therefore,  not  to  trust  too  implicitly  the  ideal 
picture  it  draws  of  his  virtues,  though  many  of  his  most 
cruel  actions  in  war  are  not  concealed ;    and  the  apparent 

^  The  Three  Brothers  (London,  1828),  pp.  87,  33-40,  67. 
45 


706  ISLAM. 

moral  contradictions  are  such  as  everywhere  strike  us  in 
Mongol  character. 

The  style  greatly  resembles  that  of  the  old  Assyrian 
kings,  except  in  the  stronger  emphasis  on  humanity  and 
justice.  His  invasions  are  usually  justified  on  the  same 
ground  that  such  and  such  a  nation  "  rebelled,"  —  in  other 
words,  did  not  accept  his  assumption  of  divine  right  to 
rule  the  world.  Against  unbelievers,  especially  Sunnites,^ 
he  had  a  general  commission  in  full  to  ravage  and  destroy. 
He  held  it  his  duty  to  invade  every  oppressed  land  and 
every  land  divided  by  heresy.^  It  was  the  cruel  oppression 
of  the  Uzbeg  dynasties  towards  "  the  Faithful  "  that  roused 
him  to  punish  thcm.^  He  claims  to  have  been  stirred  to 
conquest  by  a  holy  Mussulman  father,*  who  predicts  his 
glory,  directs  his  steps,  and  with  commonplaces  of  ethics 
and  religion  purifies  his  political  measures.  The  burden 
of  his  autobiography  is:  "I  acted  according  to  my  word ; 
I  regarded  the  rich  as  my  brethren,  the  poor  as  my  chil- 
dren.^ I  caused  no  one  to  suffer  for  the  guilt  of  another. 
Those  who  had  done  me  injury  in  battle,  when  they  sued 
for  mercy  I  received  with  kindness,  and  forgot  their  evil 
courses,  and  so  treated  them  that  suspicion  was  plucked 
out  of  their  hearts.  I  delivered  the  oppressed  from  the 
hand  of  the  oppressor.^  Khodaudaud  once  said  to  me, 
'  Forgive  thine  enemy ;  but  if  he  then  return  to  enmity, 
turn  him  over  to  the  justice  of  the  Almighty.'  ^  I  associ- 
ated with  the  good  and  learned  ;  chose  out  the  prophet  and 
the  teacher,  the  philosopher  and  the  historian  (not  poets). 
I  gained  their  affections,  and  entreated  their  prayers  and 
their  support.^  I  appointed  intelligent  reporters  in  every 
kingdom  to  keep  me  informed  of  the  conduct  of  the  troops 
and  of  the  people.^    I  gave  rewards  and  wages  to  deserving 

1  Institutes,  trans,,  p.  359.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  335.  '  Ibid.,  p.  31. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  374.  ^  Ibid.,  pp.  i6g,  345.  «  Jbid.,  p.  165. 

T  Ibid.,  p.  327.  *  Ibid.,  pp.  167,  325.  ^  ibid.,  p.  169. 


MAHOMET.  707 

soldiers  in  their  old  age.^  I  gathered  merchants  and  trav- 
ellers about  me.2  I  pardoned  all  criminals  for  just  of- 
fences.^ Ministers  are  not  to  take  bribes  or  speak  evil; 
they  shall  do  good  to  the  man  who  doeth  evil  to  them, 
that  he  may  return  to  friendship.^  Every  one's  house 
should  be  safe  from  intrusion  by  troops ;  every  one  have 
fair  trial  before  punishment,^  and  be  protected  in  his 
labor."  6 

The  extreme  minuteness  ascribed  to  his  organization, 
especially  of  the  army,  must  be  founded  on  historical 
traditions.  His  devotion  to  religion  and  high  morality, 
whether  authentic  or  not,  is  certainly  intended  to  be  un- 
exceptionable. He  draws  omens  from  the  Koran  for  every 
act  of  his  life;  hears  voices  proclaiming  his  coming  tri- 
umph ;  seeks  in  all  things  to  know  the  will  of  God ;  ' 
weeps  in  prayer ;  ^  declares  that  victory  is  not  in  numbers, 
but  from  above;  ^  that  every  empire  not  established  in 
morality  and  religion  shall  pass  away ;  ^^  that  offices  in  an 
earthly  empire  are  symbols  of  those  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.^^  He  resolves  to  be  a  king  through  liberality  and 
generosity  and  tenderness  towards  those  that  have  sep- 
arated themselves  from  him.^^ 

Here  then  is  a  connection  between  the  conquests  of  the 
Mongols  and  the  progress  of  civilization,  which  Gibbon, 
in  his  brilliant  summaries  of  the  external  facts,  does  not 
seem  to  have  divined.  Here,  too,  is  full  confirmation  of 
the  principle  of  Universal  Religion, — that  the  apparent 
overturns  of  civilization  by  barbarian  hordes  at  the  inter- 
vals of  ancient  history  are  really  steps  of  construction. 
The  vitality  of  ideas  and  culture  is  so  invincible,  that  their 
touch  transforms  the  rudest  swarms,  the  fiercest  instincts 
of  human  nature,  into  ministers  of  natural  vigor  and  stimu- 

1  histitutes,  p.  277.  2  Ibid.,  p.  215.  3  Ibid.,  p.  219. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  260,  261,  28s.  5  Ibid.,  pp.  347,  349.  6  Ibid.,  p.  213. 

»  Ibid.,  pp.  19,  73,  89,  131.  8  Ibid.,  p.  SI.  9  Ibid.,  p.  7. 

w  Ibid.,  p.  175.  »  Ibid.,  p.  201.  1=  Ibid.,  pp.  55,  63. 


708  ISLAM. 

lants  of  progress.  We  cannot  do  better  than  quote  a  strik- 
ing statement  of  the  facts  from  Mr.  Howorth's  excellent 
'*  History  of  the  Mongols."  Speaking  of  the  results  of 
their  conquests,  he  says :  "  An  afflatus  of  architectural 
energy  spread  over  the  world  almost  directly  after  the 
Mongol  conquests.  Poetry  and  the  arts  began  rapidly  to 
revive.  The  same  thing  occurred  in  Persia  under  the 
Ilkhans,  the  heirs  and  successors  of  HCilagu,  and  in  south- 
ern Russia,  at  Serai,  under  the  successors  of  Batu  Khan. 
While  in  China  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  any  epoch 
of  Asiatic  history  which  could  rival  the  vigorous  life  and 
rejuvenescence  which  mark  the  reign  of  the  great  Khubi- 
lai  Khan.  .  .  .  As  the  Mongols  controlled  the  communi- 
cations between  these  various  centres,  and  protected  them 
effectually  so  long  as  they  remained  powerful,  eastern 
and  western  nations  were  brought  together,  and  reacted 
on  one  another.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  art  of  printing, 
the  mariner's  compass,  fire-arms,  and  a  great  many  details 
of  social  life  were  not  discovered  in  Europe,  but  imported 
by  means  of  Mongol  influence  from  the  farthest  East."  ^ 

1  Howorth  :  History  of  the  Mongols.,  i.  xi. 


II. 

THE   SHAH-NAmEH;    OR,  BOOK  OF  KINGS. 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH;    OR,  BOOK  OF  KINGS. 

TF  we  may  measure  the  worth  of  a  national  epos  by  the 
-'-  duration  of  its  elements  in  the  love  and  faith  of  the 
nation,  and  their  reach  over  the  phases  of  its  conscious- 
ness, no  poem  of  this  nature  can  be  compared  with  the 
Shah-Nameh  of  Firdusi.  The  names  and  legends  of  its 
earlier  portion  belong  to  the  oldest  religious  mythology 
of  Iran,  in  its  main  features  outlined  two  thousand  years 
before  this  consummate  artist  wrought  their  heroic  inter- 
pretation into  epical  completeness.  And  he  assures  us, 
with  an  earnestness  to  which  the  highest  authority  must 
be  conceded  upon  every  ground,  that  he  has  faithfully 
adhered  to  their  spirit  in  the  poetic  form  which  they  have 
assumed  under  his  hand.^  The  people  of  Iran  received 
this  superb  national  apotheosis  by  a  follower  of  Islam  as 
the  Athenians  received  the  Jove  of  Phidias  or  the  Pallas  of 
the  Acropolis,  —  as  a  real  reproduction  of  their  religious 
and  political  traditions.  To  the  spaces  of  time  covered 
by  its  colossal  plan  the  Homeric  period  is  a  vanishing 
point.  It  reaches  from  the  earliest  to  the  latest  hour  of 
Iranian  life,  from  the  first  mythic  kings  to  the  last  Sassan- 
ide  and  Tartar  and  Arab  dynasties  which  succeeded. 

From  the  gardens  of  Mahmud  of  Ghazni,  the  poet  of 
the  tenth  Christian  century  overlooks  this  immeasurable 
caravan  of  the  ages,  and  summons  every  dear  majestic 
form,  as  it  passes,  to  bear  witness  to  the  heroic  ideal,  and 

1  That  these  legends  existed  substantially  as  he  gives  them,  in  the  fifth  century  (five  hun- 
dred years  before),  is  clear  from  the  Armenian  historian,  Moses  of  Chorene.  That  the  same 
is  true  of  earlier  ages,  is  equally  certain  from  the  testimony  of  the  Avesia.  And  all  we  can 
learn  in  other  ways  concerning  the  beliefs  of  the  obscure  periods  of  Persian  history,  as  well  as 
the  voice  of  the  nation  itself,  confirms  the  conclusion. 


712  ISLAM. 

to  live  anew  as  a  fit  constituent  of  an  immortal  whole.  Far 
from  being,  like  the  Iliad,  the  fixed  picture  of  an  early 
period  transmitted  through  later  social  structures,  the 
work  of  Firdusi  was  his  own  creation  out  of  materials 
which  for  a  thousand  years  of  national  vicissitude  had 
been  accumulating  without  structural  relations.  For  ten 
centuries  of  national  decay  they  had  lived  only  in  the 
popular  heart ;  had  then  been  gathered  in  some  rude  shape, 
not  now  to  be  discovered,  only  to  be  left  again  with- 
out protection  for  hundreds  of  years  more ;  finally  to  be 
combined  with  later  traditions  into  one  flaming  constel- 
lation, in  which  all  their  ethnical  phenomena  assume  the 
unity  of  significance  which  comes  only  by  the  idealism  of 
art.i 

The  Shah-Nameh  is  none  the  less  a  true  history  of  ancient 
Iran  for  the  impossibility  of  connecting  its  earlier  heroic 
sagas  with  known  personages  and  events.  It  is  the  im- 
mortal soul  of  a  process  whose  material  form  has  returned 
to  the  dust,  and  whose  details  may  well  be  spared  in  view 
of  the  ideal  essence  so  tenderly  drawn  forth  and  sacredly 
guarded  by  time.  The  stages  of  history  are  of  value  not 
as  that  endless  succession  of  details  to  which  the  sensa- 
tional school  would  reduce  them,  but  as  steps  in  the 
evolution  of  eternal  principles,  as  advancing  interpreta- 
tions of  the  same  all-embracing  laws  of  life  recognized 
successively  upon  higher  and  higher  planes  of  human 
experience.  Thus  every  successive  outlook  symbolizes  a 
higher  in  the  ascents  of  spirit,  and  leads  on  to  it  by  a 
necessity  which  at  once  resides  in  the  unity  of  human 
nature  and  assures  its  full  expansion.     It  is  the  function 

1  The  greater  part  of  the  Shah-Nameh,  derived  from  the  Chodai-Nameh,  was  wholly 
unacquainted  with  actual  history.  It  is  thoroughly  mythical  till  it  comes  down  to  the  Sas- 
sanian  period,  and  even  there  it  shows  a  great  paucity  of  historical  material,  giving  mainly 
ceremonies  and  sentences  ;  but  as  it  approaches  the  later  kings  of  that  dynasty,  it  shows  ac- 
quaintance with  both  events  and  persons.  Noldeke  says  that  no  better  connected  account  of 
this  dynasty  has  been  given  than  the  Chodai-Nameh  (p.  xix).  The  Turan  wars  are  believed 
by  Oppert  to  relate  to  Media  as  the  scene  of  the  epic,  and  as  inhabited  by  Turanian  tribes. 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  713 

of  the  ideal  in  history,  of  what  are  fitly  called  the  fine  arts, 
to  fix  and  transmit  these  interpretations  of  Nature  in  their 
pure  essence,  by  a  fine  elimination  of  all  perishable  and 
confusing  details,  for  the  joy  and  solace  and  noble  culture 
of  mankind.  In  this  sense  the  Shah-Nameh  of  Firdusi 
will  be  found  to  contain  the  whole  history  of  the  Iranian 
mind. 

The  attempts  of  ingenious  scholars^  to  identify  its  heroes 
with  Median  and  Scythian  kings,  as  known  to  us  through 
Herodotus  and  other  Greek  writers,  or  with  the  great 
Achjemenidan  line,  are  based  on  slight  resemblances,  on 
arbitrary  etymologies,  and  on  features  proceeding  from 
general  laws  in  the  structure  of  the  national  legend.  With 
the  exception  of  the  latest  personages  of  the  epos,  inclu- 
sive of  Iskander,  the  theory  has  no  valid  application,  and 
is  in  fact  set  aside  by  the  obvious  derivation  of  the  Shah- 
Nameh  names  from  those  which  figure  in  the  old  Avesta, 
and  especially  in  the  Vendidad  Sade ;  and  by  the  fact  that 
legends  not  found  in  the  Avesta  were  certainly  based  on 
equally  antique  traditions  of  the  same  cycle.  Their  con- 
nection with  the  past  is  ideal.  It  is  explicable  only  by 
the  special  correspondence  of  the  Iranian  mind  in  the  or- 
der of  human  progress  —  as  we  have  endeavored  to  demon- 
strate —  to  the  advent  of  conscious  Will,  to  the  entrance 
of  personality  among  the  all-mastering  and  all-confound- 
ing forces,  natural  and  social,  which  preceded  it.  Iranian 
life  transformed  abstract  ideas  into  persons ;  turned  fatali- 
ties into  living  choice  and  the  dualism  of  the  will ;  put 
positive  men  and  women  in  place  of  oppressive  uniformi- 
ties of  mind  or  sense.  Therefore  its  psychological  his- 
tory is  not  a  record  of  saints,  like  Hindu  idealism,  nor  of 
mechanical  producers,  like  Chinese  positivism ;  but  a  tale 
of  heroes,  a  Shah-Nameh,  semi-myth,  semi-history,  yet 
altogether  human  and  personal.     The  epic  of  Firdusi  is 

1  See  Gobineau ;  Hisioire  des  Perses.     Malcolm :  History  0/ Persia. 


714  ISLAM. 

its  climax,  its  supreme  type.  It  involved  the  full  Iranian 
process,  by  which  every  god  and  every  elemental  force 
in  old  Aryan  mythology  became  a  man.  The  Shah- 
Nameh  names  are  sons  of  wondrous  lineage.  In  the 
Avesta  these  names  were  developments  of  the  older 
Aryan  conception  of  struggle  between  the  Nature-powers 
of  good  and  evil,  light  and  darkness.  The  social  and  polit- 
ical relations  of  the  Iranian  tribes  with  each  other  and  with 
neighboring  ruder  tribes  multiplied  these  figures  and  raised 
them  into  distinct  ethical  types,  represented  in  family  tra- 
ditions, rhymed  histories,  natural  songs ;  held  together  by 
the  national  interpretation  of  the  strife  of  natural  forces  as 
a  moral  and  spiritual  — that  is,  a  human,  not  a  merely  ele- 
mental —  fact.  With  the  growth  of  the  Zoroastrian  cultus, 
historical  persons  and  events  were  brought  under  the  more 
positively  religious  aspect  of  Dualism,  while  the  ethical 
and  heroic  meanings  remained  on  the  whole  unchanged. 
Finally,  the  glorious  nationality  of  the  Sassanidae,  and  its 
tragic  struggle  with  the  Arab  and  the  Roman,  transfused 
this  religious  tradition  with  the  pathos  of  actual  historic 
life.  Thus  one  dominant  consciousness  of  a  profound 
truth,  wrought  over  and  over  again  into  fresh  forms  of  ex- 
perience, has  given  soul  and  shape  to  the  great  epic  of 
Persia.  The  sublime  idealization  of  which  Firdusi  was  the 
outcome  was  the  unbroken  evolution  of  twenty  centuries. 

Long  before  the  Sassanian  revival,  probably  long  before 
the  great  Achasmenidan  days,  these  antique  personalities 
had  been  the  inspiration  and  solace  of  the  national  heart ; 
and  in  that  social  disintegration  which  lasted  through  the 
Seleucide  and  Parthian  dynasties,  they  were  the  refuge 
of  the  vigorous  tribes  of  eastern  Iran,  which  never  came 
wholly  under  the  power  of  the  invaders.  In  them  these 
tribes  cherished  the  true  Iranian  ideal  of  individual  Will, — 
Titanic  forces  of  personal  independence  and  moral  ardor, 
forever  fated  to  noble  strife.     It  was  a  splendid  task  which 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  715 

their  discouraged  instinct  was  pursuing,  in  a  purely  ideal 
sphere,  when  all  support  of  national  unity  and  promise  was 
apparently  withdrawn  forever;  and  it  has  been  their  re- 
ward to  be  immortalized  in  the  tribute  of  that  very  race 
and  religion  that  seemed  to  have  swept  them  into  oblivion  ; 
for  Firdusi  was  a  Mahometan,  like  the  Ghaznevide  mon- 
arch who  chose  him  for  this  sublime  function,  but  the 
Persian  ideals  had  overswept  the  poet's  soul.  A  thousand 
years  had  passed  since  these  isolated  Eastern  tribes  had 
passed  under  Arab  and  Tartar  dynasties.  Through  all 
these  centuries  they  had  gained  the  ascendency  over  their 
masters  to  higher  cultures ;  and  at  last  it  was  for  one 
mighty  birth  to  show  all  coming  ages  how  they  had  seized 
upon  these  rude  Centaurs,  inspired  them  with  splendid 
ideals,  and  by  their  own  life  in  death  lifted  them  into  an 
immortal  sphere.  Such  the  message  of  the  Shah-Nameh 
to  mankind. 

Before  proceeding  to  a  fuller  statement  of  what  we  have 
called  the  dominant  idea  of  this  epic,  some  account  must 
be  given  of  its  immediate  origin. 

It  is  the  merit  of  the  Sassanian  kings  to  have  brought 
the  national  legends  together,  probably  the  oldest  of  them 
out  of  eastern  Iran,  and  compiled  a  kind  of  prose  chroni- 
cle, known  under  the  different  titles  of  "  Basitan-Nameh  " 
(Ancient  Book),  and  "Khodai-Nameh"  (Book  of  Kings  or 
Gods).^  The  real  depositaries  of  these  local  or  tribal  tra- 
ditions were,  however,  the  proprietary  chiefs  {Dihkdndn), — 
a  territorial  aristocracy  who  preserved  their  social  pride 
and  influence  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the  nation 
down  to  the  latest  caliphs.  Their  title  reflects  the  spirit 
of  the  Avesta,  for  Dihkan  has  the  sense  of  cultivator  as 
well  as  chronicler.  Firdusi  tells  us  that  it  was  from  this 
class  of  persons  that  he  derived  the  best  information,  and 
his  references  to  them  are  frequent,  as  of  final  authority .^ 

1  Mohl  :  Shdh-Nameh,  \.  x.  *  Ibid.,  xlvii. 


•Jl6  ISLAM. 

Among  these  chiefs  we  have  reported  the  name  of  Da- 
nishvar  as  compiler  of  the  Basitan-Nameh  by  command 
of  the  last  Sassanide  king  (a.  d.  652).  It  would  be  safe 
to  ascribe  a  larger  share  in  the  collection  of  such  materials 
to  the  literary  culture  of  the  earlier  reign  of  Nushirvan 
in  the  sixth  century.  Like  all  other  productions  of  that 
period,  they  were  undoubtedly  in  the  Pehlevi  tongue ; 
but  they  must  have  been  translated  in  great  degree  out 
of  the  Bactrian  and  other  old  Persian  dialects.  Firdusi 
may  well  have  used  some  of  these  older  sources  in  pre- 
paring his  versions  in  the  Parsi,  inasmuch  as  the  poet's 
home  was  in  eastern  Iran,  and  the  literary  and  religious 
treasures  of  that  portion  of  the  conquered  country  would 
be  most  likely  to  have  escaped  the  destructive  fanaticism 
of  Islam. 

It  is  recorded  that  Omar  was  at  first  inclined  to  spare  the 
heroic  chronicles,  whose  religion  was  as  free  from  idolatry 
as  that  of  the  Koran.  But  his  puritanism  was  so  shocked 
by  the  myth  of  the  Simurgh  and  the  white-haired  child 
nursed  in  her  nest,  and  perhaps  by  the  fire-cult  of  the 
heroes,  that  he  consigned  the  whole  mass  of  national 
legends  to  destruction,  as  dangerous  to  the  true  faith.^ 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  here,  as  in  their 
whole  history,  the  Arab  marauders  were  led  by  a  purpose 
higher  than  they  knew,  and  that  their  desert  creed  was 
warmed  and  expanded  by  the  rich  lore  of  Iran.  They  be- 
came the  apt  pupils  of  this  ripe  culture.  We  find  their 
historians  busy  from  the  first  in  keeping  alive  the  poetic 
traditions  of  their  subjects,  while  naturally  doing  their  best 
to  suppress  all  remembrance  of  the  glorious  Achaemenidan 
kings.  They  treated  the  old  mythic  wars  of  Iran  and 
Turan  as  genuine  history,  adding  only  the  well-known 
names  and  events  of  recent  times.     The  rulers  of  eastern 

*  rt  is  believed  that  the  denunciation  of  insane  legends  in  the  Koran  (xxxi.  6)  refers  to 
these  myths. 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  717 

Iran  were  of  Turkish,  not  Arab,  origin.^  They  sprang  from 
braziers  and  pewterers,  slaves  and  robbers.  They  hated  the 
caHphate  of  Bagdad,  and  were  spurred  by  jealousy  of  its 
glory  to  an  interest  in  literature  as  well  as  to  the  lust  of 
conquest. 

The  native  religion  and  culture  took  refuge  with  those 
warlike  Sofifarides,  Samanides,  Ghaznevides,  whose  conver- 
sion to  Islam  brought  the  ardor  but  not  the  intolerance  of 
the  Arab.  Three  hundred  years  after  the  conquest,  Jakub 
Ben  Leis,  a  Samanide,  or  perhaps  a  king  half  a  century 
later,  has  the  Basitan-Nameh  turned  from  Pehlevi  into 
Parsi,  and  sets  his  court-poet  Dakiki  to  putting  it  into 
rhyme ;  but  the  poet  dies  and  the  work  stops.  Twenty 
years  later,  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  Christian  century, 
the  famous  Mahmud  of  Ghazni  resumes  the  undertak- 
ing, and  after  immense  labors  in  gathering  the  materials 
places  them  in  the  hands  of  one  to  whose  poetic  genius, 
by  common  consent,  they  of  right  belonged.  The  name 
of  this  king  of  Oriental  poets  was  Abul  Kasim  Mansur; 
but  he  is  known  everywhere  by  the  title  given  him  by 
Mahmud,  which  has  never  been  disputed,  —  Firdusi,  the 
Singer  of  Paradise. 

We  must  pause  a  moment  to  note  the  splendid  vitality 
of  this  Iranian  imagination  as  shown  in  the  history  of  the 
Shah-Nameh.  We  see  it  bringing  to  its  feet  the  Arab 
conquerors,  and  making  the  very  princes  of  hated  Turan 
its  zealous  students  and  apostles.  We  see  it  lifting  on  its 
wings  to  the  highest  sphere  of  fame  the  devout  worshipper 
of  a  Semitic  God.  The  exclusiveness  of  creed  faded  be- 
fore its  gospel  of  heroic  humanity.  The  rude  chiefs  who 
were  struggling  for  the  prize  of  the  caliphate  found  them- 
selves obliged  to  pay  court  to  native  genius,  and  appeal 
to  its  resources  against  the  foreign  dynasty  enthroned  at 
Bagdad  in  the  name  of  Mahomet  himself,  their  common 

^  Von  Schack  :  Heldeitsagen  d.  Firdusi,  i.  35. 


71 8  ISLAM. 

lord.      Every  feature  of  this  marvellous  epic  suggested 
universality  of  thought  and  faith. 

Firdusi  was  himself  a  devout  Shiite,  or  follower  of  Ali, 
holding  firmly  to  the  Persian  side  of  the  great  schism  which 
divided  Islam.  Mahmud,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  Sun- 
nite.  This  fact  may  in  part  explain  the  misunderstanding 
which  imbittered  the  poet's  relations  with  his  royal  patron, 
and  brought  the  lord  of  many  kingdoms  to  the  loss  of  a 
glory  that  was  worth  them  all.  In  his  whole  record 
Firdusi  stands  as  the  aesthetic  ideal  of  the  nation.  In  all 
respects  he  is  a  genuine  Persian.  Possessed  from  child- 
hood with  the  great  idea  which  his  life's  work  rounded 
into  full  expression,  he  began  collecting  and  versifying  the 
heroic  traditions  around  him  with  the  dawning  of  his  poetic 
sense.  It  is  recorded  of  his  boyhood,  that  the  decayed 
condition  of  a  very  ancient  dike  near  his  home  in  Kho- 
rassan  so  moved  his  sorrow  for  the  lot  of  his  native  prov- 
ince that  he  formed  the  resolution  to  rebuild  it  as  soon 
as  he  could  earn  the  means,  and  never  forgot  his  vow. 
By  his  thirty-sixth  year  his  epic  ideal,  growing  in  secret, 
like  a  young  plant  whose  organs  unfold  one  by  one,  had 
taken  distinct  form.  But  though  snatches  of  the  work  had 
already  attracted  attention  in  Khorassan  to  what  was  going 
on,  it  was  not  till  considerably  advanced  in  life  that  Fir- 
dusi was  called  to  take  his  due  place  among  the  lights  of 
the  court  of  Mahmud,  whose  interest  had  been  awakened 
by  the  pathetic  story  of  Rustem  and  Isfendiyar.  His  own 
first  love  had  been  the  tale  of  Feridun  and  Zohak,  com- 
pletest  type  of  the  epic  warfare  of  good  and  evil ;  and  he 
tells  us  that  upon  Mahmud's  birthday  he  had  a  vision,  in 
which  the  whole  world  seemed  in  commotion,  and  a  divine 
voice  promised  that  all  sorrow  should  pass  away  before 
this  new  Feridun,  the  delight  of  mankind.  In  a  kind  of 
poetic  tournament,  Firdusi  so  commended  himself  above 
all  the  court  bards  that  it  .became  evident  that  the  long- 


THE    SHAH-NAMEH.  719 

desired  epic-master  had  appeared.  When  the  laureate 
Ansarf,  —  who  was  wont,  we  are  told,  to  have  his  favorite 
verses  copied  in  gold  letters  within  arabesque  borders,  — 
sitting  among  his  companions  in  verse,  beheld  the  country- 
dress  of  the  provincial  rhymer,  he  is  said  to  have  cried  out, 
"  Only  poets,  good  brother,  have  admission  to  this  society." 
"  I  too  am  a  poet,"  answered  Firdusi,  and  entered  at  once 
on  an  extempore  contest,  in  which  he  amazed  these  literary 
pontiffs  by  his  familiarity  with  the  national  legend  and  his 
brilliant  improvisation.^  A  beautiful  residence  in  the  royal 
gardens,  adorned  with  noble  works  of  art,  was  placed  at 
his  disposal,  with  all  the  literary  treasures  of  the  State,  and 
the  poet's  genius  guarded  against  intrusion  as  a  sacred 
trust.  As  the  work  proceeded,  portions  were  read  to 
Mahmud  from  time  to  time  amidst  festal  dance  and  song. 
The  delighted  monarch  promised  a  piece  of  gold  for  every 
distich,  and  would  have  paid  it  down  as  it  became  due,  but 
for  Firdusi's  preference  to  receive  the  whole  at  once  at  the 
close  of  his  work,  and  devote  it  to  fulfilling  the  dream  of 
his  youth. 

But  the  king  of  bards  was  not  exempt  from  the  irony 
which  ever  pursues  ideal  aims.  Such  exceptional  honors 
could  not  escape  envy,  and  Mahmud  seems  to  have  been 
open  to  intriguing  tongues,  like  all  of  his  class.  We  are 
amazed,  however,  to  hear  that  the  poet  was  even  permitted 
to  suffer  for  lack  of  food,  as  well  as  made  to  feel  his  de- 
pendence by  studied  insults.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  he  seems 
to  have  been  recognized  during  all  this  time  as  the  greatest 
of  poets,  and  the  praises  of  the  growing  Shah-Nameh  were 
on  every  tongue.  Even  in  the  latest  portion  of  his  work, 
that  which  celebrates  the  Sassanian  line,  he  still  sounds 
the  trumpet  for  his  royal  patron.  If  there  was  really  any- 
ground  in  his  external  relations  for  the  sorrowful  tone 
which  pervades  his  personal  episodes,  if  the  admired  poet 

^  Von  Hammer:  Geschichte  d-  schon.  Redek.  Persiots,  p  51. 


720  ISLAM. 

was  in  fact  poor  and  neglected,  it  may  be  that  the  fault  lay- 
in  habits  of  his  own,  for  Mahmud  of  Ghazni  was  certainly  a 
promoter  of  the  arts.  But  a  more  probable  key  to  the  mys- 
tery may  be  found  in  suspicions  as  to  his  orthodoxy.  The 
story,  however,  can  hardly  be  credited,  that  he  fell  at  Mah- 
mud's  feet  and  denied  the  faith  which  he  strenuously  asserted 
in  many  passages  of  his  poem.  Even  at  the  close  of  his  life 
he  reaffirmed  the  creed  of  All  in  indignant  terms,  denoun- 
cing as  slanderers  those  who  charged  him  with  denying  it. 
It  is  certain  that  the  king  distrusted  him,  alleging  that  his 
native  Tus  was  noted  for  its  scepticism.^  He  who  had 
brought  all  the  piety  of  Islam  to  bear  tribute  to  the  hated 
fire-worshippers,  and  glorified  the  legends  of  unbelievers 
with  the  glow  of  a  monotheism  believed  to  be  sacred  to 
the  Koran  alone,  who  was  awakening  germs  of  compara- 
tive religion  in  the  quiet  ferment  of  Iranian,  Semitic,  and 
Tartar  nationalities  around  him,  may  well  have  excited  the 
religious  jealousy  of  a  Mahometan  prince.  Nor  would 
it  be  strange  if  interested  rivals  should  have  produced  a 
gradual  alienation  from  the  genius  which  could  evoke  to 
life  all  the  national  enthusiasm  for  a  glorious  past. 

At  all  events,  the  life  of  the  poet  henceforth  was  a 
tragedy.  The  death  of  an  idolized  son  added  grief  to 
disappointment. 

"Beloved  companion  of  my  sorrowing  years, 
Why  hast  thou  chosen  another  path  than  mine  ? 
Is  it  to  greet  new  friends,  thou  leavest  me  ? 
Wearied  of  h'fe  in  youth,  thou  yieldest  me  its  woes. 
Blood  dims  my  eyes  ;  the  world  of  light  is  his, 
But  there  he  will  his  father's  place  prepare. 
Old  age  has  come,  no  kindred  soul  remains  ; 
Yet  am  I  seen  by  one  who  for  my  coming  yearns. 
Alas !  that  he  has  passed,  so  young,  without  one  brief  farewell ! " 

The  discouragements  of  his  position,  and  a  keen  sense 
of  solitude  and  of  the  lapse  of  life,  explain  the  frequent 

'  Von  Hammer,  p.  52. 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  721 

plaintive  ejaculations  and  meditations  which  interrupt  the 
heroic  current  of  his  song.  He  constantly  recurs  to  the 
uncertainty  of  all  tenures  and  the  need  of  complete  sub- 
mission to  the  will  of  God.  Thus  in  the  poem  of  "  Kai 
Khosru's  Return,"  he  suddenly  breaks  forth :  — 

"  I  am  poor,  forsaken  wholly,  and  my  love  of  song  is  spent. 
The  roar  of  beast  and  lay  of  bird  are  both  alike  to  me. 
The  cup  of  threescore  years  is  drained  ;  my  thoughts  are  of  the  bier. 
Ah  !  that  the  rose's  perfume  dies!     Alas,  the  Persian  word 
Cuts  like  a  sword !     May  it  yet  leave  me  time 
To  tell  one  Saga  more  from  the  glorious  days  of  old, 
To  bear  my  name  down  when  my  life  is  done. 
Then  shall  He  save  me  there  above,  the  Lord  of  sword  and  tongue." 

At  last  the  great  task  is  done,  and  the  bolt  falls,  striking 
the  toiler  to  the  earth.  Mahmud,  alienated  by  intriguing 
courtiers,  proves  a  niggard,  and  pays  but  a  fraction  of  the 
promised  reward.  The  outraged  poet  flings  it  away  for  a 
glass,  burns  his  latest  verses,  puts  on  a  dervish's  robe, 
shakes  the  dust  of  Ghazni  from  his  feet,  and  departs, 
leaving  the  bitter  satire  which  cuts  off  the  monarch's  share 
in  an  inheritance  mightier  far  than  the  gold-heaps  that 
poured  from  the  broken  idol  of  Somnauth.  "  If  I  plunged 
into  the  sea  of  Mahmud's  court  and  found  no  pearls, 
'twas  the  fault  of  my  star;  how  could  the  sea  be  blamed? 
But  my  book  was  not  writ  for  Mahmud,  't  is  for  All  and 
the  Prophet."  Say  rather  for  humanity,  for  immortality, 
O  Poet !  Well  may  the  epos  of  honor,  heroism,  and  love, 
the  high  tragedy  of  Nemesis,  dispense  with  the  coffer  of 
a  Ghaznevide  king.  The  sense  of  royal  ingratitude  was 
not  aggravated  by  experience  of  public  neglect.  As  he 
wandered,  like  Dante,  from  court  to  court,  pursued  by 
vindictive  demands  for  his  person,  he  found  everywhere 
sympathy  and  honor.  Better  still  was  the  assurance  of 
immortal  fame.  "  I  have  filled  the  world  with  my  praise ; 
and  when  my  breath  departs,  I  shall  not  die." 

46 


722  ISLAM. 

But  the  wound  was  mortal.  Returning  at  last  to  his 
early  home,  the  old  man  heard  a  child  repeat  a  line  of  his 
satire,  and  the  distress  it  produced  in  his  mind  ended  only 
in  death.  The  legend  says  that  the  prince  of  Tus,  proba- 
bly through  fear  of  Mahmiid,  refused  to  bury  the  heretic 
with  religious  honors;  but  being  warned  in  a  dream,  in 
which  he  saw  Firdust  crowned  in  Paradise,  he  repented 
and  paid  the  tribute  due.^ 

We  can  hardly  do  justice  to  the  self-respect  of  genius, 
or  to  the  less  honorable  rage  of  offended  pride,  without 
quoting  from  the  indignant  response  that  thundered  against 
the  insults  of  an  ignoble  king.  Firdusi  ascribes  the  con- 
duct of  Mahmud  to  his  willingness  to  lend  his  ear  to 
malignant  slanders,  when  he  should  have  considered  the 
debt  which  the  poet's  great  work  would  lay  upon  mankind. 
A  Mahmud  may  despise  it,  but  let  him  understand  that 
this  is  to  defy  the  bolts  of  heaven :  — 

"  While  the  world  endures,  the  wise  shall  love  this  song, 
For  all  the  mighty  dead  have  heard  its  call  to  life  ; 
Nor  other  claim,  O  King,  could  save  thy  name  from  death. 
Long  as  the  world  endures,  this  shrine  shall  ne'er  decay. 
Long  have  I  labored,  poor  and  ill-esteemed, 
And  thou  hast  rudely  broken  faith  with  me  at  last. 
I  made  the  earth  a  paradise,  and  Persia  lives  again. 
Hadst  thou  not  had  a  miser's  heart,  my  head  were  crowned  with  gold. 
Had  Mahmud  been  a  prince,  my  seat  were  at  his  side. 
O  rarely  generous  king,  whose  boon  's  a  glass  of  beer  ! 
Shall  a  slave's  son  learn  royalty?     In  Eden  plant 
A  bitter  root,  and  though  the  sweetest  streams  it  drink, 
Yet  shall  the  bitterness  infect  its  fruit  for  aye. 
And  thou,  the  charcoal-maker's  son,  art  still  black  as  thy  coal. 
When  I  before  the  great  Judge  stand,  dust  on  my  head,  I  '11  pray, 
O  Lord,  burn  thou  his  soul  in  flames,  but  robe  my  soul  in  light ! " 

Surely  the  poet  had  a  streak  of  the  savage  in  him ;  and  the 
conscious  dignity  of  his  claim  finds  poor  ending  in  this 

1  Mohl :  Shah-Nameh,  i.  xHv. 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  723 

revengeful  mood.  Or  shall  we  find  in  his  wrongs  such 
justification  of  its  scorn  as  the  world  has  accorded  to  Dante 
for  similar  sentence  on  his  foes? 

It  was  his  fate  to  die  in  the  full  sense  of  these  wrongs. 
For  when  Mahmud  at  last  came  to  recognize  them,  and 
sent  full  payment  with  robes  of  honor  to  the  sad  old 
sufferer  in  his  native  town,  the  messengers  are  said  to 
have  met  his  funeral  train  passing  from  its  gates.  His 
daughter,  stung  like  himself  by  years  of*  injustice,  proudly 
refused  to  receive  the  gift;  but  a  sister,  remembering  the 
longings  of  his  childhood,  asked  that  it  be  expended  in 
accomplishing  the  object  to  which  he  would  have  devoted 
it,  had  it  been  duly  paid.  So  the  ancient  dike  was  re- 
stored with  the  price  of  his 'great  sacrifice,  and  a  caravan- 
sary erected  in  his  name.  But  a  grander  bulwark  and  a 
sweeter  hospice  stand  forever,  of  his  spiritual  building, 
for  the  heart  of  man. 

The  chronicler  of  heroes  shared  the  destiny  of  his  great 
Iranians,  —  a  life-long  struggle  for  ideal  achievement,  suc- 
cessful therein  beyond  all  dream,  but  smitten  by  Ahriman's 
fiercest  blows ;  a  victory  won,  like  Rustem's  over  Isfendiyar, 
under  terrible  conditions ;  the  destiny  of  Good  to  be  first 
the  victim  of  Evil,  and  to  rise  to  euthanasy  through  tears 
and  blood. 

His  persecution  served  one  good  purpose  which  should 
not  be  overlooked.  It  proves  him  to  have  been  sur- 
rounded by  powerful  enemies,  who  would  have  sharply 
criticised  every  aberration  from  the  traditions  of  Iran. 
That  no  such  criticism  has  appeared,  fully  sustains  his 
claim  of  entire  fidelity  to  them.  The  Mussulman  histo- 
rian, writing  a  century  after  his  death,  and  claiming  to 
have  consulted  an  immense  list  of  authorities,  recognizes 
Firdusi  as  his  best  and  fullest  source.^     And  so  it  has  been 

1  Modjmel-al-Tettjarikh,  Mohl :  Shah-Nameh,  i.  xlvii.  Firdusi's  poem  was  written 
before  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  (1020  a.  d.).    A  century  earlier,  Tabari  had  written 


724  ISLAM. 

ever  since.  None  disputes  his  claim.  His  triumph  has 
made  good  his  prophecy,  and  it  hes  in  the  higher  planes 
of  thought.  The  romancers  of  later  times,  whose  stu- 
pendous supernatural  fictions  turn  the  charge  into  a  com- 
pliment, pronounce  his  simplicity  tame,  finding  truth  not 
in  the  imagination,  but  in  unbridled  fancy,  but  none  the 
less  confessing  his  greatness  by  imitating  him  when  they 
have  need.  These  romancers,  beginning  with  Nizami,  open 
a  new  school  of  poetry,  which  wholly  sacrifices  historical  or 
traditional  connection  to  dramatic  interest,  and  paints  with 
the  gorgeous  colors  that  have  given  currency  to  the  telling 
word  persiflage,  which  no  one  would  apply  to  Firdusi's 
simple  and  earnest  speech.  Still  later,  Semitic  influences 
cover  the  great  personalities  of  the  epic  with  Biblical  asso- 
ciations, genealogical  and  other,  absurdly  incongruous 
with  their  strictly  Aryan  character. 

An  epic  is  no  mere  compilation  of  narratives,  woven 
into  connected  and  poetic  form.  It  is  in  literature  the 
complete  ideal  of  a  nation,  an  epoch,  a  civilization;  and 
its  full  literary  personality,  and  every  characteristic  trait 
and  tradition  of  the  period  and  the  people  find  in  such  a 
supreme  resultant  their  natural  place  and  meaning.  Of 
those  who  regard  the  Iliad  as  one  connected  work,  some 
suppose  its  central  motive  to  be  the  personal  relation  of 
Achilles  to  the  Greek  chiefs ;  others  find  its  pivotal  point 
in  the  siege  of  Troy.  But  the  epic  significance  of  the  Iliad 
turns  on  no  personal  life  or  historical  event.  That  which 
brought  the  rhapsodies  together,  and  made  them  for  cen- 
turies the  inspiration  of  the  Greek  mind,  and  through  this 
endowed  the  human  race  to  endless  time,  was  their  com- 
mon fitness  to  embody  the  Greek  ideal,  the  type  of  civili- 

from  the  archives  of  Persia  the  most  careful  of  histories  of  Islam,  extending  like  the  my- 
thology of  the  Shah-Nameh  fi-om  the  earliest  to  the  latest  times ;  but  he  was  equally  indefinite 
in  making  known  his  authorities  with  the  great  epic  poet  of  traditional  lore.  Tabari  drew 
from  the  same  sources.  Masudi's  Meadows  of  Gold  was  another  historical  work  of  great 
value,  which  just  preceded  Firdusi  (943  a.d.). 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  \\    /V  7^5 

zation  which  imprinted  itself  on  every  Greek  natOTferr'All 
the  semi-historical  or  mythic  personages  which  the  national 
genius  had  created  in  the  image  of  its  own  motive  forces, 
and  gradually  made  into  real  powers,  flowed  naturally  to 
the  hand  of  the  poet,  who  was  himself  the  fullest  expres- 
sion of  that  genius,  and  could  bring  out  their  ideal  rela- 
tions on  a  scale  of  national  experience  broad  enough  to 
give  them  room.  Thus  Achilles'  wrath,  Ulysses'  wander- 
ings, or  the  Siege  of  Troy,  was  but  the  setting  for  a  crowded 
picture  in  which  every  form  was  equally  a  living  force  of 
Greek  instinct.  Hence  the  dramatic  interest  of  the  epos, 
the  variety,  sharpness,  and  consistency  of  its  characters, 
which  are  nothing  less  than  products  of  the  continued  play 
of  typical  ideas  and  qualities  brought  to  their  ideal  form, 
their  natural  relations  to  each  other  and  the  whole  Greek 
consciousness  of  existence,  by  the  master  genius  of  the 
race.  The  elaboration  of  these  personal  types  by  the  ideal 
life  of  one  race  has  lifted  them  into  universal  relations,  the 
true  sphere  of  the  ideal,  and  made  them  immortal  com- 
panions of  man  in  the  ages.  Nor  is  the  religious  element 
in  the  old  Greek  nature  less  distinct  in  Homer  than  is  the 
dramatic.  For  the  epos  is,  as  its  name  imports,  the 
"word"  of  a  civilization,  —  its  full  ideal  speech,  in  which 
no  genuine  form  of  its  genius  can  fail  to  find  voice. 

This  representative  fulness  renders  it  possible  to  find, 
as  the  master-key  of  every  epos,  the  dominant  conscious- 
ness, or  motive  principle,  of  the  civilization  which  produced 
it.  It  is  of  this  supreme  element  that  the  epos  is  the  con- 
summate flower.  This  assures  it  a  universal  function,  since 
only  a  profound  human  interest,  a  structural  law  of  being, 
could  control  the  special  development  of  any  race  or 
epoch.  In  the  Homeric  epic  this  all-resolving  idea  is  free 
individuality,  —  the  buoyant  play  of  intense  will  and  pas- 
sionate instinct  under  conditions  of  a  divine  Nemesis, 
representing,  however,  a  national  or  public  rather  than  a 


726  ISLAM, 

personal  authority,  and  less  in  the  interest  of  morality  than 
of  loyalty  to  the  Greek  ideal  of  heroism.  And  this  key  to 
Homer  is  the  key  to  the  whole  history  of  Greek  civiliza- 
tion. Again,  the  master-motive  of  the  "  Divina  Commedia  " 
was  that  of  medieval  Christianity,  the  idea  of  a  world- 
judgment  on  the  virtues  and  sins  of  men,  conceived  after 
the  developed  theology  of  ten  centuries  of  Christian  teach- 
ing, —  an  apotheosis  of  those  heavens  and  hells  which 
formed  a  constant  Presence  of  overwhelming  terrors  and 
all-inspiring  hopes.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  why  this  judg- 
ment-day of  the  ages,  lifted  to  the  throne  of  an  epos, 
should  have  gathered  every  great  personality,  good  or 
evil,  past  or  present,  into  its  tremendous  symbolic  circles. 
It  was  the  culmination  of  a  religion  which  had  been  the 
soul  and  the  school  of  thirty  generations.  Here  the  free 
individuality  of  Homer  is  supplanted  by  a  terrific  ma- 
chinery which  grinds  every  living  being  into  food  for 
Almighty  Wrath  or  Almighty  Good-Will,  —  a  Nemesis, 
representative  not  of  the  moral  but  of  the  theological  law, 
and  working  in  human  bodies  and  souls,  not  according  to 
their  inherent  relations,  but  as  an  autocratic  external  police 
for  the  future  life.  It  is  the  triumph  of  prescription,  of 
irresponsible  despotism  over  the  insignificance  of  human 
endeavor,  and  moreover  charged  to  the  full  with  those 
mad  rivalries,  jealousies,  and  hates  which  constituted  the 
life  of  the  Italian  republics  in  Dante's  day.  Over  it  soar 
indeed  the  poet's  moods  of  infinite  tenderness  for  all  that 
he  loved  and  adored;  but  the  wondrously  human  loves 
and  hates  are  alike  steeped  in  the  fearful  autocracy  of 
a  semi-barbarous  religion.  The  soul  is  not  here  a  hero,  as 
in  Homer,  but  even  in  its  virtues  and  its  joys  the  veriest 
slave. 

The  Shah-Nameh  turns  on  a  higher  motive  than  does 
either  the  Divina  Commedia  or  the  Iliad.  It  is  more  pro- 
foundly moral  than  the  Greek  epic,  and  more  freely  human 


THE    SHAH-NAMEH.  ^2'J 

than  the  Italian.  It  represents  the  tragedy  of  human  des- 
tiny and  the  irony  that  makes  so  large  an  element  therein, 
in  so  far  as  these  arise  from  the  conflict  of  good  and  evil. 
And  this  conflict  is  conceived  in  a  far  deeper  and  more 
personal  sense  than  as  the  war  of  Iran  with  Turan.  The 
national  element,  still  more  the  ethnological,  is  secondary, 
and  enters  into  most  of  the  narrative  only  in  a  remote  and 
insignificant  way.  But  through  the  whole  and  every  part, 
—  through  the  vicissitudes  ot  Feridun's  career ;  the  martyr- 
dom of  Iraj  and  of  Siavaksh ;  the  heroic  woes  of  Rustem ; 
the  contrasted  qualities  of  such  feminine  ideals  as  Sudabe, 
Rudabe,  Menishe,  and  Tahmine ;  the  shame  of  Sam  for 
his  half-heathen  child  and  the  love  of  the  giant  bird  who 
supplies  the  lack  of  parental  care ;  the  love-adventures  of 
the  heroes ;  the  bitter  evils  of  circumstances  woven  out 
of  blind  hopes  and  malicious  plots  ;  the  grievous  fortunes  of 
noble  men  in  false  positions,  like  Piran ;  the  untimely  blights 
that  fall  from  royal  selfishness,  like  that  of  Gushtasp,  upon 
loyal  and  noble  hearts ;  the  passionate  or  subdued  laments 
that  close  the  sweetest  human  experiences,  one  after  an- 
other, with  confessions  of  the  impermanence  of  earthly 
hopes  and  joys,  yet  ever  with  the  grand  comfort  of  simple 
trust  in  righteousness  of  the  heroic  stamp,  —  through  all 
this  infinite  play  of  human  feeling,  whereof  the  wars  with 
Turk  and  Div  are  but  incidents,  flows  the  strain  of  divine 
necessity  that  the  good  shall  suffer  for  the  evil ;  the  stress 
of  limitations  and  compulsions,  which  no  precautions  can 
fend  off  and  no  virtue  escape,  and  only  heroic  will  and 
pure  reconciliation  to  infinite  forces  can  meet  and  con- 
quer. And  when  we  add  the  gathered  stores  of  moral 
and  political  philosophy  which  the  Shah-Nameh  has 
heaped  around  the  later  kings  in  place  of  a  legendary  lore 
more  suited  to  remoter  times,  we  may  venture  to  say 
that  no  grand  principle  of  self-culture,  Stoic  or  Christian, 
Aryan  or  Semitic,  old  or  new,  is  wanting  to  this  Bible  of 


728  ISLAM. 

the  heroic  Will,  this  sublime  Valhalla  of  ideal  lives.  Never 
for  one  moment  is  there  a  failure  of  the  grand  motive,  the 
serious  tenor,  the  solemn  consciousness  of  life's  summons 
to  self-sacrifice  and  moral  loyalty.  So  through  every 
phase  of  triumph  and  defeat,  of  cruel  circumstance  and 
irreparable  harm,  of  tenderness  and  anguish,  we  hear  the 
steady  peal  of  retributory  laws,  so  vast  in  their  reach  of 
ideal  relation  that  their  every  stroke  seems  to  tell  upon 
the  whole  world,  as  belonging  to  them  and  to  them  only, 
—  as  if  for  all  mankind  there  could  be  ho  other  liberty 
than  to  obey  and  trust  the  law  of  duty,  no  other  school 
for  heroes,  no  other  mastery  of  fate. 

Nothing  is  more  universal  in  scope,  yet  nothing  so  con- 
centrated, as  the  personal  life.  What  the  inherited  woes  of 
Cecrops'  line  are  made  to  teach  so  impressively  in  Greek 
tragedy  is  less  clear  or  just  as  an  expression  of  ethical 
inviolability  than  the  working  of  evil  thought  and  conduct 
within  the  criminal's  soul,  bearing  fruit  after  its  kind,  and 
upon  the  innocent  circle  nearest  his  life.  And  this  is  the 
characteristic  teaching  of  the  Shih-Nameh.  The  martyr- 
dom of  love  and  faith  forever  involved  in  evil-doing  is  here 
brought  into  closest  relation  with  its  producing  cause; 
and  the  effect  is  heightened  by  the  fearless  realism  Avhich 
will  not  blink  the  sternest  facts  of  experience.  In  these 
heroic  ethics  the  compensatory  happiness  so  commonly 
made  the  motive  of  virtue,  the  final  arrangement  of  poetic 
justice  held  so  essential  to  the  modern  novel  or  play,  con- 
structejd  to  please  an  audience  at  the  cost  of  tragic  power, 
have  no  place.  The  stern  problems  are  left,  as  life  is 
wont  to  .leave  them,  unsolved,  save  by  faith  in  unseen 
values,  and  the  unpledged  reserv^es  of  help  in  the  spiritual 
nature.  The  law  of  sacrifice  is  absolute,  and  its  tragedy 
complete,  because  the  full  meaning  of  the  struggle  with 
Ahriman  is  accepted,  while  the  resolution  of  evil  into  good 
is  referred  to  the  forces  of  character  only.     Upon  a  plane 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  729 

higher  than  that  of  outward  circumstance  of  any  kind,  the 
passion  and  despair  which  have  found  free  utterance  must 
be  healed.  Such  is  the  uninterrupted  movement  of  this 
infinitely  varied  oratorio  of  moral  conflict,  in  which  hero- 
ism and  religion  are  one. 

So  sincere  is  its  realism,  that  the  frequent  appeals  of  the 
poet  to  his  readers  to  remember  the  vanity  of  all  earthly 
hopes  and  to  grieve  over  the  fickleness  of  fortune,  the 
admonitions  in  which  his  sorrowful  legends  end,  —  to  seek 
consolation  in  God  and  a  life  to  come,  —  although  in  strong 
contrast  with  the  brave  silence  of  the  heroes  themselves  on 
these  matters  of  sentiment  and  faith,  do  not  fall  upon  us 
as  mere  didactic  commonplaces.  They  seem  only  natural 
expressions  of  sympathy,  like  those  of  the  chorus  in  the 
old  Greek  tragedies.  This  plaintive  Jeremiah  at  least 
knows  how  to  respect  the  robust  manliness  of  his  mar- 
tyrs, and  to  make  their  very  woes  teach  disinterested 
loyalty  to  the  noble  and  the  right. 

The  heroes  of  the  Shah-Nameh  are  thoroughly  human ; 
they  give  way  to  natural  emotions,  to  pride,  to  anger,  to 
despair,  —  sometimes  to  less  pardonable  passions.  They 
are  generally  colossal  champions  of  the  flesh,  as  well  as 
unconscious  servants  of  the  spirit,  or  Titanic  powers  of 
noble  will.  They  represent  the  crude  social  conditions 
out  of  which  their  semi-mythic  forms  were  evolved.  All 
the  more  shall  we  admire  the  glow  of  moral  grandeur  that 
is  kindled  within  them ;  for  all  that  has  been  said  of  the 
substance  of  this  epic  can  be  fully  justified,  and  its  culmi- 
nation in  such  ideals  as  Siavaksh  and  Iraj  lift  us  to  those 
spiritual  levels  to  which  all  ages  aspire. 

Since  a  scope  so  grandly  human  must  cover  all  human 
history,  the  Shah-Nimeh  opens  with  the  earliest  mythic 
rulers  of  mankind.  It  must  show  even  in  them  the  con- 
flict with  evil  in  nature  and  with  blindness  and  brutality  in 
man.     In  the  Avesta  there  were  cosmic  forces,  elementary 


730  ISLAM. 

processes  of  creation.  But  the  heroic  legend  wants  them 
as  human  will,  even  in  those  earlier  stages  when  man  is 
scarcely  above  the  level  of  the  lower  creation.  Gayomard 
is  here  a  king,  happy  but  for  Ahriman,  whose  son  slays 
the  prince  Siamek,  but  is  slain  in  return  by  the  latter's 
son  Husheng.  The  avenger  has.  nature  on  his  side ; 
her  tigers,  wolves,  and  birds  unite  with  men  and  peris 
to  punish  the  common  foe.  Following  up  his  mission  of 
destroying  evil,  Husheng  aims  a  stone  at  a  snake,  which 
strikes  another  stone  instead,  and  fire  is  struck  forth.  The 
Iranian  flame-god  here  springs,  as  fire  does  in  the  Veda 
from  bits  of  wood,  out  of  the  rock  hurled  against  an  evil 
power.  Firdusi  sees  a  mystic  connection  here.  "  As  the 
Arabs  turned  towards  a  stone  in  prayer,  so  our  fathers 
turned  to  the  fire."  ^  Really,  the  substance  of  both  beliefs 
is  the  same,  —  that  a  higher  life  than  the  crude  elements 
resides  in  Nature  and  awaits  the  first  bold  contact  of  hu- 
man motive  and  will.  The  next  king,  Tahmurath,  evidently 
represents  the  stage  of  growing  self-confidence,  in  which 
man  begins  to  be  a  power  over  evil.  He  not  only  instructs 
men  in  weaving,  and  in  taming  wild  beasts,  but  is  specially 
gifted  in  controlling  demons,  and  triumphantly  rides  Ahri- 
man himself,  in  shape  of  a  horse,  around  the  world.  He 
forces  their  secrets  from  them  by  stronger  force  of  will, 
and  fails  only  when  he  doubts  his  own  power.  Firdusfs 
moral  is  ready:  "O  Heaven !  thou  liftest  a  man  above  the 
sky,  only  to  cast  him  dov/n  at  once  under  the  earth !  " 
But  only  by  such  strenuous  effort  against  evil  "  did  man 
learn  wisdom  and  that  greatest  of  arts,  —  to  write." 

For  now  Society  is  born ;  and  Jemshid  is  its  maker, 
ruler  of  the  world  by  noble  will.  With  Jemshid  enters  a 
more  distinctly  moral  force,  though  gdod  and  evil  are  not 
without  moral  significance    in   the  lives   of  those  earlier 

*  The  black  stone  which  the  Arabs  kissed  in  the  Kaaba,  and  faced  in  prayer,  was  supposed 
to  have  been  originally  an  angel. 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  73 1 

kings.  For  mythology  is  truer  to  human  nature  than  that 
form  of  the  evolutionary  theory  which  conceives  the  moral 
sense  to  have  had  a  definite  beginning  in  man  after  purely 
animal  and  selfish  instincts  had  already  become  developed. 
Ideas  of  eood  and  evil  never  could  have  been  formed 
without  some  relation  to  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong. 
Jemshid  indicates  an  advanced  stage  of  this  sense.  He 
honors  all  men  according  to  what  they  have  achieved. 
Of  the  first  three  classes  into  which  he  divides  mankind, 
even  the  laborer  is  no  pariah,  but  a  self-respecting  worker. 
"  He  does  not  obey  any  one  slavishly ;  is  a  free  cultivator 
of  the  earth  without  strife.  The  wise  have  said,  *  'T  is  idle- 
ness enslaves  those  that  should  be  free.' "  Only  the  fourth 
class  are  here  depreciated,  "those  who  seek  profit  by  trade, 
with  arrogant  thirst  for  gain,"  —  in  other  words,  distribu- 
tors, or  middle-men,  as  distinguished  from  producers;  a 
class  whose  uses  for  civilized  society  had  not  yet  been 
recognized,  though  it  was  even  then  clear  to  the  poet  that 
"  their  penalty  was  to  be  always  in  care." 

As  a  social  organizer,  Jemshid  teaches  subordination  and 
due  regard  for  position  and  powers.  He,  too,  makes  the 
Divs  do  his  bidding,  helping  build  houses  for  the  suffering 
classes,  teaching  medicine  and  the  healing  of  wounds.  He 
also  paid  the  just  price  for  victories.  "  Never  lived  an 
investigator  like  Jemshid ;  he  sailed  over  seas,  and  nothing 
was  hid  from  his  sight."  But  this  Iranian  Solomon  must 
discover  also  that  will-power  has  its  evil  side.  In  his  pride 
he  conceives  himself  to  be  omniscient,  because  under  his 
reign  of  three  hundred  years  death  was  not,  and  the  Divs 
did  his  bidding  in  bonds.  "So  everything  fell  away;" 
and  the  anti-Jemshid  appears  in  Zohak.  The  biter,  the 
serpent,  the  old  Vedic  cloud-god  whom  the  lightning  of 
Indra  slays,  is  here  wickedness  incarnated  as  king.  Zohak, 
according  to  the  epic,  has  not  this  function  by  inheritance, 
but  by  his  own  will.     His  father  is  "  a  good  sheikh  of  the 


732  ISLAM, 

desert,  humbling  himself  before  God,  possessing  herds  and 
horses  like  the  Persians."  But  the  son  was  "  bold  and 
careless,  proud  of  his  hosts  of  gold-bridled  Arab  horses," 
and  easily  yielded  to  the  tempter's  "  promise  of  knowledge 
for  selfish  ends."  Firdusi  calls  the  tempter  Iblis,  who  is 
the  Mahometan  Ahriman ;  and  the  whole  story  has  a  dis- 
tinctly Semitic  coloring.  The  Persian  legend  evidently 
associated  Zohak  with  some  Arabic  or  Assyrian  dynasty 
of  invaders.  He  begins  by  slaying  his  own  father;  and 
his  passion  for  flesh  causes  serpents,  the  "  kiss  of  Iblis,"  to 
spring  from  his  shoulders,  craving  constant  supplies  of 
human  brain  for  food.  Social  order,  the  bonds  of  Jem- 
shid,  is  overturned ;  and  Iran,  rent  with  civil  strife,  passes 
over  to  the  destroyer,  Jemshid  dies,  weary  of  this  fleeting 
world.  But  Zohak's  fate  is  worse.  Utter  horror  of  him- 
self, which  no  devices  can  remove,  compels  him  to  gratify 
the  twofold  demon  with  two  chosen  human  victims  a 
day,  one  of  whom  is  saved  by  good  men  and  sent  into 
the  wilderness,  where  these  scapegoats  of  Iran  become  the 
Kurdish  tribes,  —  nomads,  and  knowing  not  God.  But  now 
the  terrible  dreams  of  Zohak  are  interpreted  by  his  di- 
viners as  foreshowing  the  birth  of  Feridun  the  avenger, 
whose  head  shall  touch  the  sky,  and  whose  brazen  club 
shall  strike  down  the  tyrant  in  the  name  of  his  murdered 
father,  and  of  the  beautiful  cow  his  nurse,  another  victim, 
—  everything  belonging  to  Feridun  being  sacred,  and  the 
legend  mixing  up  curiously  Iranian  and  Semitic  symbols. 
Zohak  vainly  gropes  through  the  land  for  the  predestined 
child ;  but,  after  the  type  of  all  Oriental  messiahs,  he  is 
borne  away  by  his  mother  into  India  for  safety,  and  there, 
in  due  time,  learns  his  origin  and  function. 

What  Destiny  has  decreed  cannot  be  stayed.  The  plot 
of  Feridun's  brothers  against  his  life  fails,  and  he  returns 
terrible  to  purify  and  deliver;  captures  the  city  of  the 
wicked  king,  casts  his  godless  talisman  into  the  dust,  slays 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  733 

his  magicians,  and  sits  on  the  throne  of  Jemshid  the 
Good.  The  tyrant's  wives  rehearse  the  tale  of  his  crimes, 
wanderings,  and  frightful  pains ;  the  people  declare  for 
Feridun,  who  gains  a  great  battle,  then  binds  the  demon 
in  Demavend,  and  nails  him  to  the  rock.  Strange  trans- 
formation of  the  old  legend  !  The  punishment  of  the  hero 
for  bringing  the  fire  of  civilization  to  men  against  the  will 
of  Jove  has  here  become  a  similar  punishment  of  the  spirit 
of  evil  for  depriving  men  of  the  blessings  of  that  fire.  It 
is  the  difi"erence  bet\veen  the  Persian  and  the  Greek.  In 
the  Zohak  myth,  the  punishment  is  in  the  interest  of  the 
moral  law :   in  the  Promethean,  it  is  quite  otherwise. 

"  Alas,  let  us  not  sin  ;  since  neither  good  nor  evil  things  abide. 
It  is  best  to  leave  good  deeds  for  our  monument  in  men's  memories. 
Feridun  was  not  made  of  musk  and  amber ;  he  won  his  glory  by  jus- 
tice and  love.  Be  just  and  generous,  and  thou  shalt  be  a  Feridun, 
whose  glory  is  to  have  delivered  the  world  from  the  hands  of  the 
wicked." 

A  great  and  happy  king,  "  who  bound  evil  by  good, 
whenever  he  saw  a  wrong  or  a  desert  place,"  Feridun 
at  last  wishes  for  repose  in  old  age,  and  divides  his  em- 
pire equally  among  his  three  sons ;  the  youngest  and  best 
of  whom  has  the  ancient  homestead  of  his  race,  Iran. 
Selm  and  Tur,  enraged  at  the  distribution,  conspire  to 
dethrone  Iraj  and  seize  his  patrimony.  In  reply  to  their 
arrogant  demands,  Feridun  warns  them  sorrowfully  that 
they  will  reap  as  they  have  sown,  and  then  tenderly  com- 
mends Iraj  to  the  protection  due  to  his  innocence  and  his 
right.  Iraj,  inspired  by  the  purest  self-denial,  resolves  to 
rise  to  a  still  higher  plane,  and  trust  wholly  to  the  guid- 
ance of  his  brotherly  instincts  in  face  of  almost  certain 
death. 

"  Who,  when  he  thinks  on  death,  so  sure  to  all, 
Would  plant  the  tree  of  hate,  with  roots  in  blood, 
To  bear  the  fruit  of  ven2:eance  ?     Never  dwelt 


734  ISLAM. 

Hate  in  the  kings  of  old.     I  will  go  forth 
Unarmed,  and  yield  my  throne  to  them. 
My  brethren;  asking  but  this  recompense. 
That  I  shall  turn  their  cruel  hearts  to  love." 

Against  his  own  good  sense  the  old  king  grants  consent, 
and  sends  a  letter  of  fatherly  counsel  by  the  heroic  martyr. 
And  Iraj  goes  sweetly  to  his  brothers,  saying,  — 

"  Will  you  but  cease  from  hate,  the  whole  is  yours  ; 
Let  it  go  freely,  if  it  bars  your  hearts 
From  the  dear  love  I  dearer  hold  than  power." 

But  when  they  see  how  gladly  all  the  army  look  on  the 
fair  boy  and  his  noble  ways,  then  the  devil  in  them  rages, 
and  they  kill  him  and  send  his  head  to  his  father.  "  O 
Earth !  why  didst  thou  not  save  him  whom  thou  hadst 
nursed  on  thy  bosom?  And  thou,  O  Man,  who  cherishest 
evil  thought  in  thy  heart,  behold  here  the  fruit  it  bears !  " 
Then  the  old  king  Feridun,  looking  out  anxiously  over  the 
desert,  beholds  the  caravan  bringing  its  fatal  message  and 
freight,  and  breaks  into  loud  lament  over  the  pride  of  his 
heart,  forever  lost:  — 

"  O  trust  not  in  earthly  love  !     O  thou  just  God, 
Send  thou  the  avenger  from  this  sufferer's  blood  ! 
Then  will  I  gladly  greet  the  house  of  death." 

And  in  due  time  comes  the  hero  Manoshcihr,  issue  of  this 
woe,  heir  to  this  demand  for  Nemesis.  A  new  Jemshid 
rises  from  the  grave,  and  the  war  of  God  against  Ahriman 
bursts  upon  the  heads  of  Selm  and  Tur.  The  criminals 
are  beheaded,  but  the  young  prince,  better  than  his  age, 
does  not  send  their  heads  to  their  woful  father.  His  cry 
to  the  fleeing  Selm  is  the  voice  of  the  eternal  law :  — 

"The  tree  of  thine  own  planting  shakes  its  fruit 
Into  thy  bosom.     Is  't  a  thorn,  thou  sowed'st  it, 
Or  robe  of  silk,  the  weaver  was  thyself." 

The  armies  of  the  culprits  are  sent  home  forgiven,  crying, — 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  735 

"  O  Pehlevans  !  crowned  with  victory,  the  earth 
No  more  shall  reek  with  blood  ;  the  star  of  tyrants  fades." 

Feridun  receives  his  grandson  with  thanksgiving  "  to 
the  Power  that  renders  to  each  his  due,  with  guardian 
care."  But  the  world  is  narrow  now,  and  he  longs  for 
freer  air.  Failing  under  the  burden  of  this  tragedy,  which 
covers  all  the  sympathies  of  his  being,  he  fades  away  from 
life,  sorrowing  till  its  span  is  past. 

"  So  long  ago  he  died,  but  left  a  glorious  name, 
Because  he  learned  from  suffering  to  be  wise." 

Such  are  the  opening  scenes  of  an  epic  whose  movement 
embraces  all  history,  and  in  which  every  shock  of  individ- 
ual destiny  seems  to  involve  the  whole  frame  of  existence. 
In  these  scenes  we  have  the  key-note  to  the  whole,  —  the 
dealing  of  the  moral  law  with  personal  character,  and  the 
solution  of  all  the  mysteries  of  the  life-struggle  by  loyalty 
to  faith,  manliness,  love.  The  hero's  sword  was  here,  as  it 
still  is,  the  terrible  minister  of  moral  necessities  deeper  than 
human  will;  but  love  and  forgiveness  were  the  highest  per- 
sonal ideal,  and  it  was  their  martyrdom  that  he  came  in  to 
avenge.  Equally  marked  in  the  very  outset  is  the  dis- 
tinctively natural  and  human  character  of  the  Persian  epic. 
It  does  not  rest,  like  the  Mahibharata  or  Ramayana,  on  su- 
pernatural interests  and  aids,  aggrandized  at  man's  expense, 
but  is  penetrated  by  the  profound  sense  of  human  experi- 
ence, of  struggle  with  circumstances,  of  the  nets  of  sin  and 
sorrow,  of  the  grandeur  of  personal  Will,  the  power  of  man 
to  achieve,  even  in  submitting  to  the  inexorable  limits  of 
his  existence.  In  the  tale  of  Feridiin  and  his  sons  the  hu- 
man motive  excludes  all  others.  In  other  tales,  the  super- 
natural, sometimes  prominent,  is  always  secondary,  and  does 
not  disturb  the  constant  emphasis  on  the  moral  law. 

It  is  in  accordance  with  this  motive  that  the  interest  is 
wont  to  gather  about  the  closest  natural  relationship,  the 


73^  ISLAM. 

sympathies  and  obligations  that  consecrate  domestic  ties, 
the  fiHal,  fraternal,  sexual  sanctities.  These  are  the  centres 
of  personality.  At  these  roots  of  character  the  forces  of 
evil  strike  most  fiercely.  In  these  the  blindness  of  passion, 
the  agony  of  pain  and  loss,  the  coils  of  misleading  destiny, 
are  most  destructive.  In  these  are  the  situations  which 
have  always  been  found  most  full  of  tragic  motive.  In 
these  relations,  which  Nature  brings  but  once,  and  whose 
destruction  by  folly  or  crime  or  fate  can  never  be  repaired, 
poetry  has  found  its  supreme  types  of  suffering  and  de- 
votion. All  races  and  faiths  gather  about  this  common 
hearth,  and  find  in  the  power  of  courage  and  sacrifice  to 
master  or  transform  the  bitter  wounds  of  filial,  fraternal, 
and  conjugal  ties,  the  height  of  heroic  victory.  The  law 
of  early  races,  that  the  nearest  blood-relative  should  under- 
take the  duty  of  avenging  unnatural  crimes,  has  wide  scope 
in  ancient  mythology.  In  family  crimes  Greek  tragedy 
centred.  "  The  woes  of  Pelops'  line,"  the  dreadful  fate 
that  drives  Orestes  and  his  sister  to  follow  up  domestic 
crimes  by  bloody  penalties  involving  agonies  of  atonement, 
have  made  them  immortal  types  of  an  heroic  virtue  pur- 
chased at  immeasurable  cost.  The  Trojan  War  is  the  con- 
sequence of  a  broken  marriage  tie.  Conflict  between  father 
and  son,  brought  on  by  some  fatal  mistake,  and  ending 
either  in  the  death  of  one  at  the  other's  hand,  or  in  the 
infliction  of  irreparable  injury  before  the  dreadful  illusion 
is  broken,  which  comes  to  its  supreme  type  in  the  Persian 
tale  of  Rustem  and  Sohrab,  is  found  at  the  heart  of  all  great 
mythologies.  Baldur  is  unintentionally  slain  by  his  brother 
Hodur,  whom  the  evil  spirit  Loki  misleads.  The  duels  of 
Lancelot  and  his  son  Sir  Galahad,  and  that  of  the  brothers 
Balin  and  Balan,all  noble  knights  of  pure  and  tender  heart, 
are  the  most  touching  episodes  of  the  old  British  epic. 
The  successions  of  night  and  day,  the  following  of  dawn 
by  noon,  of  twilight  by  night,  interpreted  as  the  strife  of 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  737 

parent  and  offspring,  are  the  key  to  a  large  proportion  of 
the  Greek  myths ;  and  the  successive  dynasties  of  the  gods 
in  Hesiod  are  dethronements  of  a  similar  nature.  The 
supreme  forms  of  atonement  in  all  religions  which  rest  on 
anthropomorphic  ideas  are  sacrifices  of  children  by  their 
parents.  They  proceed  not  from  cruelty  so  much  as  from 
the  conviction  that  no  other  atonement  can  so  thoroughly 
express  the  agony,  and  so  the  efficacy,  of  self-sacrifice  as 
this.  We  read  the  terrible  commandment  of  the  god  to 
Agamemnon  to  purchase  the  safety  of  the  Greeks  before 
Troy  by  slaying  his  daughter  Iphigenia  on  the  altar;  the 
test  of  absolute  obedience  laid  on  Abraham  and  Jephthah 
by  their  religion;  and,  what  is  entirely  similar  in  its  origin, 
the  Christian  mystery  of  the  Atonement,  by  which  the  ab- 
stractions of  the  Trinity  become  clothed  to  the  popular 
imagination  in  all  the  fervent  colors  of  human  martyrdom 
both  for  the  Father  and  the  Son.  No  religion,  however  su- 
pernatural in  its  pretensions,  however  illusory  in  its  dogmas, 
dispenses  with  resting  its  ideal  ultimately  on  the  natural 
relations  of  man  as  supreme ;  in  other  words,  on  the  divine 
significance  of  the  family,  not  only  as  the  beginning  of 
social  progress,  but  as  the  undying  principle  of  social  ex- 
istence and  the  germinal  point  of  personal  character.  So 
soon,  therefore,  as  the  will  began  to  get  free  expression,  so 
as  to  form  its  own  epos,  we  find  that  its  ideal  types  of  the 
tragedy  of  life,  of  the  irony  of  fortune,  and  the  struggle 
of  human  limitations  with  the  mysteries  of  pain  and  death 
have  been  sought,  not  in  the  overwhelming  interference  of 
gods,  nor  in  miraculous  immunities  from  finite  conditions, 
but  in  the  intensest  play  of  those  relations  which  are  near- 
est and  dearest,  most  thoroughly  human  and  universal. 
Of  the  high  possibilities  of  these  relations  for  tragic  situa- 
tion, for  heroic  culture,  for  the  march  of  Nemesis,  the 
Shah-Nameh  has  much  to  teach. 

This  was  to  be  expected  from  the  emphasis  of  the  Iranian 

47 


738  ISLAM. 

mind  on  the  ideal  dualism  of  existence,  the  moral  and 
physical  antagonisms  which  reveal  it.  The  Shah-Nameh 
is  probably  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  this  tragic 
emphasis  among  the  great  products  of  the  religious  im- 
agination. All  other  cycles  of  legend  which  partake  of  the 
same  spirit  are  so  infinitely  complex  and  discursive,  that 
the  strength  of  this  mighty  motive  seems  dissipated  in  a 
crowd  of  details.  Scandinavian,  British,  Hindu,  and  Chris- 
tian mythologies  interweave  such  a  medley  of  subordinate 
interests  with  every  expression  of  it,  that  we  lose  the  sense 
of  its  sovereignty.  It  does  not  stand  forth  as  the  very  at- 
mosphere of  feeling,  or  the  magnetic  force  that  groups  the 
infinite  variety  of  circumstance  around  its  poles,  revealing 
the  limits  of  passion  and  power,  and  the  sway  of  cosmical 
as  well  as  humanly  universal  law.  In  this  instinct  for 
human  limit,  this  possession  by  their  own  central  motive, 
only  the  Greek  poets  have  surpassed  Firdusi ;  and  they 
have  not  taken  this  special  motive  as  central,  upon  so  vast 
and  difficult  a  scale.  So  skilfully  does  he  manage  the  im- 
mense mass  of  materials,  that  everything  helps  to  empha- 
size the  personal  glory  or  grief,  to  accent  the  tread  of 
Destiny  over  man's  strength  and  his  weakness  alike,  as  it 
beats  up  the  latent  forces  of  sacrifice  and  ideal  aim  from 
the  dreadful  soil  of  anguish  and  death.  No  dejis  ex 
macliina  finds  place  here,  as  the  Euripidean  god  enters 
the  dreadful  coil  of  fate  around  Orestes  and  Electra,  to 
settle  all  difficulties  for  the  writer,  and  solve  things  insolu- 
ble, by  mere  fiat.  The  mercurial  Greek's  fancy  might  be 
satisfied  with  this ;  the  serious  Perso-Mahometan's,  never. 
Heroism  is  here  the  substance  of  religion,  and  stands  on 
its  own  merit.  It  is  itself  the  ideal,  and  no  god  can  for 
one  moment  dispense  with  its  conditions.  It  lifts  the  poet 
above  the  bounds  of  nationality,  masters  every  race  preju- 
dice on  which  the  legend  might  at  first  seem  founded.  It 
recognizes  itself  in  the  Turanian  hero   as  well  as  in  the 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  739 

Iranian ;  in  Piran,  Afrasiyab,  Pilsam.  And  many  Turanian 
women,  who  win  the  love  of  tlie  Pelilevans  and  bear  the 
noblest  persons  in  the  epos,  become  more  admirable  to  us, 
and  awaken  deeper  sympathy  than  do  the  Iranians  them- 
selves. The  same  moral  standard  suffices  for  believer  and 
unbeliever.  Except  in  certain  passages  of  the  later  por- 
tion, in  which  the  hand  of  the  Zoroastrian  priesthood  is 
apparent,  the  narrowness  of  the  Avestan  stand-point  is 
escaped.     The  epos  honors  only  Nature  and  truth. 

The  line  of  the  great  Pehlevans  of  Seistan,  motherland 
of  Iranian  liberties,  begins  in  Sam  ^  and  ends  in  the  Per- 
sian Achilles,  Rustem.  Let  us  see  how  the  legend  evolves 
this  colossal  type  of  heroism. 

To  Sam  a  son  is  born,  with  every  mark  of  the  true 
Pehlevan,  save  that  his  hair  is  white.  This  trait  would 
seem,  like  the  similar  legend  of  the  Chinese  Lao-tse,  to  in- 
timate a  higher  wisdom,  not  derived  from  the  experience  of 
age,  and  to  foreshadow  the  idea  of  intuition,  —  something 
which  the  wise  in  their  own  generation  could  not  conceive 
as  belonging  to  a  child,  but  destined  to  put  their  finalities 
to  shame.  Such  is  certainly  the  point  of  the  Persian 
legend  of  Zal.  In  the  terror  and  shame  of  having  brought 
some  demonic  power  into  the  world,  Sam  becomes  self- 
ish enough  to  expose  his  child  on  the  top  of  Alborz ;  more 
cruel  than  the  lioness,  who  cares  for  her  whelps,  "  giving 
them  her  blood  to  drink,  not  for  any  reward,  but  because 
she  cannot  live  without  them."  And  indeed,  when  his 
father  forsakes  him,  Zal  is  taken  up  by  the  mighty  life  of 
Nature,  as  the  hero  is  in  all  religious  mythology.  The 
infant's  cry,  in  hunger  and  heat,  brings  the  giant  bird,  the 
Simurgh,  on  mighty  wings,  to  his  relief;  and  her  pity  is 
approved  by  the  voice  from  heaven  foretelling  his  great 
destiny.     So  the  young  birds  are  his  brothers,  and  he  has 

^  Identified  by  Spiegel  (Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch.  Morgeiil.  Geselhch.,  iii.  251)  with 
Kerega^pa,  of  the  Aryan  myth. 


^40  ISLAM. 

the  largest  share  in  their  parent's  love,  —  a  love  and  ad- 
miration bred  in  the  monsters  of  the  wild  when  refused 
by  human  kin. 

Sam,  meanwhile,  slowly  awakes  to  the  sense  of  his  folly 
and  sin.  Impressed  by  a  dream  in  which  his  own  whiten- 
ing locks  instruct  him  that  his  child's  hair  was  not  the 
work  of  demons,  but  of  God,  he  sets  forth  to  find  his  son. 
As  his  train  labors  up  the  heights  of  Alborz,  the  mighty 
bird  comes  soaring  from  her  nest  on  the  summit,  a  majes- 
tic pile  of  sandal-wood  and  ivory  and  woven  aloe-branches. 
In  answer  to  the  father's  prayer,  the  Simurgh  brings  Zal 
upon  her  bosom,  —  a  noble  youth,  innocent  of  all  craft, 
wise  only  in  Nature's  lore,  which,  like  his  symbolic  hair, 
supplies  that  which  lengthened  years  alone  are  supposed 
to  bring ;  and  his  father  receives  him  joyfully,  while  the 
Simurgh's  parting  gift  is  a  feather  from  her  own  wing, 
which  he  was  to  burn  whenever  he  should  need  her  aid 
in  the  command  of  occult  powers. 

Next  comes  a  new  antagonism  of  wills,  out  of  which 
the  future  shall  be  born.  Zal's  romantic  love  for  Rudabe, 
daughter  of  the  unbelieving  king  of  Cabulistan,  replete 
with  stolen  interviews  and  vows  of  devotion,  results  in  a 
letter  written  to  his  father  in  praise  of  the  maiden,  which 
puts  the  old  Pehlevan  to  a  severer  trial  than  the  child's 
hoary  head.  What  penalty  must  follow  such  mingling  of 
the  blood  of  Feridun  with  that  of  Zohak,  such  union  of 
the  true  believer  with  the  worshipper  of  Divs  !  But  the 
Mobads,  who  seem  bound,  at  least  in  the  heroic  legend,  to 
play  the  part  of  liberalism,  predict  that  the  child  of  this 
marriage  shall  win  the  world  for  Iran,  bring  comfort  to  the 
whole  land,  and  conquer  all  the  strife  and  pain  of  Turanic 
wars.  It  is  religion  itself  that  bids  him  drop  his  narrow 
creed  and  treat  Gentiles  as  his  own  blood.  Again  the 
slave  of  superstition  is  liberated  through  suffering,  by  the 
power  of  love.    Sam  writes  to  the  Shah,  hoping  to  have  his 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  74I 

consent  to  the  innovation.  Meanwhile  Rudabe's  parents 
must  bear  their  part  in  the  shock  of  old  belief.  Dreading 
the  anger  of  the  Shah,  and  expecting  his  kingdom  to  be 
laid  waste,  the  father  is  tempted  to  slay  both  his  daughter 
and  his  wife;  but  the  latter's  higher  faith  restrains  him, 
with  the  saying,  "  When  fire  and  water,  wind  and  dust, 
mingle,  the  old  tired  earth  is  refreshed ;  "  and,  "  The 
longest  night  has  its  dawning."  The  brave  woman  goes 
further  still.  She  appears  before  Sam  to  plead  with  him 
at  the  head  of  his  army,  and  with  no  slight  effect.  Man- 
oshcihr  is  shocked  at  the  intermixture  of  creeds,  and  sends 
Sam  against  Cabulistan  with  a  host  whose  tread  shakes 
the  whole  earth,  and  whose  martial  movement  is  described 
by  Firdusi  in  a  passage  which  is  like  Chaucer  at  his  best. 
But  the  old  man  cannot  face  his  son's  reproachful  reminder 
that  he  is  but  repeating  the  injustice  done  him  in  infancy, 
and  both  heart  and  conscience  are  moved.  There  is  one 
resort.  It  is  to  send  Zal  himself  to  make  his  own  impres- 
sion by  pleading  his  cause  with  the  Shah,  armed  with  a 
letter  in  which  Sam  details  his  own  services,  describes  his 
free  life  in  the  saddle  as  a  throne,  and  commends  the 
strength  and  devotion,  which  has  now  all  passed  into  this 
young  hero,  to  the  king's  mercy,  with  prayers  and  vows. 
By  his  noble  presence,  his  skill  in  answering  difficult  ques- 
tions concerning  all  subjects  of  physical  and  moral  and 
religious  interest,  in  a  grand  tournament  of  the  seers,  and 
by  the  foresight  of  his  great  destiny  on  the  part  of  the 
priests,  the  prejudices  of  the  monarch  are  overcome,  and 
he  consents  to  the  marriage.  Whereupon  follow  festivities 
that  make  men  ask  if  the  resurrection  has  not  come.  The 
long  hates  of  races  and  beliefs  are  dissolved  in  love.  But 
the  significant  fact  is  that  the  hero's  own  presence  and 
power  determine  his  fate,  and  cut  the  knot  of  circum- 
stances that  could  not  otherwise  be  loosed. 

Such  was  the  parentage   of  Rustem,  mightiest  among 


742  ISLAM. 

the  mighty,  —  a  champion  whose  glory  was  not  to  strangle 
hydras  in  his  cradle,  nor  to  be  dipped  in  a  weapon-proof 
bath  by  his  mother,  like  the  demigods  of  Greece,  but  to  be 
nursed  by  the  heroism  of  a  love  which  had  conquered  the 
prejudices  of  race  and  creed.  The  arm  that  should  crush 
the  foes  of  Iran  was  prepared  for  its  work  by  an  inherited 
nobility  of  soul  capable  of  recognizing  and  loving  noble- 
ness under  whatever  disguise. 

We  cannot  trace  the  long-spun  web  of  tragedy,  portrayed 
by  the  delight  of  the  legend  in  its  favorite  hero  through 
centuries,  without  sense  of  the  lapse  of  time.  We  hasten 
to  the  tale  of  the  last  and  heaviest  debt  paid  by  this  epic 
redeemer  to  the  limitations  of  man  and  the  irony  of  fate. 
The  tale  of  Rustem  and  Sohrab  is  the  crucial  point  of 
Oriental  feeling.     Firdusi  opens  it  with  an  admonition : 

*'  The  tale  of  Sohrab  will  fill  your  eyes  with  tears,  and  stir  you 
against  Rustem.  But  do  you  blame  the  autumn  wind  when  it  strips 
the  unripe  orange  from  its  bough  ?  Death  comes  to  all,  nor  was  the 
mystei-y  ever  solved,  nor  ever  will  it  be  for  thee  ;  for  none  return  from 
that  gate.  Do  not  wonder  that  fire  burns  while  fuel  is  given  ;  or  that 
an  old  root  bears  stems.  It  is  vain  to  murmur  at  the  universal  law. 
Hast  thou  kept  thy  soul  from  evil,  thou  shalt  not  fear  the  last 
hour.  Act  well  thy  part  on  earth,  and  blessedness  shall  meet  thee 
beyond." 

With  this  serene  reconciliation  to  death  as  the  natural 
law,  opens  the  story  of  a  whelming  catastrophe,  which 
everything  that  human  folly  and  wisdom  could  do,  seemed 
but  to  render  the  more  inevitable.  It  is  followed  by  the 
picture,  in  the  same  lofty  strain,  of  the  close  of  Rustem's 
great  career,  —  a  sacrifice  to  deeds  of  villanous  and  un- 
natural hate. 

Sohrab  is  the  child  of  Rustem's  passion  for  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  Turanian  king,  who  seeks  him  out  with  the  offer- 
ing of  her  admiration  for  his  heroic  deeds,  the  unasked 
boon  of  a  heart  "  never  before  unveiled  to  man."     Return- 


THE  shah-nAmeh.  743 

ing  to  Iran,  Rustem  is  unknown  to  the  boy,  who  grows  up 
in  his  father's  image,  worshipping  this  unseen  ideal  through 
his  mother's  praises,  and  longing  to  behold  his  face.  He  is 
named  Sohrab  from  his  ever  gladsome  looks,  —  the  young 
lion  of  the  mingled  blood  of  Iran  and  Turan,  irresistible  in 
strength.  He  forms  the  plan  to  invade  Iran,  and  give  the 
throne  to  his  father,  forgetting  that  Rustem,  as  the  loyal 
servant  of  his  king,  must  himself  first  be  overthrown. 
Upon  the  march  the  adventures  of  the  young  hero  are 
many  and  marvellous;  and  the  terror  of  his  approach 
startles  Kai  Kaus,  the  king  of  Iran,  into  sending  in  all 
speed  to  Rustem,  bidding  him  haste  to  the  rescue,  "  stop- 
ping not  to  finish  the  word  on  his  lips  or  to  smell  the 
rose  in  his  hand."  Rustem's  delay  leads  to  a  quarrel  with 
the  Shah,  in  which  the  free  spirit  of  the  Pehlevan,  and 
his  sensitiveness  to  unjust  suspicion,  are  brought  into  full 
play.  The  quarrel  is  appeased,  and  Rustem  advances  to 
meet  the  Turanians.  Henceforward  the  overruling  sweep 
of  Destiny  appears  at  every  step.  Rustem  becomes  a  spy 
and  slays  a  Turanian  chief,  becoming  thereby  specially 
obnoxious  to  Sohrab,  who,  of  course,  does  not  -recognize 
his  person.  Looking  out  on  the  Iranian  army,  Sohrab 
inquires  the  names  of  the  chiefs ;  but  Hedshir,  a  prisoner, 
who  informs  him,  conceals  the  fact  that  Rustem  is  among 
them,  and  gives  the  colossal  form  another  name.  Rustem, 
he  says,  is  in  Seistan,  at  a  feast  of  roses,  —  foolishly  hoping 
by  this  deception  to  prevent  a  collision,  which,  of  course, 
could  only  be  avoided,  not  by  petty  lies,  but  by  his  know- 
ing the  truth.     The  poet  asks,  — 

"  Why  seekest  thou,  O  Man,  the  steps  of  fate  to  lead  ? 
'T  will  have  its  way  with  thee.     'T  is  thine  to  turn 
Thy  heart  away  from  fleeting  things,  their  care  and  pain." 

Sohrab  cannot  believe  that  one  like  Rustem  can  be  away 
in  the  hour  of  his  country's  peril,  and  threatens  Hedshir 


744  ISLAM. 

with  death  as  a  deceiver.  But  the  prisoner,  fearing  he 
may  kill  Rustem  and  conquer  Iran,  ventures  to  brave  it 
out,  and  holds  to  the  falsehood,  though  Sohrab  strikes 
him  to  the  earth.  The  battle  follows.  Moved  perhaps  by 
some  blind  presentiment,  Rustem  tarries  in  his  tent.  But 
presentiments  and  precautions  alike  fail.  Excited  by  the 
deeds  of  the  unknown  Turanian  champion,  Rustem  at  last 
rushes  to  meet  him.  Then  an  access  of  pity  holds  his 
hand,  and  he  cries,  "  O  tender  youth,  the  earth  is  cold,  the 
air  is  sweet.  I  who  am  old  have  slain  hosts  with  my  arm. 
I  cannot  bear  to  kill  thee,  thou  art  so  noble.  Come,  join 
Iran,  and  be  our  friend."  "  Thou  art  Rustem,"  exclaims 
Sohrab.  But  again  destiny  thwarts  the  natural  instincts, 
and  Rustem  denies  his  own  name.  "  I  am  but  his  slave !  " 
Dreadful  necessity,  where  two  souls  are  unconsciously  at 
one,  yet  their  arms  in  mortal  conflict,  their  wills  forced  by 
sternest  illusion  to  the  bitter  end !  "  Alas,"  mourns  the 
poet,  "  every  beast  knows  its  place ;  man  only,  in  cruel 
war,  cannot  discern  a  son  from  a  foeman."  Rustem  had 
been  over-confident.  He  had  parted  with  much  of  his 
strength,  tliinking  it  a  burden,  and  now  he  is  flung  to  the 
earth,  escaping  with  his  life  only  by  demanding  of  Sohrab 
a  second  trial,  after  which  the  loser  must  die.  Less  willing 
than  ever  to  confess  his  name  to  his  antagonist,  he  returns 
to  his  tent,  and  prays  that  his  old  strength  may  be  restored 
to  him.  The  prayer  is  granted ;  and  Sohrab  in  turn  is 
hurled  to  the  earth  and  fatally  wounded.  And  now,  too 
late,  the  dying  youth  speaks  mournfully  of  Rustem  as  his 
father,  whom  he  should  never  see,  though  taught  by  his 
mother's  praises  to  honor  him  as  the  greatest  of  men,  and 
led  forth  into  Iran  only  by  the  longing  to  see  his  face. 
We  hear  the  agonized  cry  of  the  old  man,  "  I  am  Rustem." 
And  Sohrab  cannot  hold  back  his  terrible  sense  of  wrong : 
"  Art  thou  Rustem,  who  hast  plunged  the  sword  without 
mercy  in  my  breast?     I  sought  to  move  thee  to  peace, 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  745 

but  no  love  could  rise  in  thee.  See  this  onyx,  which  my 
mother  bound  upon  my  arm  to  give  to  thee,  for  it  is  thine. 
Ah!  too  late,  too  late!  The  father  must  slay  his  child." 
Then  Sohrab  tenderly  tries  to  stay  the  raving  of  grief.  It 
is  in  vain.  What  help  is  there  in  self-destruction?  "Re- 
member that  what  has  come  could  not  be  turned  aside. 
But  now  bid  the  king  of  Iran  cease  from  the  war,  which  I 
alone  have  caused ;  and  Turan  has  trusted  only  in  me. 
For  I  believed  we  should  conquer;  how  could  I  have 
thought  to  die  by  my  father's  hand?  So  was  it  written 
in  heaven.  I  came  as  the  lightning  comes,  and  I  pass 
away  like  the  wind.  O  Father,  in  heaven  thy  child  shall 
meet  thee  again  !  " 

The  poem  follows  step  by  step  the  agony  of  Rustem, 
and  his  unavailing  efforts  to  save  the  fast-fleeting  life.  He 
appeals  to  the  king  for  a  potent  balsam,  which  Kai  Kaus, 
with  cowardly  jealousy,  refuses.  "  Never,"  says  the  mes- 
senger, "  did  this  king  pay  a  friend  his  dues,  nor  lift  a 
heavy-laden  soul."  The  sufferer  digs  the  grave  of  his 
son  with  his  own  hands,  seeking  for  himself  only  death ; 
yet  pardons  the  deceitful  Hedshir,  whose  falsehood  had 
brought  all  the  woe.  The  chiefs  vainly  try  to  console 
him,  and  the  whole  land  resounds  with  mourning  as  he 
bears  his  heavy  burden  to  its  shrine  of  sandal-wood  in  far 
Cabulistan.  Of  all  the  scenes  which  attend  the  dreadful 
calamity,  none  is  more  touching  than  the  barbaric  grief  of 
the  mother,  Tahmine.  She  kisses  his  armor,  and  wets  his 
crown  with  tears.  She  presses  his  horse  to  her  bosom, 
and  lays  her  head  upon  his  hoofs.  She  closes  her  palace 
gates,  gives  all  she  has  to  the  poor,  and  dies  of  sorrow 
within  a  year.  There  is  no  remedy  in  this  visible  world 
for  wounds  so  deadly.  The  heroic  age  of  mighty  instincts 
confesses  this,  pouring  out  wails  over  the  hopeless  cruelty 
of  fortune  and  the  vanity  of  the  world.  Yet  we  note  that 
there  is  a  robust  faith  behind  the  despair;    for  Rustem 


746  ISLAM. 

lives,  in  spite  of  his  whelming  woes,  to  do  heroic  work  in 
this  world.  The  religiousness  of  the  poet,  casting  Rustem 
for  consolation  on  the  future  life  alone,  is  manifest  injustice 
to  the  very  ideal  which  his  materials  afford.  An  heroic 
age  may  naturally  fail  to  interpret  itself  to  a  reflective  age 
through  its  forms  of  speech,  which  spring  from  the  emotions 
alone.  But  the  language  of  deeds  is  universal ;  and  to  see 
the  nobler  elements  of  character  struggling  forth  in  this  form 
through  the  terrible  obstacles  of  a  semi-barbarous  state  of 
society,  is  far  more  interesting  than  to  study  the  most  unex- 
ceptionable doctrine,  which  ages  of  civilization  have  brought 
to  didactic  perfection  to  serve  as  the  creed  of  a  positive  re- 
ligion, and  made  the  factitious  aureole  of  its  founder. 

The  dealing  of  a  tragic  Nemesis  with  breaches  of  the 
natural  relations  is  again  illustrated  in  the  story  of  Gush- 
tasp  and  Isfendiy^r,  in  which  the  part  of  Rustem  is  again 
intensely  interesting,  and  by  far  the  most  noble.  This 
story  belongs  to  a  later  period  of  the  epic  narrative,  and 
shows  signs  of  an  ecclesiastical  influence  not  visible  in  the 
more  purely  heroic  portions  that  precede  it.  For  Gush- 
tasp  is  the  ruler  whose  reign  is  associated  in  the  legend 
with  the  advent  of  Zoroaster,  and  the  conversion  of  Iran  to 
his  religion.  Even  here,  in  its  treatment  of  this  ideal  of 
the  Church,  the  broadly  human  element  of  the  heroic 
ejios  counteracts  in  great  degree  the  narrowing  effects  of 
organized  religion. 

Gushtasp  has  repeatedly  promised  to  bestow  the  throne 
on  his  son  Isfcndiyar,  on  condition  of  his  performing  well- 
nigh  impossible  feats  for  the  glory  and  safety  of  Iran,  and 
as  often  the  promise  has  remained  unfulfilled.  The  seven 
adventures  of  the  young  hero  in  capturing  the  famous 
Brazen  Fortress  remind  us  of  the  labors  of  Hercules, 
and  perhaps  like  them  have  an  astronomical  origin.  They 
raise  him  to  the  summit  of  glory,  but  do  not  secure  their 
earthly  reward.     Gushtasp  now  bids  him  undertake  a  harder 


THE  SHAH-NAMEH.  747 

task ;  no  less  than  to  bring  Rustem  in  chains  to  his  court, 
that  the  old  Pehlevan's  pride  may  be  humbled,  and  submit 
itself  to  the  will  of  a  king.  For  Rustem  has  dared  to  say 
before  his  face  that  he  is  no  man's  subject,  and  wears  an 
older  crown  than  that  of  a  Shahan-shah.  Isfendiyar  shall 
break  this  pride,  and  then  the  crown  shall  be  his.  The 
prince  sees  clearly  that  the  aim  is  to  put  his  expectations 
out  of  the  way,  if  not  his  life,  and  the  outrage  to  be  per- 
petrated offends  everything  noble  within  him.  Yet  he 
undertakes  it,  as  he  says,  out  of  pure  filial  duty.  "  Keep 
the  crown  if  you  will;  a  father's  bidding  shall  be  done, 
though  it  bring  the  judgment  day."  "  If  a  bad  ending 
come  to  this,  'tis  the  power  of  fate."  He  is  not  without 
hope  that  the  hero  will  consent  to  be  led  in  fetters,  out  of 
loyalty  to  the  Shah ;  and  so,  by  admonitions  to  the  duty 
of  a  subject,  and  praises  of  Gushtasp  as  the  patron  of  the 
faith  and  head  of  the  priesthood,  as  well  as  by  promises  of 
protection  and  reward,  the  foolish  youth  would  fain  per- 
suade him  to  an  act  of  servility  and  shame.  Quite  as 
aggravating  is  the  charge  of  neglecting  court  attendance 
to  one  conscious  of  being  the  strong  arm  that  protected 
the  court  itself.  His  reply  is  noble :  "  I  will  give  you 
everything  in  my  power,  but  do  not  dishonor  the  gift  by 
personal  outrage.  I  will  appear  before  the  Shah,  and  do 
him  homage.  But  the  Div  must  have  taken  away  your 
senses,  if  you  imagine  that  I  will  consent  to  the  indignity 
of  wearing  chains."  Isfendiyar  is  moved,  but  not  suffi- 
ciently to  throw  up  the  shameful  office.  He  even  adds  the 
insult  of  neglecting  to  send  for  Rustem  to  a  banquet,  —  after 
promising  to  do  so,  —  upon  the  worse  than  frivolous  ex- 
cuse that  they  are  likely  to  meet  afterwards  as  foes.  Rus- 
tem, however,  goes  without  being  sent  for,  but  is  treated 
with  indignity  again,  and  receives  the  insulting  apology, 
"  that  the  day  was  hot  and  the  way  long  !  "  Isfendiyar,  in  a 
conceited  speech,  reproves  him  for  his  infidelity  and  partial 


748  ISLAM. 

descent  from  a  Div,  Avhich  rouses  Rustem  to  recount  his 
exploits,  Isfendiyar  does  the  same,  laying  special  stress 
on  his  services  to  the  true  faith  in  destroying  idols ;  and 
Rustem  retorts  with  reflections  on  Gushtasp's  character 
and  record.  In  all  this,  Isfendiyar's  conduct  shows  poorly 
beside  his  opponent's ;  but  so  the  trouble  deepens,  rivalry  is 
aroused,  and  the  fates  have  decreed  conflict  between  them. 
To  Rustem  the  situation  is  terrible,  since  to  submit  would 
be  intolerable,  and  to  kill  Isfendiyar  is  equally  dreadful 
to  so  noble  a  nature.  The  heroes  part  at  the  tent  door 
with  bitter  words.  Isfendiyar's  nearest  friend  warns  him 
not  to  persevere.  "  Ahriman  has  taken  you  in  his  net." 
Zal,  on  the  other  hand,  forebodes  his  son's  death.  It  is 
characteristic  of  Rustem  that  he  forms  a  plan  to  overpower 
Isfendiyar  by  main  strength,  then  save  his  life,  and  give  him 
the  atoning  service  of  love. 

But  this  generous  hope  is  foiled.  The  issue  of  the  com- 
bat is  doubtful.  Isfendiyar  seems  to  have,  in  this  half- 
priestly  legend,  a  special  aid  and  protection  in  strife  from 
his  orthodox  commission.  A  quarrel  arising  between  the 
followers  of  the  t^vo  chiefs  results  in  the  death  of  Isfen- 
diyar's sons.  Rustem  is  roused  to  indignation  at  his  men ; 
but  his  promise  to  atone  in  every  way  possible  is  received 
by  Isfendiyar  ungraciously.  Then  Rustem  cries,  "  My  trust 
is  in  God,"  and  renews  the  fight.  But  Isfendiyar's  arrows 
all  take  efiect,  while  Rustem's  glance  off  from  the  body  of 
the  child  of  the  Holy  Law.  So  Rustem  withdraws,  sorely 
wounded,  for  the  night,  and  Isfendiyar  leaves  the  field  to 
mourn  his  bitter  loss.  "  Ye  noble  ones,  now  so  pale, 
where  is  the  soul  that  was  here?  I  see  but  clay."  Then 
he  sends  to  his  unrelenting  father,  "  Behold  the  fruit  of  the 
tree  you  have  planted."  And  to  his  friend,  recovering  his 
calmness,  he  says,  "  Cease  to  mourn.  And  why  should 
more  blood  be  shed?  To  death  we  all  go,  young  and  old, 
and  only  wisdom  can  lead  us  on  our  way." 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  749 

Meantime  Zil  for  his  son's  sake  burns  the  Simurgh's 
feather,  and  the  great  bird  appears,  bringing  Nature's  heal- 
ing to  his  wounds.  He  shall  find  an  elm  by  the  sea-shore, 
and  cut  an  arrow  from  its  wood,  and  with  this  only,  Isfen- 
diyar  can  be  slain.  But  whoso  slays  this  sacred  life  shall 
never  more  know  peace ;  and  even  beyond  the  grave  shall 
he  find  pain.  But  Rustem  braves  the  condition  for  the 
sake  of  the  victory  so  necessary  to  his  honor.  "  Good 
name,  at  least,  will  I  leave  behind  me."  It  is  time  for  him 
also  to  resort  to  occult  aids,  since  his  foe  has  so  mani- 
festly a  charmed  life.  The  fate  of  Isfendiyar  now  in  his 
hands,  Rustem  beseeches  him,  by  all  they  both  hold 
sacred,  —  "by  sun  and  moon  and  Zerdusht's  fire,  and  the 
God  to  whom  we  pray,"  —  to  abandon  his  monstrous  de- 
mand, and  warns  him  that  he  will  be  slain.  Isfendiyar 
ridicules  the  prediction,  and  the  fatal  arrow,  shot  with  tears, 
does  its  work.  To  his  lamenting  friends,  the  hero  finds 
consolation  in  having  led  men  on  the  path  of  the  true  faith, 
and  that  he  dies,  not  by  the  strength  of  Rustem,  but  by  the 
sorceries  of  Zal.  On  the  other  hand,  Rustem,  made  self- 
reproachful  by  success,  confesses  that  the  Div  has  caught 
him  in  his  net,  with  all  his  endeavors  to  be  true  to  manly 
dealing.  "  Would  that  I  had  been  the  slain  !  Alas,  that  I 
resorted  to  secret  arts !  The  glory  of  my  name  is  gone 
forever  !  "  It  is  now  Isfendiyar's  turn  to  show  a  noble  spirit. 
"  I  blame  neither  you  nor  the  bird.  This  is  my  father's 
doing,  that  he  might  keep  his  throne."  He  commits  his 
son  to  Rustem's  charge,  to  be  reared  in  knightly  virtues 
and  honorable  toils,  and  to  stand  as  his  father's  seed  in  a 
line  of  kings.  And  Rustem  reverently  promising,  the 
noble  reconciliation  is  complete. 

Isfendiyar  is  now  his  father's  Nemesis.  "  Your  desire  is 
accomplished ;  your  throne  is  yours,  and  I  have  the  cham- 
bers of  death.  God  shall  decide  between  us  at  the  last 
day."     And  so,  with  tender  entreaties  sent  to  his  mother 


750  ISLAM. 

and  sisters  not  to  weep  too  much  for  him,  nor  uncover  his 
face,  but  wait  for  reunion  beyond  death,  Isfendiyar  passes 
from  the  scene.  Bashutan  takes  home  the  body,  through 
mourning  Iran,  to  a  court  not  unaffected  by  natural  grief 
and  shame. 

Then  rises  the  indignant  protest  of  Iranian  freedom. 
The  chiefs  renounce  respect  for  their  king,  and  cry  as  one 
man:  "O  wretched  man,  thou  sentest  him  to  Cabul  that 
this  might  be !  May  shame  weigh  down  thy  crown,  and 
vengeance  never  let  thee  go  !  "  Bashiatan  refuses  to  bend 
before  the  throne,  and  thunders :  "  Thou  blind  and  selfish 
man  !  the  wrath  of  Heaven  shall  fall  on  thee,  who  hast  sent 
thine  own  son  to  death,  with  heart  harder  than  stone !  " 
Isfendiyar's  sisters  recount  their  brother's  virtues,  and  ask 
what  king  before  has  sought  to  slay  his  own  flesh.  If 
Isfendiyar  desired  the  throne,  did  not  Gushtasp  himself 
drench  the  world  in  blood  to  obtain  the  crown  of  Loh- 
rasp?  Even  thee  thy  father  sought  not  to  kill,  but  took 
away  thy  diadem.  But  thou  hast  given  away  thy  child  for 
such  a  bauble !  "  The  Shah  has  no  word  of  anger  or  de- 
fence, but  bids  Bashutan  comfort  the  mourners. 

"  Softly,  O  Mother,  he  sleeps  in  everlasting  peace,  glad  to  be  free  of 
earthly  woes." 

This  last  scene,  in  which  the  Pehlevans  are  avengers  and 
smite  the  cruel  king  without  fear,  is  politically  one  of  the 
most  suggestive  in  the  whole  epic. 

The  Oriental  theory  that  the  king  is  the  father  of  his 
people  makes  him  responsible  to  a  standard  of  personal 
character  to  which  the  equally  patriarchal  habit  of  abso- 
lute filial  servitude  should  naturally  be  subordinate.  And 
while  for  the  most  part  in  the  Eastern  practice  this  royal 
patria  potcstas  has  been,  as  we  have  found  in  India  and 
China,  as  well  as  in  certain  stages  of  old  European  civil- 
ization, limited  in  certain  ways  by  tradition,  custom,  posi- 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  751 

tive  institution,  or  religious  prestige,  there  is  another  force, 
to  which  it  is  even  more  accountable;  namely,  the  ideal  of 
personal  heroism.  This  has  been  the  natural  rival  of  auto- 
cratic institutions,  even  under  their  harshest  form. 

It  is  the  chief  emancipator  from  that  absolutism  which 
the  earliest  social  traditions  secured  to  the  father  of  a 
family.  The  resistance  of  women  and  children  to  this 
kind  of  despotism  forms  a  leading  trait  in  the  legends  of 
most  ancient  nations.  Military  service  was  almost  the  only 
force  which  effectually  diminished  the  patria  potcstas  in 
early  Roman  times,  giving,  as  it  alone  did,  the  right  of 
private  ownership  {peailium  castreiise)  to  the  son.  But 
nowhere  did  the  rights  of  personality  derive  such  further- 
ance from  the  heroic  element  as  in  the  Iranian  family, 
pictured  in  the  Shah-Nameh.  We  have  seen  in  the  story 
of  Isfendiyar  the  warning  against  passive  obedience  to  pa- 
rental tyranny,  even  when  enforced  by  royal  claims.  That 
of  Siavaksh,  on  the  other  hand,  relates  the  martyrdom  of  a 
prince  who  refused  such  obedience  for  the  sake  of  his  own 
honor  and  truth.  A  nobler  assertion  of  the  higher  law  of 
self-respect  was  never  made  in  tragedy  or  song. 

Siavaksh,  like  Iraj,  whose  history  his  fate  recalls,  is  the 
mirror  of  gentleness,  purity,  and  valor,  —  the  Sir  Galahad, 
as  Rustem  is,  in  some  respects,  the  Sir  Tristram,  of  our 
epic.  Forced  against  his  will  to  visit  the  harem,  and 
charged  by  one  of  the  queens  with  criminal  conduct,  in 
revenge  for  his  refusal  to  gratify  her  passion,  he  is  proved 
innocent  by  ordeal,  and  put  in  command  of  the  army  on 
its  march  into  Turan.  Afrasiyab,  the  king  of  that  country, 
,  alarmed  by  dreams  presaging  that  Siavaksh  will  be  his 
destroyer,  hastens  to  offer  terms  to  the  invader,  to  which 
Siavaksh  agrees,  in  hopes  to  spare  the  effusion  of  blood. 
The  treaty  is  guaranteed  on  Afrasiy^b's  part  by  a  hundred 
hostages  of  his  own  kindred,  who  are  sent  into  the  Iranian 
camp.     King  Kai  Kaus,  informed   of  the   good  news,  is 


752  ISLAM. 

enraged,  and  commands  his  son  to  break  the  treaty,  ravage 
Turan,  and  send  the  hostages  to  court  to  be  slain."  Sia- 
vaksh  prefers  to  disobey  his  father  rather  than  violate  his 
word,  and  makes  haste  to  send  home  the  hostages  safely  to 
Turan.  "  Above  the  sun  and  moon  stands  the  will  of  a 
greater  King.  Before  Him  the  lion  is  as  the  blade  of  grass. 
Shall  I  madly  rise  against  Him,  and  bathe  these  two  lands 
again  in  blood?"  The  hostages  shall  say  to  Afrasiyab: 
"  This  treaty  has  brought  me  to  grief;  but  I  will  not  break 
my  oath  to  save  my  throne.  The  world  is  my  throne,  and 
God  my  refuge.  As  I  cannot  return  to  Iran,  I  ask  of  Afra- 
siyab leave  to  pass  through  his  dominions  and  find  rest 
from  this  bitter  strife." 

The  effect  of  this  integrity  on  the  Turanians  may  be 
imagined.  It  is  to  the  honor  of  the  epic  that  it  recognizes 
the  nobler  instincts  of  the  heart  as  human,  not  as  the  pre- 
rogative of  the  famed  race  or  religion.  No  personage 
so  moves  our  sympathy  in  suffering  as  Piran,  the  chief 
counsellor  of  Afrasiyab.  He  advises  the  king  to  receive 
Siavaksh  with  open  arms.  "  No  prince  on  earth  compares 
with  him  in  body  or  soul.  They  tell  me  that  to  see  him 
is  to  love  him.  It  were  fit  thou  shouldst  honor  him  if  he 
had  but  given  up  his  crown  to  keep  his  faith."  Afrasiyab 
fears  "  what  the  young  lion  may  do  when  his  teeth  are 
grown ;  "  but  Piran  persuades  him  to  write  a  cordial  invi- 
tation to  the  young  exile.  This  letter  shows  not  only  that 
the  Turanians  are  regarded  as  having  the  same  religious 
sentiment  as  Iran,  but  that  even  Afrasiyab,  the  evil  genius 
of  the  epos,  is  capable  of  meeting  a  noble  action  in  a  noble 
way.  "  Praise  be  to  the  Eternal,  whom  the  heart  can  feel, 
though  none  can  measure  Him,  God  spare  thee  such 
a  journey.  Stay  with  me,  I  will  give  thee  castles  and 
men,"  So  Siavaksh  writes  sorrowfully  and  tenderly  to  his 
father:  "I  have  walked  through  fire  and  wept  blood;  I 
have  made  peace,  but  my  father's  heart  is  like  steel  towards 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  753 

me.  May  he  live  happy,  though  I  fall  into  the  lion's  jaws. 
I  know  not  what  fate  awaits  me,  but  I  can  no  longer  re- 
main with  him."  In  Piran  he  finds  a  second  father,  as 
tender  as  the  other  was  harsh;  the  old  man's  youth  is 
renewed  as  they  walk  together,  while  Siavaksh  sighs  as  he 
remembers  his  own  childhood  and  Iran.  The  meeting 
with  Afrasiyab  is  equally  affectionate.  "  Ended  is  the 
world-ravaging  war.  Now  thanks  to  thee,  O  youth,  that 
panther  and  lamb  shall  feed  together,  for  the  world  is 
wearied  of  strife."  He  cannot  sleep  for  thinking  on  this 
lovely  guest.  But  the  courtiers  are  envious,  and  the  joy 
of  the  hour  is  clouded  with  evil-boding.  Piran,  on  his 
part,  does  not  rest  till  he  has  Siavaksh  married  to  the 
daughter  of  Afrasiyab,  and  a  beautiful  city,  full  of  gardens, 
statues,  and  all  delights,  rises  amidst  perpetual  summer  as 
their  home.  A  son  is  predicted,  who  shall  unite  the  hos- 
tile crowns.  Love  has  dissolved  the  hates  of  nations  and 
creeds. 

But  Piran  finds  sad  presentiments  in  the  heart  of  -his 
favorite,  and  the  astrologers  confirm  his  fears.  In  spite  of 
Piran's  encouragement,  the  vision  of  war  and  desolation  is 
before  his  eyes,  and  the  near  approach  of  death,  A  Tura- 
nian chief,  the  king's  brother,  who  hates  Siavaksh  for  his 
noble  qualities  and  his  success,  by  villanous  falsehoods 
contrives  to  fill  Afrasiyab's  mind  with  suspicion,  and  Sia- 
vaksh is  doomed  to  destruction.  Fully  aware  of  his  coming 
fate,  the  prince  sends  his  wife  to  Piran,  with  tender  fare- 
wells, destroys  his  palace,  and  goes  to  meet  Afrasiyab's 
army,  on  the  way  to  Iran.  His  little  band  of  followers 
make  no  resistance  to  their  enemies,  yet  are  slain ;  and 
he  falls,  sorely  wounded,  into  the  hands  of  the  king  of 
Turan.  Afrasiyab  is  dissuaded  from  his  fell  purpose  for 
the  moment  by  his  own  army,  and  contents  himself  with 
throwing  the  wife  of  Siavaksh,  his  own  daughter,  into 
prison,  for  pleading  in  her  husband's  behalf.      But   Sia- 

48 


754  ISLAM. 

vaksh  does  not  escape ;  he  is  murdered  by  Garsevaz  in 
the  wilderness,  where  a  purple  flower  springs  from  his 
blood  and  is  called  by  his  name. 

The  murderer  is  cursed  by  all  men.  Piran  has  the  cour- 
age to  rebuke  Afrasiyab,  and  takes  Feringis  to  his  own 
home.  In  due  time  Kai  Khosru  is  born,  the  child  of  grief 
and  the  star  of  promise.  Afrasiyab  seeks  his  destruction, 
but  is  persuaded  by  Piran  to  consent  to  his  being  brought 
up  by  peasants,  in  ignorance  of  his  real  origin.  But  his 
royal  qualities  —  as  those  of  Krishna,  Buddha,  Iskander,  and 
the  Jesus  of  the  Apocryphal  Gospels  —  can  be  hidden  by 
no  outward  conditions ;  and  at  his  demand  Piran  is  forced 
to  reveal  the  secret.^  Over  Afrasiyab,  too,  the  youth  ex- 
erts such  a  charm  that  the  past  shall  be  buried.  The 
cautious  Piran  suggests  that  Afrasiyab  need  not  fear  the 
fulfilment  of  his  dreams,  since  the  boy  is  but  half-witted. 
Khosru  personates  a  fool,  and  a  promise  in  the  name  of 
all  that  is  sacred  is  exacted  from  the  king  that  he  shall 
not-  be  harmed.  He  is  sent  to  the  city  of  Siavaksh,  to  be 
reared  amidst  the  memories  of  his  father's  life  and  death : 

"  For  Siavaksh  the  very  beasts  of  the  wilderness  mourn  ;  the 
nightingale  in  the  cypress  bewails  his  fate;  and  every  leaf,  as  after 
the  autumn  blast,  hangs  withering  from  the  pomegranate  tree." 

But  Rustem  rushes  to  Kai  Kaus,  eager  to  avenge  the 
deed,  as  well  as  to  rebuke  the  unnatural  father:  — 

"  O  evil  one,  thy  sowing  has  borne  its  fruit.  Better  thou  wert  in 
thy  grave.  Who  was  so  pure,  so  noble  as  this  prince?  Alas!  his 
head,  his  face,  his  mighty  limbs,  the  joy  of  all  eyes  !  The  tracks  of 
his  feet  were  blest !  " 

Then  before  the  king's  eyes  he  kills  that  wicked  queen, 
to  whom  he  traces  the  calamity;  while  Kai  Kaus  dares  not 
hft  his  head  for  shame. 

These  legends,  of  which  it  is  more  to  my  purpose  to  give 
the  outlines  than  to  indulge  in  extended  quotation,  fairly 

*  The  old  messianic  legend  of  all  religions. 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  755 

illustrate  what  I  should  designate  as  the  religion  of  the 
Shah-Nameh  in  its  relation  with  personal  freedom.  Con- 
stantly the  higher  law  of  honor,  sacrifice,  love,  and  truth, 
asserts  itself  against  the  authority  traditionally  vested  in 
the  throne,  as  well  as  in  the  priesthood.  Heroism  is  the 
true  divinity,  the  practical  ruler.  Heroic  Iran,  like  Homeric 
Greece,  of  which  it  was  the  Aryan  prototype,^  is  deeply 
conscious  of  the  rights  of  the  personal  will  as  against 
mighty  obstacles,  physical  and  moral.  In  the  epos,  these 
are  embodied  for  the  free-souled  Pehlevan  in  the  tyranni- 
cal and  unjust  will  of  his  king  as  much  as  in  the  enmity 
of  his  peers.  Never  does  any  noble  passion,  least  of  all 
moral  indignation,  fail  to  speak  its  full  protest  for  fear  of 
irresponsible  power. 

When  Kai  Kaus  breaks  into  rage  against  Rustem  for 
delaying  to  answer  his  summons,  Gev  asks  in  astonishment, 
"Barest  thou  lift  thy  hand  against  Rustem?"  "To  the 
block  with  him ! "  screams  the  king.  And  Rustem  cries 
out:  "  It  is  I  that  am  the  lion  among  men.  Let  the  Shah 
turn  pale  before  my  anger.  I  owe  my  strength  to  God, 
not  to  the  Shah.  My  steed  is  my  throne,  the  world  my 
page,  the  helm  my  crown ;  and  this  arm  shall  defy  kings. 
No  slave  am  I ;  to  God  alone  is  my  service  pledged.  I 
have  not  chosen  to  be  a  king,  but  to  follow  my  duty  and 
my  right."  Thereupon  he  rides  off  from  court,  and  when 
the  king  sends  to  entreat  him  to  return,  he  replies  hotly, 
"What  is  Kai  Kaus  to  me?  A  handful  of  dust."  Finally, 
the  Shah  must  ask  pardon,  and  "  strews  dust  upon  his 
tongue." 

The  scene  is  curious  enough  when  we  contrast  it  with 
the  common  conception  of  the  court  of  an  Oriental  despot, 
or  even  with  the  Mahometan  ideal,  which  Firdusi  would 


*  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  state  of  society  represented  by  Firdusi  is  in  no  sense 
Mahometan,  but  everywhere  in  the  epic  betrays  itself  as  very  much  earlier,  and  resting  on 
what  may  be  a  pre- Homeric  basis. 


756  ISLAM. 

have  given  us,  had  he  drawn  his  materials  from  his  own 
age.  This  fearlessness  of  the  Pehlevan  before  his  king  is 
all  the  more  remarkable,  because  combined  with  pro- 
foundest  reverence  for  the  idea  of  loyalty  to  the  throne. 
It  seems  to  hint  of  creditable  elements  even  in  the  most 
servile  formalities  of  Eastern  obeisance.  Full  as  these  are 
of  apparent  man-worship,  we  find  them  here  combined 
with  an  independence  such  as  few  modern  republicans 
would  dare  to  show  before  the  popular  will,  or  even  the 
party  majority. 

When  Zal  comes  into  the  presence  of  Kai  Kaus,  to 
advise  him  against  his  wild  scheme  of  invading  Mazan- 
deran,  it  is  with  measured  step,  and  hands  crossed  as  in 
prayer;  yet  he  does  not  hesitate  to  warn  him  boldly  of  the 
dangers  of  his  ungoverned  will.  Rustem  himself,  who 
spurns  the  arrogant  Kai  Kaus,  is  humble  as  a  servant 
before  the  truly  royal  Kai  Khosru,  and  springs  to  obey  his 
command  to  rescue  an  imprisoned  knight.  "  He  bends 
his  head  and  invokes  blessings  on  the  Shah,  whom  all  greet 
as  sovereign,  whose  feet  are  on  the  heads  of  kings."  The 
just  and  humane  ruler  is  obeyed  with  enthusiasm;  the 
unjust  one  has  forfeited  all  title  to  his  respect.  He  can 
assume  the  part  of  a  Mentor  to  the  young  king  Tus,  and 
bids  him  "  slay  the  rebellious,  but  dry  the  tears  of  the  sub- 
missive, as  a  father.  Be  ever  true ;  for  life  is  short,  and  the 
world  passes  away.  Even  Jemshid  fell,  the  greatest  of 
kings." 

This  right  to  reserve  obedience  till  it  is  consistent  with 
self-respect,  through  the  real  majesty  of  the  person  who 
claims  it,  is  even  more  strikingly  illustrated  in  Tus,  the 
banner-bearer  of  Iran,  a  spleeny,  ambitious,  and  passionate 
Pehlevan,  who  regards  his  own  line  of  descent  as  of  in- 
comparable grandeur.  Kai  Khosrfa  has  been  brought  from 
Turan  amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  people,  and  all  the 
roads  are  fragrant  with  spices  and   radiant  with   festive 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  757 

colors,  and  old  Kai  Kaus  makes  atonement  to  the  son  for 
casting  ofif  his  father,  with  tears  and  embraces  before  his 
peers.  Tus  alone  holds  aloof  from  the  new  star,  insisting 
that  the  succession  belongs  to  Feriborz,  the  Shah's  son, 
instead  of  his  grandson ;  and  braving  the  indignation  of 
the  whole  court  by  his  jealous  pride.  But  when  he  sees 
Khosru,  his  prejudice  gives  way,  and  he  submits  at  once 
to  an  inborn  right  to  rule.  This  is  not  all.  Kai  Kaus 
himself  so  far  yields  to  Tus's  protest  as  to  consent  to  give 
the  throne  to  whichever  of  the  two  princes  should  take  the 
enchanted  castle  of  Bahmen.  Feriborz,  aided  by  Tus, 
fails ;  but  Khosru,  in  Semitic  style,  makes  the  walls  of  this 
Iranian  Jericho  drop  down  at  the  name  of  God,  and  the 
very  Divs  fall  in  thousands  amidst  clouds,  thunder,  and 
earthquake ;  then  enters  in  the  blaze  of  day,  and  lights 
the  holy  Zerdusht  fire.  This  has  a  priestly  look;  but  the 
fall  of  Tus's  pride  before  the  nobleness  of  Khosru  did 
not  need  the  added  sanction  of  the  Church  to  produce 
the  reconciliation  that  follows  and  makes  Iran  one  and 
happy. 

The  same  responsibility  of  kings  to  the  heroic  ideal,  in 
whomsoever  embodied,  runs  through  the  epos,  even  down 
to  the  end  of  the  great  Sassanide  age.  Of  these  higher 
claims  of  magnanimity,  justice,  and  truth,  every  Pehlevan 
is  the  minister.  The  true  line  of  kings  begins  in  Feridun, 
"who  never  saw  a  wrong  or  a  desolation  but  he  bound  it 
with  the  chains  of  virtue,  as  became  a  king."  This  is  the 
"  Book  of  Kings,"  and  it  is  written  to  dispense  a  poetic 
justice  to  the  doings  of  kings.  The  rights  of  personal  will, 
in  their  highest  and  apparently  unlimited  form,  are  here 
affirmed  to  be  duties,  and  all  history  is  declared  to  be  the 
evidence.  The  probe  goes  deeper  than  conformity  to  tra- 
dition or  law:  it  strikes  to  the  quick  of  motive.  It  is 
dealing  with  the  moral  quality  of  actions,  not  with  their 
form,  however  specious.      The  mythopoetic  imagination 


758  ISLAM. 

has  here  constructed  the  whole  history  of  a  people  for 
ages,  upon  the  sway  of  justice,  —  laws  of  retribution  above 
the  will  of  kings. 

Thus  the  plan  of  Kai  Kaus  to  wrest  the  beautiful  land 
of  Mazanderan  from  the  wicked  Divs  of  Ahriman  might 
have  seemed  a  service  to  the  faith ;  but  it  is  denounced 
and  punished  as  a  mad  scheme,  because  it  is  undertaken 
out  of  the  mere  love  of  conquest ;  and  because,  thinking 
its  loveliness  existed  merely  for  his  own  gratification,  he 
masacres  its  people  without  mercy.  The  penalty  was  for 
the  army  to  be  smitten  with  blindness,  and  nearly  starved 
in  the  wilderness, — a  supernatural  one,  it  is  true,  but  in- 
flicted by  evil  powers,  not  by  the  wrath  of  God. 

Afrasiyab,  the  incarnation  of  Turanian  hostility  and 
guile,  has  many  generous  qualities ;  his  counsellor,  Piran, 
is  a  very  noble  person,  whose  advice  he  frequently  follows; 
his  procedure  against  the  innocent  Siavaksh  is  palliated  in 
some  measure  by  the  panic  into  which  he  has  been  thrown 
by  presagcful  dreams.  But  none  of  these  things  are  per- 
mitted to  justify  even  a  king  in  the  murder  of  so  noble  and 
beautiful  a  guest,  and  the  tree  of  wrong  bears  fruit  after  its 
kind.  Rustem  hears  of  Siavaksh's  death,  sits  awhile  over- 
whelmed with  grief,  then  like  a  fury  descends  upon  Turan. 
"  Woe  to  Turan  !  Let  the  land  be  swept  with  vengeance, 
as  Gihon  bursts  its  banks !  "  Afrasiyab  sees  his  son  slain, 
and  escapes,  after  terrible  loss,  to  the  distant  provinces, 
where,  driven  from  place  to  place,  he  at  last  puts  himself 
into  the  power  of  a  holy  man,  Hom,  evidently  the  Holy 
Word,'  who  takes  him  in  a  net ;  and  Khosru  is  at  hand  to 
slay  him,  along  with  the  actual  murderer  of  Siavaksh,  and 
poetic  justice  is  satisfied. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ideal  king  is  found  in  Khosru, 


1  The  details  of  this  hunt  and  capture  of  AfrSsiab,  as  related  in  the  Shah-Nameh,  abound 
in  traits  and  objects  taken  from  the  old  Avestan  mythology,  which  we  cannot  here  pause  to 
recount.     See  Spiegel  :  Eran-  Altcrih.,  i.  653,  654. 


THE   SHAH-NAxMEH.  759 

born  in  suffering,  brought  up  in  exile,  sought  out  by  he- 
roes with  manifold  toils  and  perils,  and  brought  in  flight 
to  his  repentant  grandfather  Kai  Kaus,  to  receive  the 
crown  that  his  father  deserved.  Some  details  of  the  story- 
are  doubtless  taken  from  traditions  of  Cyrus.  But  the 
theory  that  the  two  are  one  rests  largely  on  the  common 
mould  in  which  the  religious  legend  has  always  cast  the 
early  lives  of  messiahs.  Kai  Khosru  is  the  ideal  of  le- 
gend, the  Cyrus  of  history.  Siavaksh,  the  idolized  martyr, 
seems  to  all  Iran  to  have  risen  from  the  grave  in  Khosru. 
He  is  not  only  the  flower  of  heroism,  but  the  soul  of 
piety  and  patriotism.  He  swears,  at  his  grandfather's 
command,  to  give  no  rest  to  Afrasiyab,  and  then  spends 
the  night  in  prayer,  with  face  turned  to  the  holy  fire.  He 
is  represented  as  covering  the  Avesta  with  pieces  of  gold ; 
yet  this  is  previous  to  the  coming  of  Zerdusht !  His 
liberality  is  profuse.  He  offers  great  prizes  in  dresses, 
servants,  and  lands  to  such  as  shall  accomplish  certain 
achievements  in  the  holy  war,  the  greatest  being  to  bring 
him  Afrasiyab's  crown.  This  curious  custom  is  nowhere 
else  mentioned  in  the  Shah-Nameh,  but  is  evidently  re- 
garded as  the  climax  of  royal  generosity.  Khosru  is 
described  as  barbarically  adorned  with  jewels,  and  throned 
upon  an  elephant,  holding  the  old  bull's  head  mace  of  the 
Iranian  kings.  Princes  sit  in  the  dust  around  him.  He 
drops  a  golden  ball  into  a  cup,  the  image  of  Jemshid's 
world-goblet.  The  earth  shakes  with  martial  music  and 
the  tread  of  hosts,  as  the  nations  march  before  him,  and 
he  blesses  their  chiefs  as  they  pass  by.  He  also  gives 
them  counsel  at  intervals,  and  sometimes  proves  himself 
as  profound  a  moralist  and  as  devout  a  theist  as  any 
Mahometan  Sufi.^  The  homily  to  Feramorz  shows  what 
the  epos  regards  as  the  basis  of  royal  authority. 

1  It  is  manifest  that  Firdust  has  in  some  degree  islamized  his  hero ;  but,  on  the  whole, 
these  discourses  are  in  accord  with  the  rest  of  the  epos,  and  substantially  of  native  quality. 


760  ISLAM. 

"  Show  thyself  worthy  thy  noble  birth.  Never  spur  thy  horse 
against  the  harmless,  nor  harm  them  in  thine  anger.  Be  ever  protec- 
tor of  the  poor  and  consoler  of  thy  people.  Never  say  '  to-morrow.' 
Flee  strife,  and  trouble  none  that  hurt  thee  not.  Seek  not  fleeting 
riches.  Build  not  on  the  vanity  of  the  world,  which  now  is  red,  now 
black.  The  time  hastens  on  when  thou  shalt  rest  in  death  ;  be  careful 
that  thy  heart  accuses  thee  not,  and  that  thou  go  hence  in  peace.  God 
numbers  thy  breaths.  Keep  soul  and  body  in  cheerfulness,  and  strive 
for  the  true  end.  So  may  the  Creator  keep  thee,  and  cover  thy  foes 
with  dust." 

To  old  Rustem  he  says,  in  like  manner,  but  with  more 
regard  to  the  fighting  man's  animal  instincts,  mingling  an 
epicurean  love  of  wine  and  pleasure  with  the  philosophy  of 
resignation  to  the  swift  lapse  of  life  and  the  passage  of  all 
human  grandeur:  — 

"  Wise  is  he  who  thinks  not  of  the  morrow.  Life  is  given  for  joy. 
Where  now  are  Feridun  and  Selm  and  Tur  ?  Gone  !  and  their  tracks 
vanished  in  dust.  Why  long  for  treasures,  instead  of  tasting  life's 
joys.  Our  last  treasure  is  the  inevitable  grave.  Let  the  night  be  glad 
with  wine,  till  morning  dawns,  and  Tus  awakes  us  with  call  to  arms. 
Man  strives  and  struggles,  but  all  has  such  issue  as  Heaven  fore- 
ordains ;  joy  and  sorrow  alike  go  over  our  heads,  and  whoso  complains 
thereof  is  without  sense.  If  God  stands  by  me,  I  will  avenge  my 
father's  death." 

It  is  a  curious  mixture  of  Islam  and  Iran.  The  stormy 
passion  for  physical  stimulus  is  natural  enough,  but  fate 
and  foreordination  do  not  properly  belong  to  the  Iranian 
mind.  Yet  the  combination  is  by  no  means  impossible, 
and  contempt  for  treasures  that  can  be  laid  up  on  earth 
well  becomes  the  hero  who  is  forever  facing  death. 

The  chiefs  are  commanded  to  wage  war  humanely:  — 

"  Ravage  not  the  land  on  the  march,  nor  harm  the  peaceable  and 
industrious.  Be  merciful  towards  the  unarmed,  for  short  is  rest  in  this 
earthly  dwelling." 

Khosru  punishes  offenders  with  a  lofty  justice  that  is 
recognized  by  all.     Dying  warriors  ask  of  Fate  only  this, 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  76 1 

to  see  Kai  Khosru  once  before  they  die.  He  gratefully 
remembers  the  virtues  of  Piran,  and  his  protecting  care, 
mourning  that  at  last  he  so  turned  against  Iran  that  he 
must  needs  be  slain ;  and  treating  his  body  not  as  a  foe- 
man's,  but  embalming  it,  and  seating  it  on  a  throne  in 
armor,  in  the  resting-place  of  kings.  He  is  himself  mag- 
nanimous, pardoning  the  Turanian  foe  as  soon  as  he  pleads 
for  mercy.  After  a  hard-won  victory,  he  chivalrously  pro- 
tects the  wives  of  Afrasiyab,  listening  with  softened  heart 
as  they  plead  against  his  merited  anger.  His  speech  to  the 
soldiers  is  beyond  the  Mahometanism  of  Firdusi's  day,  and 
the  poet  seems  to  have  caught  it  from  some  great  fountain 
of  wisdom  and  mercy,  from  which  he  drew  through  all  that 
portion  of  his  work  which  covers  the  Sassanian  time :  — 

"  All  Turan,  as  well  as  Iran,  will  be  your  iTome.  Cast  away  then 
every  thought  of  revenge,  and  make  the  land  happy  by  your  mercy ; 
for  the  people  are  stricken  with  fear.  I  give  you  the  wealth  of  Turan, 
and  ask  only  this  in  return.  Try  to  do  right.  As  you  have  felt  the 
winter,  carry  with  you  the  spring.  It  is  unworthy  of  you  to  strike  the 
fallen.  Turn  your  eyes  from  lust.  Respect  property.  So  shall  ene- 
mies turn  to  friends.  He  who  would  please  me,  must  abstain  from 
desolating  the  land,  and  call  him  who  does  so  accursed." 

The  close  of  Khosru's  reign  betrays  the  hand  of  Islam. 
As  perfect  king,  in  himself  and  by  contrast  with  Kai 
Kaus  before  and  Gushtasp  after  him,  he  must  crown  his 
life  by  renouncing  the  world,  of  which  he  has  seen  all  the 
glory  and  the  vanity,  and  receive  that  celestial  reward 
which  puts  earthly  thrones  to  shame.  Reflecting  that  he 
might  easily  fall  like  Jemshid,  remembering  his  mixed 
blood,  content  to  have  accomplished  justice  on  his  father's 
murderers,  and  to  have  made  himself  the  terror  of  infi- 
dels and  evil-doers,  Khosru  secludes  himself  in  his  palace 
to  prepare  for  his  withdrawal  by  solitude  and  prayer. 
This  contempt  of  the  visible  world,  so  utterly  opposed 
to  Persian  traditions,  naturally  enough  excites  the  alarm 


^62  ISLAM. 

of  his  whole  court;  and  the  chiefs,  through  the  aged 
Zal,  entreat  him  not  to  abandon  his  pubhc  duties,  clearly- 
intimating  that  his  conduct  looks  like  possession  by  Ahri- 
man.  But  no  explanation  is  given  them,  except  a  desire 
to  obtain  the  peace  of  God  and  a  place  in  Paradise.  A 
dream,  in  which  the  Persian  Saviour  Sosyosh  plays  the 
extraordinary  part  of  summoning  him  to  divide  his  goods 
among  the  poor  and  prepare  to  enter  the  everlasting  light 
out  of  this  dark  world,  confirms  his  purpose.  The  most 
remarkable  feature  of  this  exalted  mood  is  his  homily  to 
the  peers,  who  return  from  fierce  war  with  Turan  to  hear 
themselves  exhorted  not  to  weep  for  his  departure,  "  since 
all  must  die,  and  every  one  cries  out  to  the  Creator,  when 
he  has  grown  old  and  weary, '  Take  me  to  thy  rest ! '"  He 
will  pray  for  them,  and  they  must  spend  seven  days  in 
joy.  Of  course  they  believe  him  mad.  Then  he  tells  old 
Gudarz  to  pour  balsam  into  wounds ;  to  spend,  not  hoard ; 
to  build  the  hospice  and  rebuild  fallen  towns ;  to  console 
the  afflicted  ;  to  keep  the  holy  fire  burning.  Gifts  of  prov- 
inces and  fiefs  are  lavished  on  the  best.  "  Tell  me  now 
what  else  ye  need,  for  the  shepherd  is  to  leave  his  sheep." 
He  appoints  his  successor,  who  is  unwillingly  yet  loyally 
received,  and  takes  tender  leave  of  his  family.  Then,  ac- 
companied by  the  people  in  procession,  he  sets  out  for  a 
distant  mountain ;  but  before  reaching  it,  dismisses  all  but 
three  Pehlevans,  who  refuse  to  leave  him,  and  who,  in  ful- 
filment of  his  warning,  are  buried  in  a  snow-storm,  during 
which  he  is  taken  up  to  heaven,  while  they  sleep  their  last 
sleep. 

Such  for  the  epos  is  the  reward  of  ideal  royalty:  to 
escape  the  evil  hand  of  disease,  old  age,  and  common 
death ;  to  be  translated  by  its  own  will  to  divine  abodes. 
And  such  the  power  possessed  by  the  true  king  to  bring 
his  whole  people  to  sacrifice  all  their  interests  to  satisfy 
his  sense  of  a  divine  duty.     The  mixture  of  Mahometan 


THE  SHAH-nAmEH.  763 

pietism  with  Iranian  heroism  here  is  not  easy  to  analyze ; 
but  the  main  fact  shown  is,  that  the  Iranians  had  an  ideal 
of  royal  virtue  which  was  more  to  them  than  the  mere 
person  of  a  king ;  and  that  the  Pehlevan  who  could  allow 
a  Khosru  to  give  up  the  whole  State  at  the  command  of 
his  convictions,  would  also  resist  a  Kaus  to  his  face,  like 
Rustem ;  or,  like  Bezhan,  rebuke  a  Gushtasp  for  cruel 
treachery  towards  his  own  son. 

But  the  ideal  king  or  hero  does  not  so  well  illustrate  the 
genius  of  the  time  and  people  as  the  real  central  figure  of 
the  epic  action,  who  embodies  alike  the  merits  and  the 
faults  of  the  civilization,  the  positive  conflict  of  good  and 
evil  that  its  conditions  require.  Rustem  is  a  creature  of 
mighty  instincts,  which  are  dowered  with  the  strength  of 
a  hundred  men.  He  is  the  child  of  the  fierce  strife  be- 
tween Iran  and  Turan,  but  combines  with  its  passions  a 
chivalrous  humanity  hardly  compatible  with  them  from  the 
modern  point  of  view.  At  drinking  and  club-swinging 
even  Iblis  cannot  compete  with  him.  After  a  boastful 
drinking-bout  with  seven  chiefs  on  a  hunting-party,  he 
rises  up  from  Zabul  wine  to  defeat  Afrasiy^b's  host,  and 
then  spares  the  fallen,  and  scorns  to  rob  the  dead.  Div 
or  dragon,  thirst  or  cold,  are  as  unable  to  cope  with  his 
purely  human  strength  as  are  the  warriors  of  Turan,  when 
he  goes,  all  alone,  to  free  the  spell-bound  army  of  the 
reckless  King  Kaus  in  Mazanderan ;  but  he  is  so  tender- 
hearted that  he  does  not  fail  to  pray  for  them  all,  "  because 
though  all  sinners  in  God's  sight  they  are  nevertheless 
His  children."  His  talk  is  fresh  with  natural  emotion,  and 
there  are  few  pictures  in  the  epic  so  charming  as  his  inter- 
view with  a  beautiful  youth  on  the  borders  of  a  stream, 
ending  in  unbounded  surprise  and  joy  when  this  charmer 
reveals  himself  as  the  young  Kai  Kobad,  the  true  prince 
whom  he  had  come  from  Iran  to  seek,  and  bring  back  to 
the  throne  of  his  fathers.     His  merciless  revenue  for  Sia- 


764  ISLAM. 

vaksh  upon  the  son  of  Afrasiyab,  reaching  even  to  the  muti- 
lation of  his  remains,  when  the  youth  had  actually  pleaded 
for  his  life  on  the  strength  of  his  love  for  the  martyred 
prince,  is  as  barbarous  as  Achilles'  wrath  against  Hector. 
For  when  he  confronts  Pilsem,  Afrasiyab's  brother,  doing 
wonders  in  the  battle,  he  pities  him,  and  sighs  that  so  much 
manliness  must  die  so  young.  His  similar  pity  for  Sohrab, 
and  his  terrible  agony  of  grief  and  madness  when  he  finds 
he  has  slain  his  own  son,  have  already  been  described. 
When  Bezhan  is  found  to  have  been  inveigled  into  the 
power  of  Afrasiyab  by  Gurgin,  his  envious  companion,  and 
Rustem  is  going  alone  to  deliver  him,  and  the  whole  court 
is  anxious  and  indignant,  demanding  the  punishment  of 
the  offender,  Rustem  pleads  for  his  forgiveness,  "  because 
he  has  repented,  and  if  he  be  now  cast  from  grace,  his  spirit 
will  be  broken."  We  have  seen  how  superior  Rustem  is  in 
moral  manhood  to  the  champion  of  the  faith,  Isfendiyar, 
in  refusing,  at  his  demand,  to  soil  his  noble  fame  with 
even  the  outward  pretence  of  bondage.  So  the  differ- 
ence between  Rustem's  seven  adventures  or  labors  in  de- 
livering Kai  Kaus  from  Mazandcran  and  the  seven  feats 
of  Isfendiyar  in  taking  the  Brazen  Fortress,  is  greatly  to 
the  advantage  of  Rustem,  both  in  regard  to  motive  and 
detail.  He  goes  alone,  without  a  word  of  direction  or  a 
hand  of  help,  through  perils  of  which  he  has  no  foreknowl- 
edge. Isfendiyar  goes  with  an  army,  learns  from  a  prisoner 
of  war  what  he  is  to  meet,  accomplishes  his  object  by 
deception,  and  ends  by  barbarously  massacring  his  foes. 
Rustem  acts  from  spontaneous  desire  to  save  his  coun- 
trymen and  his  king.  Isfendiyar  acts  partly  from  unques- 
tioning obedience  to  his  father's  command,  indeed,  but  with 
the  ulterior  hope  of  acquiring  the  crown. 

In  every  great  national  peril,  Rustem  holds  the  fate 
of  Iran  in  his  hands,  and  seems  to  have  a  permanent 
commission  from  her  guardian  gods  to  save  her,  lasting 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  765 

through  many  generations  of  mortal  men.  This  vast  re- 
sponsibility, with  the  personal  self-abnegation  it  involves, 
gives  his  whole  life  the  highest  ethical  interest,  maintained 
as  it  is  both  by  the  terrible  fatalities  of  the  circumstances 
by  which  he  is  continually  tortured  and  finally  slain,  and 
by  the  lofty  courage  with  which  in  spirit  he  meets  and 
conquers  them,  while  subject  to  them  in  the  flesh  and  in 
the  affections.  This  mighty  struggle  of  solitary  human 
strength  against  overwhelming  necessity  for  a  whole  epic 
period  is  essential  tragedy.  His  exposure  to  the  intoler- 
able rancor  and  caprice  of  Kai  Kaus,  the  prodigious  odds 
against  him  in  the  strife  he  must  wage  against  enemies 
visible  and  invisible,  the  anguish  of  discovering  that  he 
has  killed  his  own  child  in  unnatural  fight,  the  attempt  of 
Gushtasp  to  outrage  his  honor  and  humiliate  him  in  his 
old  age  before  the  court,  and  the  insulting  conduct  of  Is- 
fendiyar,  constitute  a  series  of  adversities  unsurpassed  in 
heroic  legend ;  and  in  no  case  does  he  sink  below  the  level 
of  his  conviction  and  self-respect.  That  in  the  conflict 
forced  on  him  by  Isfendiyar  he  should  be  obliged  to  accept 
the  terrible  condition,  that  if  he  should  slay  the  champion 
of  orthodoxy  he  must  expect  no  relief  from  pain  here  or 
hereafter,  lifts  Rustem  to  the  position  of  a  martyr  to  the 
right  of  protest  against  ecclesiastical  pretensions  to  rule 
the  fate  of  the  soul.  The  same  honor  was  foreshadowed  in 
his  mixed  blood,  and  in  the  reputation  of  his  family  and 
province,  for  non-conformity.  In  that  part  of  the  Shah- 
Nameh  tradition  which  relates  to  the  closing  events  of  his 
career,  and  which  has  marks  of  priestly  interference,  Rus- 
tem bears  the  burden  of  infidelity;  yet  even  here  the 
nobler  impartiality  of  the  national  tradition  in  large  meas- 
ure overcomes  the  evident  purpose  of  Firdusi  to  take  the 
orthodox  side.  As  we  have  already  said,  the  old  Iranian 
mythology,  heroic  rather  than  technically  religious,  looks 
not  at  the  creed  but  at  the  manhood  of  its  Pehlevans,  who 

1 


^66  ISLAM. 

are  all  of  more  or  less  Turanic  blood.  Rustem  every- 
where represents  this  breadth  of  spiritual  sympathy,  and 
is  quick  to  be  reconciled  with  his  bitterest  foes ;  as  where 
he  so  readily  accepts  the  charge  of  Isfendiy^r's  son,  con- 
fided to  him  by  the  dying  prince  from  whose  terrible 
arrows  he  had  just  escaped.  And  at  last,  in  the  successful 
plot  of  his  enemies  to  lure  him  on  to  his  destruction,  his 
generous  confidence  is  their  main  reliance  for  accomplish- 
ing the  crime. 

Rustem  is  great  enough  to  see  life  as  a  whole,  and  to 
find  the  solution  for  its  ironies,  wrongs,  and  failures,  in 
renouncing  the- self-indulgence  of  ease,  and  in  living  for  the 
law  of  duty.  Of  course,  this  statement  must  be  interpreted 
in  accordance  with  the  age  and  the  race  in  which  the  char- 
acter was  mythically  conceived  and  developed.  But  what- 
ever Firdusi  has  added  to  the  simple  traditions  of  a  heroic 
age  is  but  the  self-conscious  rendering  of  instincts  really 
existing  in  that  age,  and  determining  the  conduct  of  its 
typical  men.  The  spectacle  of  a  battle-field  where  dead 
heroes  are  strewn  like  wrecks,  draws  from  him  this  phi- 
losophy, which,  as  instinct,  is  thoroughly  natural :  — 

"  Regard  the  world  from  whatsoever  point,  you  will  see  grief,  anxiety, 
and  pain.  The  ever-turning  wheel  brings  sometimes  strife  and  looison, 
sometimes  the  sweetness  of  love.  But  whether  we  die  in  one  way  or 
another,  let  us  not  be  troubled  about  the  why  or  how ;  but  depart 
when  our  time  comes,  regardless  of  the  turns  of  fate.  Be  the  God  of 
victory  our  trust,  and  perish  the  fortune  of  our  foes." 

But  a  more  lofty  place  is  reached  in  his  unselfish  service 
of  his  country.  He  is  without  ambition  to  make  himself 
prominent,  or  to  claim  the  reward  he  could  so  easily  exact. 
He  is  the  Washington  or  Cincinnatus  of  old  Iran;  and 
when  he  has  saved  her  life,  he  more  than  once  avoids  the 
ovations  prepared  for  him,  and  modestly  begs  leave  to  with- 
draw to  his  loved  Seistan  and  the  ancestral  house.     "  O 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  '^Q'j 

King !   thou  art  full  of  goodness,  but  I  long  to  behold  the 
face  of  Zal." 

With  Rustem  and  Zal  ends  the  heroic  race  of  Seistan,  — 
Titans  of  Nature  and  freedom,  paladins  of  an  earlier  chiv- 
alry, foreshadowing  at  once  the  Arab  sheikh,  the  knights 
of  Arthur's  Round  Table,  and  the  demigods  of  Scandi- 
navia and  Greece,  as  well  as  a  class  of  ardent  and  powerful 
leaders  in  all  times;  combining  acceptance  of  inevitable 
things  like  death  with  robust  faith  in  valor  and  freedom, 
and  keen  instincts  for  this  world's  savors  and  bodily  de- 
lights. Firdusi's  portraits  are  touched  with  the  color  of 
Islam,  but  their  forms  and  features  are  essentially  old  Per- 
sian, He  has  made  the  legend  read  its  own  lesson,  how 
sorrow  and  death  have  their  will  at  last,  with  all  this  cour- 
age and  passion,  this  strength  before  which  the  earth 
trembles  and  demons  flee ;  and  how  the  sense  of  immor- 
tality is  identified  with  heroic  doing  and  suffering  in  this 
earthly  life.  These  lessons  of  all  ages  are  nowhere  more 
distinctly  or  more  pathetically  pronounced  than  in  the 
Shah-Nameh. 

The  story  of  Piran  represents  the  tragedy  of  a  situation 
in  which  the  penalties  of  a  bad  cause  fall  on  the  good  men 
who  are  in  some  way  forced  to  serve  it.  We  see  the  wise, 
thoughtful,  brave,  and  humane  counsellor  of  Afrasiyab  striv- 
ing all  his  life  loyally  to  serve  his  king,  in  a  broad  and 
noble  spirit  ill  suited  to  the  task.  The  story  of  his  love 
and  protecting  care  for  the  exiled  Siavaksh  and  for  his 
son  Kai  Khosru,  which  we  have  already  given  in  outline, 
is  a  picture  of  surpassing  moral  beauty.  But  neither 
Firdusi  nor  the  Iranian  chiefs  render  his  conduct  the  ad- 
miration it  deserved.  Firdusi,  in  fact,  ascribes  to  him  a 
certain  insincerity,  where  the  interest  of  his  cause  was 
concerned,  which  seems  to  be  nothing  more  than  justifi- 
able reticence  towards  the  enemy  of  his  country.  His  ap- 
peal to  Rustem,  against  the  continuance  of  the  barbarous 


768  ISLAM, 

war  of  Iran  and  Turan,  is  certainly  very  noble.  Rustem 
replies  with  the  warmest  testimony  to  his  rectitude,  but 
offers  only  impracticable  conditions  of  peace,  one  of  which 
is  that  Piran  himself  shall  come  over  to  the  Iranian  side, 
with  the  promise  of  great  reward.  Piran  sees  that  the 
demands  cannot  be  agreed  to,  but  will  carry  them  to 
Afrasiyab.  In  the  council  of  war  they  are  rejected,  and 
Piran,  positively  refusing  on  his  own  part  to  forsake  his 
king  and  country,  though  their  ruin  seemed  certain,  re- 
turns to  the  Iranian  camp  with  the  irritating  decision,  to 
be  met  with  violent  reproaches.  Firdusi  seems  to  echo 
these,  and  says  that  Piran  retired  with  his  lips  full  of  lies 
and  his  head  of  plans  of  revenge.  But  surely  the  old 
chiefs  indignation  at  being  asked  to  turn  traitor  was  credit- 
able ;  and  as  for  the  lies,  we  are  not  told  what  they  were 
nor  what  was  their  motive.  On  another  occasion  the  same 
proposals  are  made  to  Piran  by  Gudarz,  another  Pehlevan ; 
and  again  the  hero  refuses  either  to  give  up  Afrasiyab's 
nearest  relatives  to  be  punished  with  death,  or  to  leave 
the  service  of  his  king.  His  proposal  to  spare  human 
life  by  reducing  the  war  to  a  single  duel  is  denounced  by 
Gudarz  with  unfeeling  contempt;  yet  the  Iranians  are 
by  and  by  glad  to  accept  a  similar  one,  —  that  of  a  fight 
between  twelve  champions  on  each  side,  thus  justifying 
Piran's  judgment. 

Even  Afrasiyab  turns  against  his  faithful  counsellor,  and 
the  heavy  burden  of  a  lost  cause  falls  upon  the  head  of 
the  best  among  its  supporters.  He  is  oppressed  by  fore- 
bodings, and  sees  the  setting  of  his  own  sun.  In  every 
duel  the  Iranians  are  victorious,  and  Piran  falls  under  the 
spear  of  Gudarz,  who  savagely  drinks  his  blood  in  re- 
venge for  Siavaksh,  —  the  last  refinement  of  irony,  since 
Piran  was  the  exile's  one  saviour  and  friend.  In  their 
touching  lament  over  his  dead  body,  his  brothers  dwell 
on  the  sadness  of  his  destiny,  recalling   the  old  saying, 


THE   SHAH-NAmEH.  769 

"  No  burial  shall  he  have,  nor  grave-clothes ;  and  his  bleed- 
ing body  shall  be  carried  about  by  his  foes."  "  All  is 
over  with  him,  and  the  wind  has  swept  all  his  labor  away." 
Even  Kai  Khosru,  who  owes  to  him  his  throne  and  his 
life,  condemns  him  for  sacrificing  everything  to  his  love 
for  Afrasiyab.  The  poet  also  utters  over  him  this  mourn- 
ful plaint :  — 

"  So  false  and  treacherous  is  the  coursetof  things,  mixing  rise  with 
fall. 
The  wise  man  sees  with  pain  how  Fate  promises  and  fulfils  not." 

The  religion  of  the  Shah-Nameh  is  purely  monotheistic. 
Retaining  the  fire-symbol,  the  Amesha-9pentas,  and  Crao- 
sha,  yet  very  inconspicuously,  it  treats  Ahriman,  not  as 
co-equal  with  the  supremely  good  spirit,  but  merely  as  the 
power  of  evil  in  human  conduct;  so  that  he  appears  as 
the  name  of  any  man  who  is  on  the  wrong  side.  We  have 
not  Ahriman,  the  devil,  as  God,  but  men  who  are  "  Ahri- 
mans,"  or  "  devils."  In  fact,  the  personal  Ahriman  had 
long  given  way  to  a  more  intensely  exclusive  power  than 
Ormuzd,  and  was  lost  in  the  God  of  Islam.  But  this  Se- 
mitic worship  is  inspired  by  the  heroic  traditions  of  Iran 
and  humanized  by  the  personal  qualities  of  the  great 
Pehlevans  of  the  epos.  Firdusi's  views  of  life,  fortune, 
destiny,  and  the  future  life  were  Mahometan ;  but  there 
was  no  escaping  the  free,  democratic,  self-asserting,  this- 
world  spirit  of  the  legend  with  which  he  had  to  deal. 
The  reign  of  Gushtasp,  indeed,  introduces  a  new  element 
into  the  legend  itself, — the  hand  of  Zoroastrian  ortho- 
doxy. Down  to  that  period  the  poem  knows  no  impas- 
sable religious  line  between  Iran  and  Turan.  The  prayers 
and  vows  of  Afrasiyab  cannot  be  distinguished,  either  in 
form  or  substance,  from  those  of  Rustem  or  Kai  Khosru. 
Iran  has  no  monopoly  of  virtue  or  of  piety.  The  impar- 
tiality of  the  heroic  stand-point  is  complete.     But  with  the 

49 


770  ISLAM. 

advent  of  Zerdusht,  in  the  days  of  Gushtasp,  it  is  other- 
wise. Lohrasp,  his  successor,  a  scion  of  a  new  race,  is 
noted  only  for  building  a  national  altar  for  the  reformed 
faith,  and  for  transferring  the  court  to  Balkh,  conformably 
to  the  traditions  which  ascribe  the  origin  of  Zoroastrianism 
to  eastern  Iran.  Firdusi  celebrates  Zerdusht  as  "  a  tree 
reaching  to  heaven,  with  deep  roots  and  many  branches ; 
its  fruit  wisdom,  its  leaves  knowledge ;  who  is  fed  by  it 
shall  never  die."  "  The  tracks  of  his  feet  were  blessed." 
He  brings  a  vase  of  fire  from  paradise  to  Iran's  king, 
bidding  him  accept  God  the  creator,  and  the  true  religion, 
and  Gushtasp  obeys.  He  plants  a  cypress,  on  whose 
bark  he  writes  the  creed,  with  the  ancient  history  of  Iran, 
and  surrounds  it  with  palace  walls.  Wherein  this  creed 
differed  from  the  old  theism  of  the  Pehlevans  for  a  thou- 
sand years  does  not  appear,  except  that  the  epos  itself 
becomes  narrower  in  its  sympathies,  as  if  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  positive  Zoroastrian  Church,  seeking  to  im- 
pose itself  on  the  freer  theism  of  the  princedoms  of  Iran 
and  Turan.  The  myths  no  longer  rise  to  the  old  univer- 
sality and  freedom.  They  are  in  the  interest  of  Zoroaster. 
The  war  with  Turan  becomes  a  family  religious  war.  The 
Prophet  even  appears  in  old  age  at  court,  and  forbids 
tribute  to  the  Turks,  who  in  turn  denounce  Iran  for  fall- 
ing away  from  the  faith  into  superstition.  This  surprising 
turn  in  the  spirit  of  the  epos  corresponds  with  an  equally 
unexplained  change  in  the  political  relations  of  the  two 
peoples.  The  mastery  over  Turan,  gained  by  Kai  Khosru 
at  such  cost,  and  apparently  so  decisive,  has  disappeared, 
and  in  its  place  is  a  long-recognized  right  of  Turan  to 
demand  tribute  of  his  successors.  Gushtasp,  the  political 
founder  of  orthodoxy,  has  the  old  role  of  a  national  re- 
deemer, to  be  driven  off  by  his  father  into  exile,  and  to 
return  master  of  the  situation  and  be  crowned  as  the  true 
king;   but  his  glory,  of  course,  fades  in  the  brighter  star 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  771 

who  succeeds  him.  Isfendiyar,  subjected  to  the  same 
persecution  and  peril  in  his  youth,  learns  his  high  func- 
tion through  suffering,  and  becomes  the  champion  of  the 
Church,  despatched  to  convert  the  world  and  punish  the 
noble  old  heretic  of  Seistan. 

But  we  have  seen  that  even  during  this  period  the  eccle- 
siastical spirit  is  so  strongly  antagonized  by  the  heroic 
element,  that  in  spite  of  the  poet's  apparent  sympathy  it 
really  plays  an  ignoble  and  inferior  part  And  it  is  soon 
succeeded  by  new  epical  constituents,  —  Semitic,  Egyptian, 
Greek,  —  in  which  we  find  the  same  predominance  of  the 
heroic  over  the  technically  religious. 

It  is  for  the  life  of  world-famous  Iskander  that  Firdust 
begins  to  draw  on  other  than  native  sources.  Queen 
Humai  rules  wisely,  and  her  child  Darab  is  a  new  ideal  for 
the  mythologists.  He  is  put  through  the  conventional 
process  of  exposure  to  death,  wonderful  deliverance,  and 
final  ascension  to  his  destined  throne  in  spite  of  every 
obstacle.  Cast  into  the  Euphrates  in  a  chest,  he  is  rescued, 
and  brought  up  in  ignorance  of  his  birth  till  the  time 
comes  to  take  his  crown.  He  marries  the  daughter  of 
Philikus,  king  of  Rum,  and  Iskander  is  their  child.  He, 
too,  is  supplanted  by  Dara,  a  younger  half-brother,  and 
must  resort  to  invasion  to  secure  his  rights.  The  story 
of  Rustem  and  Isfendiyar  finds  an  echo  in  that  of  the  Ira- 
nian King  Dara  (Darius),  defeated  and  assassinated,  but 
before  his  death  reconciled  with  Iskander,  to  whose  care 
he  commends  his  children.  Thus  Iran  legitimates  Alex- 
ander's conquest,  and  claims  him  as  her  own.  The 
epos  makes  him  confirm  all  the  liberties  of  Iranian  feudal- 
ism, modify  the  harem  by  abandoning  forced  supplies  of 
women,  and  generously  maintain  all  Sufis,  or  holy  men, 
besides  prohibiting  injustice  generally.  From  this  point 
the  epos  continues  on  the  large  track  of  universal  ethics 
and  religion.     In  the  new  and  in  many  respects  peculiar 


772  ISLAM. 

instance  of  Iskander,  Firdlasi  still  holds  to  the  supreme 
significance  of  heroism,  which  belongs  to  the  Iranian 
consciousness,  though  much  of  his  material  is  drawn 
from  the  Graeco-Egyptian  pseudonymic  romance  of  Cal- 
listhenes.  Alexander's  infancy,  accession,  and  achieve- 
ments are  constructed  on  the  conventional  mythic  mould, 
to  show  that  wrong  and  suffering  can  only  testify  to  the 
sovereignty  of  justice  in  human  events.  But  after  acquir- 
ing the  throne  which  had  been  unjustly  given  to  another, 
Iskander  endures  no  more  suffering,  either  from  his  own 
sins  or  those  of  other  men.  He  is  all-victorious,  as  he  is 
all-noble.  But  none  the  less  necessary  is  it  that  he  should 
learn  the  conditions  of  mortal  existence,  the  folly  of  ex- 
travagant desires,  the  vanity  of  self-exaltation,  the  sove- 
reignty of  Fate,  and  find  freedom  only  in  accepting  the 
supreme  order  of  the  world.  East,  West,  North,  and  South 
yield  to  his  victorious  arms.  Yet  the  emphasis  falls  after 
all  upon  solitary  personal  experiences,  whose  meanings 
are  conveyed  miraculously  to  his  senses,  as  in  parables, 
lessons  of  moral  wisdom,  symbols  of  truth  and  duty,  pro- 
phetic intimations  of  death  from  Nature  and  from  man. 
And  so  the  epos,  which  had  been  purely  heroic,  becomes 
with  Iskander  distinctly  ethical  and  didactic. 

His  personality  is  overwhelming.  In  the  disguise  of  a 
messenger  from  Iskander  he  goes  fearlessly  into  hostile 
camps  and  courts;  but  as  his  superiority  to  his  play- 
fellows betrayed  him  in  his  childhood  to  be  the  destined 
king,  so  nothing  can  hide  his  majesty  when  masquerading 
in  these  maturer  functions.  "  Go  free,"  says  the  Arabian 
queen  to  the  seeming  envoy  who  is  astonishing  her  court, 
"  for  the  very  dust  of  the  earth  knows  that  thou  art  thy- 
self Iskander."  Yet  around  this  world-master  gather  the 
mysterious  intimations  of  a  law  higher  than  his  own  will, 
of  the  transiency  of  human  pride  and  human  praise.  The 
legend  makes  Iskander  great  enough  to  feel  these  rebukes, 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  773 

and  to  see  the  plane  where  king  and  subject  are  equal. 
The  Brahmans  tell  him  that  desire  is  the  hell  of  his  soul, 
and  the  essence  of  punishment.  His  cheeks  blanch  and 
eyes  fill  with  tears,  and  he  goes  away  silent.  In  Ha- 
besh  a  voice  speaks  to  him  from  a  dead  king  on  a 
throne  of  gold,  saying, — 

"  Thou  hast  destroyed  many  thrones  and  lifted  thy  head  to  heaven  ; 
but  the  time  of  thine  own  departure  is  come."  "  His  face  becomes 
crimson,  and  he  departs  with  a  wound  at  his  heart." 

Following  a  sage  far  away  into  the  sunset  of  the  deep, 
and  beyond  an  immeasurable  city,  he  pursues  the  fount  of 
immortality.  But  in  the  dark  he  loses  his  guide.  The 
sage  finds  what  he  seeks,  but  the  king  fails.  Then  the 
generosity  and  devoutness  of  an  unbeliever,  Faghfur  the 
emperor  of  China,  puts  the  great  conqueror  to  shame, 
teaching  him  that  true  religion  forbids  the  doing  of  evil 
to  any,  and  that  a  true  gift,  however  bounteous,  is  given, 
not  as  service  to  any  earthly  king,  but  to  God.  The  angel 
Israfil,  the  speaking  birds,  the  field  of  riches  that  it  is  as 
dangerous  to  leave  as  to  take,  the  omens  of  coming  death, 
admonish  the  world-master  that  self-indulgence  is  foolish 
and  vain.  Finally,  reason  and  philosophy  have  their  good 
work  in  him,  through  Aristalis  (Aristotle),  who  dissuades 
him  from  the  Oriental  policy  of  putting  to  death  by  treach- 
ery all  living  members  of  the  royal  family  of  Iran  (Kaian- 
ides)  who  might  afterwards  revolt  against  his  dynasty. 
The  philosopher  conjures  him  to  do  injury  to  none  of 
these  princes,  but  rather,  by  generous  treatment,  to  turn 
every  one  into  a  bulwark  of  his  throne ;  and  Iskander  is 
man  enough  to  consent.  When  he  dies,  his  obsequies  are 
performed  by  sages  who  moralize  on  the  lessons  of  his 
life  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  Bible  text:  "  I  have  said,  ye  are 
Gods ;  but  ye  shall  die  like  men,  and  fall  like  one  of  the 
princes."     The  poet's  comment  is  this :  — 


774  ISLAM. 

"  Iskander  is  gone,  and  lives  only  in  men's  words.  He  slew  thirty- 
six  kings  :  see  what  remains  in  his  hands  !  He  built  ten  fair  cities, 
which  now  are  deserts  ;  he  aspired  to  what  none  else  had  achieved; 
East  and  West  repeat  his  story,  —  and  there  is  the  whole.  Behold, 
the  word  [of  God]  is  best ;  never  shall  it,  like  these  old  palaces,  be 
the  prey  of  winds  and  rains." 

Ignoring  the  foreign  dynasties  which  succeeded  Alex- 
ander, the  epos  reopens  with  Ardeshir  Babegan,  the  re- 
storer of  the  faith.  This  national  saviour,  like  the  other 
heroic  ideals,  begins  his  career  in  obscurity,  and  reaches 
the  throne  by  his  own  resistless  will.  His  reign  is  con- 
ceived in  the  same  ethical  and  didactic  spirit  as  that  of 
Iskander.  Through  the  whole  Sassanide  period  the  kings 
are  preachers,  and  deliver  long  addresses  or  exhortations 
in  a  high  moral  strain  to  their  nobles  or  their  children. 
The  proverbial  lore  of  these  ages  seems  to  have  been 
treasured  up  in  the  form  of  homilies,  and  ascribed  by  the 
nation  as  by  its  epic  bard  to  the  kings  of  the  great  race  of 
Sassan.  To  these,  even  heroic  achievements  are  secondary. 
We  might  fancy  ourselves  fallen  on  a  line  of  Stoic  kings. 
Ardeshir's  person,  however,  is  of  the  old  Pehlevan  type,  — 
"  beautiful  as  the  sun,  a  lion  in  fight  and  a  Venus  in  feasts." 
His  youthful  feat  of  mastering  the  fortunes  that  went  with 
the  possession  of  a  mysterious  worm  found  by  a  damsel 
in  an  apple,  and  by  whose  spinning  a  peasant's  family 
became  a  mighty  empire,  is  doubtless  a  mythic  version 
of  Iranian  relations  with  the  land  of  silk ;  and  the  hero's 
device  of  entering  the  castle  of  this  famous  guardian  worm 
in  guise  of  a  merchant  simply  follows  the  model  of  earlier 
heroic  legends.  These  stories  are  a  curious  opening  of 
the  Sassanide  portion  of  the  epos,  and  seem  to  show  that 
Firdijsi  must  have  confined  himself  faithfully  to  the  older 
materials  before  him,  since  he  would  hardly  have  invented 
such  a  porch  as  this  to  the  grandest  period  of  the  national 
life. 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  775 

Ardeshir  ascends  the  throne  of  Gushtasp  with  the  proc- 
lamation that  his  "  empire  is  justice,  and  that  he  is  the 
asylum  of  mankind,  the  open  audience-chamber  for  all." 
But  as  the  older  heroes  were  mighty  in  deeds,  so  is  Arde- 
shir in  moral  wisdom ;  and  he  includes  the  whole  religious 
law  in  practical  duties. 

"  Rich  is  he  who  is  content :  do  thou  resist  cupidity,  and  hate 
strife.  Be  not  anxious  about  the  future,  nor  mortified  at  the  past ; 
nor  mix  in  affairs  not  thy  own.  Regulate  thy  heart  by  God's  com- 
mands. Resist  deceit.  Honor  the  king  as  your  life ;  but  if  the  king 
does  not  protect  you  against  oppression,  his  royalty  abandons  him. 
May  my  subjects  be  happy  by  my  justice." 

To  his  son  Shapur  he  thus  discourses  of  true  kinghood: 

"  A  throne  may  be  overturned  in  three  ways,  —  if  the  king  is  un- 
just ;  if  he  favors  unworthy  persons  ;  if  he  hoards  his  wealth.  The 
means  of  the  cultivator  are  the  riches  of  the  kingdom.  It  is  the  king's 
business  to  see  that  they  bring  him  fruit.  Have  courage  to  shut 
thine  eyes  to  sins  committed  against  thee.  When  the  king  is  angry, 
the  wise  man  finds  him  of  little  worth.  Fear  not  to  be  generous.  Do 
not  play  at  wine  and  feasting,  but  remember  the  excitement  of  wine 
exhausts  the  body.  Speak  not  overmuch,  and  make  no  show  of  your 
virtue  ;  listen  to  all,  and  remember  the  best.  Make  not  friends 
thoughtlessly.  Treat  not  the  poor  with  contempt  when  he  seeks  you. 
Put  not  a  bad  man  on  the  throne.  Pardon  the  penitent,  and  avenge 
not  the  past.  Be  a  providence  to  all  men.  In  five  hundred  years 
your  descendants  will  have  gone  over  to  Ahriman,  and  the  land  will 
be  a  desert.     May  God  protect,  and  all  good  men  aid  you  !  " 

The  right  of  revolution  against  kings,  and  their  respon- 
sibility to  the  laws  of  personal  and  private  duty,  as  here 
set  forth  in  precepts,  are  in  entire  accord  with  the  spirit 
,  of  the  older  legends  of  Kai  Kaus,  Gushtasp,  and  other 
arbitrary  monarchs. 

The  legendary  story  of  Bahram-gur,  a  king  who  shares 
with  Nushirvan  the  worship  of  all  later  Iranian  tradition,  is 
here  in  point.  Yezdegerd,  "the  Wicked,"  maltreats  his  son 
Bahram,  and  sends  him  to  Arabia,  where  he  is  educated 


'j'je  ISLAM. 

by  the  king  of  Yemen  and  his  sage.  Conceited,  presump- 
tuous, and  cruel,  Yezdegerd  conceives  himself  in  no  need 
of  Divine  aid ;  and  his  death  by  the  kick  of  a  horse  is 
set  down  as  a  judgment  on  his  sins,  which  perhaps  really 
consisted  in  some  offence  to  the  priestly  class.  Many  of 
the  nobles  claim  the  crown,  but  all  unite  at  last  in  placing 
Khosru,  a  good  old  man,  on  the  throne,  and  the  army  sus- 
tains their  action.  Bahram,  returning  from  Arabia,  appeals 
to  the  chiefs,  who,  after  discussion,  agree  to  choose  a  king 
out  of  a  hundred  persons,  of  whom  Bahram  is  one.  In 
opposition  to  the  direct  line  of  Yezdegerd,  the  mutilated 
victims  of  his  cruelty  are  brought  out  to  prevent  the  elec- 
tion of  Bahram ;  who,  indeed,  finally  persuades  the  assem- 
bly to  select  him,  but  not  till  he  has  promised  to  do  justly, 
and  has  shown  his  heroic  qualities  by  fighting  a  lion.  Then 
Khosru  himself  salutes  him ;  he  gives  his  adhesion  to  the 
law  of  Zoroaster,  remits  arrears  of  taxes,  and  the  land  is 
filled  with  joy. 

On  this  free  choice  of  the  local  chieftains  follows  an 
ideal  reign.  The  king  discovers  the  hidden  treasure  of 
Jemshid,  but  refuses  to  keep  it,  on  the  ground  that  the 
king  should  receive  only  what  is  earned  by  justice  and  the 
sword,  and  orders  its  distribution  among  the  poor :  — 

"  Why  take  the  fruits  of  the  toil  of  dead  kings  ?  Why  open  my 
heart  to  the  greed  of  gold?  I  am  not  bound  to  this  fleeting  world. 
My  throne  and  my  head  deserve  curses,  whenever  one  of  my  subjects 
can  complain  of  my  injustice." 

The  legend  delights  in  making  Bahram  a  kind  of  royal 
providence  moving  about  among  the  people  in  disguise, 
righting  wrongs,  bestowing  treasures  heaped  up  by  fraud, 
on  deserving  poor  or  otherwise  unfortunate  persons.  For 
a  season  falling  into  luxurious  ease  and  self-indulgence, 
he  is  roused  by  an  invasion  to  instant  self-recovery.  And 
when  he  discovers  that  his  indiscriminate  bounties  caused 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  TJJ 

mischief  in  many  ways  between  the  rich  and  poor,  he 
seeks  out  wiser  methods.  Such  measures  as  abolishing 
taxation,  and  importing  Indian  jugglers  to  amuse  the  peo- 
ple, may  or  may  not  have  been  improvements ;  but  his 
moral  homilies  are  of  the  most  liberal  and  lofty  tenor, 
and  during  his  reign  Iran  was,  we  are  assured  from  other 
sources,  an  asylum  of  all  persecuted  faiths.  Christians, 
Gnostics,  Manichaeans,  Buddhists,  Jews,  all  mingled  in  the 
religious  and  political  ferment,  which  was  prevented  from 
overturning  the  monarchy  by  the  stringent  hand  of  the 
Zoroastrian  Church.  The  narrowness  and  intolerance  of 
this  institution,  as  we  know  it  in  history,  hardly  comports 
with  the  noble  precepts  placed  by  epic  tradition  in  the 
mouths  of  nearly  all  the  Sassanide  kings.  But  these  pre- 
cepts are  still  less  in  harmony  with  the  autocratic  faith 
of  Islam,  or  with  the  fatalism  of  the  Koran.  They  are 
probably,  as  Mohl  suggests,  and  as  their  simple  and  often 
primitive  character  shows,  really  the  remains  of  old  Persian 
wisdom,  treasured  up  in  or  before  the  days  of  Nushirvan.^ 
We  shall  soon  see  how  powerful  was  the  influence  of  this 
national  literature  on  the  spirit  of  Islam  itself  and  the  sects 
that  sprung  from  its  bosom. 

It  is  suggestive  of  a  Persian  rather  than  of  a  Mahometan 
origin  of  these  ethical  sayings,  that  the  people  are  brought 
strongly  into  view  as  murmuring  against  the  luxury  of  the 
rich,  and  complaining  of  their  own  disadvantages.  It  was 
upon  feelings  of  this  sort  that  the  communist  Mazdak 
wrought  with  such  effect  that  he  came  near  overturning 
the  social  order  of  Iran.  The  king,  Kobad,  became  his 
convert,  and  the  palace  was  beset  by  crowds  of  malcon- 
tents. Bahram,  finding  the  treasury  empty  in  consequence 
of  these  disorders,  abandons  the  throne  in  discouragement, 
hopeless  of  the  evil  world.  He  is  succeeded  nominally 
by  Kobad,  but  really  by  Mazdak,  whose  eloquence  and 

1  Mohl,  vi.  V. 


778  '  ISLAM. 

ambition  raised  him  to  the  office  of  treasurer,  where  he 
readily  took  advantage  of  the  destitution  prevaihng  among 
the  people,  to  overturn  the  existing  social  order.  "  What 
shall  be  done,"  he  asks  the  king,  pointedly,  "  with  one  who 
refuses  to  heal  one  bitten  by  a  serpent,  with  a  remedy 
which  he  held  in  his  hand?  How  much  more  should  he 
be  punished  who  holds  back  bread  from  starving  men !  " 
Armed  with  the  very  natural  replies  to  these  questions, 
Mazdak  proceeds  to  break  down  property  rights,  and  to 
consign  all  things  to  communistic  pillage.  He  is  said  to 
have  distinctly  proclaimed  equality  of  property  and  com- 
munity of  wives.  This  doctrine  so  flourished,  says  the 
epic,  that  no  one  dared  oppose  it.  Prince  KhosrCi,  after- 
wards Nushirv^an,  however,  with  other  important  persons, 
looking  more  deeply  into  the  situation,  found  it  wisest  to 
put  the  reformer  to  death. 

But  the  strongest  proof  that  the  ethics  of  heroism,  not 
the  interests  of  a  priesthood,  have  prescribed  the  contents 
of  the  Shah-Nameh  to  the  very  last,  and  consequently 
that  Firdusi  has  really  refrained  in  the  main  from  reading 
into  the  old  traditions  of  Iran  the  spirit  of  a  later  and  very 
different  religion,  is  found  in  the  figure  ^  of  the  grand 
vizier  of  Nushirvan,  Buzurjmihr.  He  is  the  intellectual 
and  political  paragon,  who  confounds  the  Mobads  on  their 
own  ground,  and  teaches  the  wisest  of  kings  the  arts  of 
government  and  self-discipline.  Finally,  by  conquering 
the  extremity  of  injustice  with  unyielding  fortitude,  he 
proves  the  personal  soul  greater  than  kings,  and  virtue 
the  real  master  of  the  world.  Even  as  a  youth  he  inter- 
prets dreams  and  asks  and  answers  knotty  problems  with 
irresistible  authority.  His  homilies  reach  the  pith  of  the 
moral  ideal,  maintain  the  rights  of  reason,  and  inculcate 
generous  and  noble  treatment  of  others  as  simple  justice. 
It  is  not  easy  to  find  a  purer  and  more  humane  spirit  than 

1  Wholly  mythical,  says  Nijldeke,  Tabari,  p.  251. 


THE  shah-nAmeh.  '  779 

that  of  these  sentences.  This  Oriental  Boethius  discourses 
thus : — 

"Keep  far  from  sin;  treat  all  men  as  thyself;  remove  alike  from 
thyself  and  thy  enemy  all  that  thou  dost  not  approve.  If  thou  hast 
rectitude  in  thy  thought,  thou  wilt  do  no  evil.  A  bad  action  is  a  tree 
that  bears  evil  fruit.  If  thou  wouldst  do  no  evil,  weigh  well  thy  words. 
Never  O  Kin^  permit  divorce  between  tliy  reason  and  tliy  heart.  It 
is  reason  that^ives  serenity,  and  delivers  from  evil  in  both  worlds. 
But  'tis  a  poor  spirit  which  says,  '  None  equals  me  m  knowledge. 

•'  Teach  your  child  to  write  [and  what  depends  on  it].  It  is  the 
most  honorable  of  arts,  and  reinstates  one  who  has  fallen." 

By  this  the  sage  seems  to  refer  to  the  usefulness  of  this 
art  in  affairs  of  State ;  for  he  goes  on  to  show  how  impor- 
tant it  is  to  the  scribe  to  know  how  to  adapt  himself  to  the 
feelings  of  rulers.  It  is  part  of  his  wisdom,  of  course,  to 
teach^'obedience  and  devotion  to  the  king.  Yet,  as  events 
proved,  this  meant  with  him  the  old  patriotic  loyalty  which 
was  part  of  the  heroic  ideal,  not  a  tame,  passive  obedience. 
We  shall  see  what  his  philosophy  meant  by  freedom. 

The  attachment  of  Nushirvan  to  his  vizier  is  shown  by 
seven  grand  festive  conferences,  in  which  the  latter  stands 
to  be  questioned  on  all  subtle  problems,  and  gives  oracu- 
lar replies.  Much  of  this  proverbial  lore  is  commonplace 
enough,  but  its  quality  is  as  good  as  that  of  other  collec- 
tions of  a  similar  kind,  and  was  doubtless  the  storehouse 
of  Persian  political  idealism  for  many  generations.  It  has 
much  of  the  tenderness  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  not  a 
little  of  the  severity  of  Epictetus :  — 

"Two  things  never  die,  only  two,  — words  that  are  sweet,  and 
words  that  are  good:  they  never  grow  old.  Happy  he  who  has 
shame  [self-respect]  and  virtue.  Do  nothing,  O  King,  of  which 
your  soul  will  be  ashamed !  Do  no  evil  to  men,  but  help  them ; 
this  is  the  law  of  religion." 

"  Who  is  the  happy  man  ?  He  who  follows  not  Ahriman  to  sin. 
Who,  though  mean  of  rank,  is  the  great  man  ?  He  who  is  most  wise 
and  capable  of  governing  his  passions.     Who  is  wise  ?     He  who  quits 


780  ISLAM. 

not  the  way  of  God  to  follow  the  evil  spirit.  To  have  wisdom  is  to 
be  filled  with  hope,  and  to  see  only  good  in  the  world  ;  to  choose  the 
straight,  not  the  crooked  way.  The  servant  of  God  will  not  turn  from 
the  divine  commandment  to  avoid  suffering,  to  gain  treasure,  or  to 
please  any  one.  For  no  price  will  he  barter  the  way  of  God.  Neither 
serenity  nor  wisdom  goes  with  evil  actions.  Is  it  better  to  have  high 
birth,  or  instruction?  It  is  better  to  have  instruction.  It  is  the 
ornament  of  the  soul.  For  birth,  little  can  be  said.  Without  merit, 
it  is  a  sad  thing  and  feeble.  Only  by  discipline  is  the  spirit  strong. 
A  right-minded  laborer  is  not  contemptible  to  the  wise  ;  and  all  riches 
are  loss  to  men  of  evil  mind.  The  true  friend  is  he  who  varies  not, 
who  wounds  you  not,  nor  fears  to  suffer  for  you.  What  is  that  which 
lasts  forever?  —  A  benefit.  What  the  most  splendid  ornament  of  hu- 
manity ?  —  The  spirit  of  the  wise,  who  controls  his  desires.  What  is 
greater  than  heaven  ?  —  A  king  with  an  open  hand  and  a  worshipper's 
heart.  What  the  heaviest  thing  ?  —  Sin.  What  does  all  mankind  con- 
demn ?  —  A  gross  king,  who  harries  the  innocent ;  a  rich  man  who 
refuses  himself  clothes  and  company ;  a  shameless  woman ;  a  pre- 
cipitate man  ;   a  poor  man  who  pretends  to  be  mighty." 

Here  is  a  catechism  which  might  well  supplant  the  dog- 
matic creeds. 

The  loyalty  and  heroism  of  this  great  counsellor  was  put 
to  the  severest  test  by  Nushirvan  himself.  Even  this  great 
king  was  not  proof  against  the  temptations  of  irresponsi- 
ble power.  Buzurjmihr,  suspected  of  theft,  falls  into  dis- 
grace; and  then,  replying  with  becoming  dignity  to  the 
charge,  that  he  too  had  a  throne  higher  than  the  king's 
in  every  respect,  is  imprisoned  in  a  cave,  and  no  more 
heard  from.  Tired  of  waiting  in  vain  for  apologies, 
Nushirvan  sends  to  know  how  he  bore  his  punishment, 
and  is  answered  that  his  "  days  are  happier  than  the 
king's."  Further  severities  bring  the  same  response. 
Threatened  at  last  with  death,  the  hero  replies  that  for 
him  to  leave  a  painful  existence  is  easy,  but  it  is  the  king 
whose  heart  can  be  terrified  by  death.  This  brings  royalty 
to  its  senses,  and  the  vizier  comes  out  of  his  prison  a  con- 
queror, to  resume  his  function  of  interpreting  things  too 


THE   SHAH-NAMEH.  781 

dark  for  kings  or  Mobads  to  solve.  Here  is  greatness  of 
another  sort  than  Isfendiyar's  or  even  Rustem's.  Yet  it  be- 
longs to  the  evolution  of  similar  qualities  of  will.  And  in 
passing  from  the  oldest  to  the  latest  portions  of  the  Iranian 
epos  we  have  not  crossed  any  important  border-line,  either 
ethnic  or  ethical. 

Nushirv^an  himself,  who  seems  to  have  done  more  towards 
collecting  the  materials  for  the  epos  than  any  other  of  the 
Sassanide  kings,  is  enshrined  there  in  a  wisdom  of  his  own. 
Firdusi  sings  of  conversations  between  the  king  and  his 
Mobads,  in  which  the  latter  play  the  part  of  disciples,  and 
not  of  masters. 

On  one  occasion  the  Grand  Mobad  said :  "  O  King,  the 
general-in-chief  has  raised  three  hundred  thousand  dir- 
hems  for  us,  which  we  put  in  thy  treasury."  Nushirvan 
replied :  "  I  desire  no  treasure  obtained  by  inflicting  pain. 
Let  it  be  restored  to  those  from  whom  he  has  taken  it, 
and  add  what  they  need.  Take  down  his  palace  and  take 
away  his  ofiice." 

And  here  is  the  Golden  Rule  of  religious  freedom : 

"The  Mobad  said,  'An  infidel  does  not  necessarily  harm  the  king. 
Every  intelligent  man  must  know  that.'  Niishirvan  replies  :  '  I  have 
myself  said  the  same  thing,  and  the  believers  have  heard  it  from  my 
lips.  The  world  is  in  no  part  without  religion,  though  some  prefer 
one  faith  and  some  another ;  one  worships  idols,  another  the  true 
God.  But  none  thinks  that  evil  speaking  is  better  than  benediction. 
The  world  does  not  go  to  ruin  for  words.  Say  thou  always  what  thou 
thinkest  in  thy  heart.  Yet  if  the  king  himself  has  not  true  belief, 
who  shall  draw  benedictions  on  the  world  ?  Faith  and  kingship  are 
soul  and  body.' " 

"He  who-takes  care  for  his  reason,  O  Mobads,  cares  for  his  life. 
All  I  have  learned  seems  only  to  pay  my  debt  to  my  soul  and  my  rea- 
son. See  that  reason  guards  you  against  your  faults,  for  it  is  more 
precious  than  a  crown." 

"  Once  the  Mobads  remind  him  that  he  has  not  spoken  wise  sen- 
tences for  their  instruction  for  a  long  time.  '  I  have  spoken  words 
enough ,>  he  replies  ;   *  it  is  on  my  actions  that  I  must  depend.'  " 


782  ISLAM. 

He  counsels  his  son  not  to  shed  blood  lightly,  nor  lightly 
go  to  war,  and  to  render  justice  alike  to  great  and  small. 
This  son,  Hormazd,  begins  by  undoing  his  father's  good 
work,  and  making  way  with  his  ministers.  But  a  letter 
written  by  Nushirvan  coming  to  his  sight,  in  which  his  bad 
courses  are  predicted,  with  their  sure  penalty,  he  returns 
to  right  ways  for  a  season.  Not  long  afterwards  his  army, 
headed  by  Bahram,  whose  faithful  service  has  been  repaid 
with  insulting  suspicion,  revolts;  and  we  are  introduced 
to  one  of  those  stirring  debates  of  the  Iranian  chiefs  which 
decided  the  fate  of  dynasties.  The  most  striking  feature 
of  this  debate  is  the  appearance  of  Bahram's  sister,  who 
enters  the  meeting  with  the  dan  of  a  prophetess,  and  in  an 
eloquent  historical  argument  protests  against  her  brother's 
assumption  of  the  throne,  as  an  outrage  on  the  legitimate 
dynasty.  To  her  replies  a  prince,  who  believes  that  the 
Kaianides  have  had  their  day,  a  thousand  years  long,  and 
that  their  line  is  practically  extinct:  "Let  their  names  be 
pronounced  no  more.  Shame  on  a  king  without  faith  !  " 
The  end  is,  that  Gurdiya  distinctly  repudiates  her  brother's 
cause,  while  the  chiefs  almost  unanimously  drink  Avine 
to  the  glory  of  the  new  aspirant.  Hormazd,  in  virtue  of 
this  revolution  in  the  army,  is  dethroned  and  deprived  of 
sight. 


NOTE. 

The  abrupt  termination  of  this  chapter,  and  of  the  volume,  clearly 
shows  that  Mr.  Johnson  had  not  completed  his  work  at  the  time  of 
his  death.  He  left  no  notes  of  any  additional  chapter,  and  probably 
intended  to  write  no  more  than  a  concluding  one.  His  characteristic 
trait,  however,  of  fully  developing  his  thought  in  all  its  bearings  war- 
rants the  belief  that  he  would  have  summed  up  in  a  concluding  chap- 
ter not  only  the  substance  of  this  volume,  but  of  the  two  preceding 
volumes  upon  Oriental  Religions,  as  his  Introduction  in  the  "  India "' 
was  for  the  whole  work  ("  India,"  Introduction,  p.  33).  Still  his 
work  is  practically  complete.  The  volumes  carry  in  themselves  iiis 
conclusions.  This  one  fully  gives  by  hints  and  statements  his  con- 
cluding thought, — to  him  the  fitting  and  all-important  result  of  his 
studies  of  Oriental  Religions, — namely,  the  connection  between  the 
religions  of  personal  Will,  which  found  their  culmination  in  Mahom- 
etanism,  and  Universal  Religion ;  and  the  natural  and  necessary 
evolution,  in  connection  with  scientific  thought,  of  the  worship  of 
personal  Will  into  the  worship  of  cosmical  Substance,  Order,  and 
Law. 

A.  M.  HASKELL, 
Editor. 


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